The end of a thing is the purpose for which it was made. The end of a watch is
to keep time. The end of a pen is to write, etc. A thing is good only in
proportion to the way it fulfills the end for which it was made. A watch may
be very beautifully made, a very rare ornament, but if it will not keep time it
is useless as a watch. The same may be said of the pen, or of anything else.
Now for what purpose was man made? If we discover that, we know his end. When
we look around us in the world, we see a purpose or end for everything. We see
that the soil is made for the plants and trees to grow in; because if there was
no need of things growing, it would be better to have a nice clean solid rock
to walk upon, and then we would be spared the trouble of making roads, and
paving streets. But things must grow, and so we must have soil. Again, the
vegetables and plants are made for animals to feed upon; while the animals
themselves are made for man, that they may help him in his work or serve him
for food. Thus it is evident everything in the world was made to serve
something else. What then was man made for? Was it for anything in the world?
We see that all classes of beings are created for something higher than
themselves. Thus plants are higher than soil, because they,
have life and soil
has not. Animals are higher than plants, because they not only have life, but
they can feel and plants cannot. Man is higher than animals, because he not
only has life and can feel, but he has also reason and intelligence, and can
understand, while animals cannot. Therefore we must look for something higher
than man himself, but there is nothing higher than man in this world, and so we
must look beyond it to find that for which he was made. And looking beyond it
and considering all things, we find that he was made for God-to know Him, to
love Him, and to serve Him both in this world and in the next. Again, we read
in the Bible (Gen. 1) that at the creation of the world all things were
made before man, and that he was created last. Therefore, if all these things
could exist without man, we cannot say he was made for them. The world existed
before him and can exist after him. The world goes along without any
particular man, and the same may be said of all men. Neither was man made to
stay here awhile to become rich, or learned, or powerful, because all do not
become rich-some are very poor; all are not learned-some are very ignorant; all
are not powerful-some are slaves. But since all men are alike and equal in
this, that they have all bodies formed in the same way, and all souls that are
immortal, they should all be made for the same end. For example, you could not
make a pen like a watch if you want it to write. Although pens differ in size,
shape, etc., they have all one general form which is essential to them. So,
although men differ in many things, they are all alike in the essential thing,
viz., that they are composed of body and soul, and made to
the image and
likeness of God. Hence, as pens are made only to write with, so all men
must
have only one and the same end, namely, to serve God.
A. God made the world.
The "world" here means more than the earth-more than is shown
on a map
of the world. It means everything that we can see-sun, moon, stars, etc.; even
those thin s that we can see only with great telescopes. Everything, too, that
we may be able to see in the future, either with our eyes alone, or aided by
instruments, is included in the word "world." We can call it the
universe.
A. God is the Creator of Heaven and earth, and of all things.
A. Man is a creature composed of a body and soul, and made to the image and
likeness of God.
"Creature," i.e., a thing created. Man differs from anything
else in
creation. All things else are either entirely matter, or entirely spirit. An
angel, for example, is all spirit, and a stone is all matter; but man is a
combination of both spirit and matter--of soul and of body.
A. This likeness is chiefly in the soul.
A. The soul is like God because it is a spirit that will never die, and has
understanding and free will.
My soul is like to God in four things.
A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and
to be happy with Him forever in the next.
"To know" Him, because we must know of a
thing before we can love it. A
poor savage in Africa never longs to be at a game or contest going on in
person and know him; if he pleases us we love him, and if we love him we will
try to serve him; we will not be satisfied with doing merely what he asks of
us, but will do whatever we think might give him pleasure. So it is in regard
to God. We must first know Him-learn who He is from our catechisms and books
of instruction, but especially from the teaching of Godīs ministers, the Holy
Father, bishops and priests. When we know Him, we shall love Him. If we knew
Him perfectly, we should love Him perfectly; so the better we know Him the more
we shall love Him. And as it is our chief duty to love Him and serve Him upon
earth, it becomes our strict duty to learn here whatever we can of His nature,
attributes, and holy laws. The saints and angels in Heaven know God so well
that they must love Him, and cannot therefore offend Him.
You have all seen some person in the world, or maybe several persons, whom you
have greatly admired; still you did not love them perfectly; there was always
some little thing about them in looks, manners, or disposition that could be
rendered more pleasing; some defect or want you would like to see supplied;
some fault or imperfection you would like to see corrected. Now suppose you
had the power to take all the good qualities you found in the persons you loved
and unite them in one person, in whom there would be nothing displeasing, but
everything perfect and beautiful. Do you not think you would love such a
person very much indeed?
Moreover, suppose you knew that person loved you intensely, would it not be
your greatest delight to be ever with such a friend? Well, then, all the
lovable qualities and beauties you see in created beings come from God and are
bestowed by Him; yet all the good qualities on earth and those of the angels
and saints in Heaven, and even of the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, if united
in one person would be nothing compared to the goodness and beauty of God. How
good and how lovable, therefore, must He be! And what shall we say when we
think that He loves us with a greater love than we could ever love Him, even
with our most earnest efforts? Try then first to know God and you will surely
love and serve Him. Do not be satisfied with the little you learn of Him in
the Catechism, but afterward read good books, and above all hear sermons and
instructions.
"In this world:" Because unless we do what is pleasing to Him
in this
world we cannot be with Him in the next. Our condition in the next world
depends entirely upon our conduct in this. Thus we have discovered the answer
to the great question, What is the end of man; for
what was he made?
A. We must take more care of our soul than of our body.
A. We must take more care of our soul than of our body, because in losing
our soul we lose God and everlasting happiness.
Every sensible person will take most care of that which is most valuable. If a
girl had a hundred dollars in a ten-cent pocket-book, you would consider her a
great fool if she threw away the hundred dollars for fear of spoiling the
pocket-book. Now, he is a greater fool who throws away his
soul in order to
save his body some little inconvenience, or gratify its wicked desires
or
inclinations. Wherever the soul will be, there the body will be also; so we
should, in a certain way, try to forget the body and make sure of getting the
soul safely into Heaven. You would not think much of the wisdom of a boy who
allowed his kite to be smashed in pieces by giving his whole attention to the
tail of the kite. If he took care to keep the kite itself high in air and away
from every danger, the tail would follow it; and even if the tail did get
entangled, it would have a good chance of being freed while the kite was still
flying. But of what use is it to save a worthless piece of rag, if the
kite-the valuable thing-is lost? Just in the same way, of what use is our body
if our soul is lost? And remember we have only one soul. Therefore, make sure
to save the soul, and the body also will be saved-that
is, the whole man will
be saved; for we cannot save the soul and lose the body; they will both be
saved or both be lost.
A. To save our souls, we must worship God by faith, hope, and charity; that
is, we must believe in Him, hope in Him, and love Him with all our heart.
"Worship," that is, give Him divine honor. We honor persons
for their
worth and excellence, and since God is the most excellent, we give Him the
highest honors, differing from others not merely in degrees but in kind-divine
honors that belong to Him alone. And justly so, for the vilest animal upon the
earth is a thousand times more nearly our equal than the most perfect creature,
man or angel, is the equal of God. In speaking of worship, theologians
generally distinguish three kinds, namely: latria, or that supreme
worship due to God alone, which cannot be transferred to any creature without
committing the sin of idolatry; dulia, or that secondary veneration we
give to saints and angels as the special friends of God; hyperdulia, or
that higher veneration which we give to the Blessed Virgin as the most exalted
of all Godīs creatures. It is higher than the veneration we give to the other
saints, but infinitely inferior to the worship we give to God Himself. We show
God our special honor by never doubting anything He reveals to us, therefore by
"faith"; by expecting with certainty whatever He promises,
therefore by
"hope"; and finally by loving Him more than anyone else in the
world,
therefore by "charity."
But someone may say, I think I love my parents more than God. Well, let us
see. Suppose your mother should command you to commit a sinful act (a thing no
good mother would do) and you have therefore to choose between offending her or
Almighty God. Now, although you love your mother very much, if in this
instance you prefer to displease her rather than commit the sin that offends
God, you show that you love God more than her. Again, many who dearly love
their parents leave them that they may consecrate their lives to the special
service of God in some religious community and thus prove their greater love
for Him. The love we have for God is intellectual rather than sentimental; and
since it is not measured by the intensity of our feelings, how are we to know
that we love Him best? By our determination never to offend
Him for any person
or thing in the world, however dear to us, and by our readiness to obey and
serve Him before all others.
A. We shall know the things which we are to believe from the Catholic
Church, through which God speaks to us.
"Catholic Church" in this answer means the Pope, councils,
bishops, and
priests who teach in the Church.
A. We shall find the chief truths which the Catholic Church teaches in the
Apostlesī Creed.
"Chief " because the Apostlesī Creed
does not contain in an explicit
manner all the truths we must believe. For example, there is nothing in the
Apostlesī Creed about the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, about the Immaculate
Conception of the Blessed Virgin, or the infallibility of the Pope; and yet we
must believe these and other articles of faith not in the Apostlesī Creed. It
contains only the "chief" and not all the truths.
A. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and
earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, Who was conceived by the
Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was
crucified, died, and was buried; He descended into Hell; the third day He arose
again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of
God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the
dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of
saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life
everlasting. Amen.
"Descend" means to go down, and "ascend" to
go up.
A. God is a spirit infinitely perfect.
"A spirit" is a living, intelligent, invisible being. It
really exists,
though we cannot see it with the eyes of our body. It has intelligence and can
therefore think, understand, etc. It is not because we cannot see it that we
call it a spirit. To be invisible is only one of the qualities of a spirit.
It is also indivisible, that is, it cannot be divided into parts. God is such
a being. He is "infinitely perfect," that is, He has every perfection
in the highest degree. "Infinite" means to have without limit. If
there were
any perfection God did not have, He would not be infinite. He is unlimited in
wisdom, in power, in goodness, in beauty, etc. But you will tell me persons on
earth and the angels and saints in Heaven have some wisdom and power and
beauty, and therefore God cannot have all, since He has not the portion with
which they are endowed. I still say He is infinite, because what the angels
and others have belongs to God, and He only lends it to them. "Perfect"
means to be without any defect or fault.
A. God had no beginning; He always was and always will be.
Was there ever a time when we could say there was no God? There was a
time when we could say there was no Heaven or earth, no angels, men, or
animals; but there was never a time when there was no God. We may go back in
thought millions and millions of years before the Creation, and God was then
existing. He had no beginning and will never cease to exist. This is a
mystery; and what a mystery is will be explained in the next lesson.
A. God is everywhere.
"Everywhere" not spread out like a great cloud, but whole and
entire in
every particular place: and yet there is only one God, and not as many gods as
there are places. How this can be we cannot fully understand, because this
also is a mystery. A simile, though it will not be perfect, may help you to
understand. When we speak of God, we can never give a true and perfect
example; for we cannot find anything exactly like Him to compare to Him. If I
discharge a great cannon in a city, every one of the
inhabitants will hear the
report; not in such a way that each hearer gets his share of the sound, but
each hears the whole report, just as if he were the only one to hear it. Now,
how is that? There are not as many reports as there are persons listening; and
yet each person hears the whole report.
A. We do not see God because He is a pure spirit and cannot be seen with
bodily eyes.
"Pure spirit," that is, not clothed with any material
body--spirit alone.
A. God sees us and watches over us.
"Watches" to protect, to reward or punish us. He watches
continually;
He not only watches, but keeps us alive. God might have created us and then
paid no more attention to us; but if He had done so, we should have fallen back
again into nothingness. Therefore He preserves us every moment of our lives.
We cannot draw a breath without Him. If a steam engine be required to work
ceaselessly, you cannot, after setting it in motion, leave it henceforth
entirely to itsell You must keep up the supply of water and fire necessary for
the generation of steam, you must oil the machinery, guard against overheating
or cooling, and, in a word, keep a constant watch that nothing may interfere
with its motion.
So also God not only watches His creatures, but likewise provides for them.
Since we depend so much upon Him, is it not great folly to sin against Him, to
offend, and tempt Him as it were? There are some birds that build their nests
on the sides of great rocky precipices by the seacoast. Their eggs are very
valuable, and men are let down by long ropes to take them from the nest. Now
while one of these men is hanging over the fearful precipice, his life is
entirely in the hands of those holding the rope above. While he is in that
danger do you not think he would be very foolish to tempt and insult those on
whom his life depends, when they could dash him to pieces by simply dropping
the rope? While we live here upon earth we are all hanging over a great
precipice, namely, eternity; God holds us by the little thread of our lives,
and if He pleased to drop it we should be hurled into eternity. If we tempt or
insult Him, He might drop or cut the thread while we are in mortal sin, and
then, body and soul, we go down into Hell.
A. God knows all things, even our most secret thoughts,
words, and
actions.
Certainly God "knows all things:ī First,
because He is infinitely
wise, and if He were ignorant of anything He would not be so. Secondly,
because He is everywhere and sees and hears all. Darkness does not hide
from
His view, nor noise prevent Him from hearing. How
could we sin if we thought
of this! God is just here, looking at me and listening to me. Would I do what
I am going to do now if I knew my parents, relatives, and friends were watching
me? Would I like them to know that I am thinking about things sinful, and
preparing to do shameful acts? No! Why then should I feel ashamed to let God
see and know of this wicked thought or action? They might know it and yet be
unable to harm me, but He, all-powerful, could destroy me instantly. Nay,
more; not only will God see and know this evil deed or thought; but, by His
gift, the Blessed Mother, the angels and saints will know of it and be ashamed
of it before God, and, most of all, my guardian angel
will deplore it.
Besides, this sin will be revealed to the whole world on the last day, and my
friends, relatives, and neighbors will know that I was guilty of it.
A. God can do all things, and nothing is hard or
impossible to Him.
A. God is all just, all holy, all merciful, as He is infinitely perfect.
"All justī--that is, most just. "Just"
means to give to everyone
what belongs to him-to reward if it is merited or to punish if it is deserved.
"Holy" that is, good. "Merciful"
means compassionate, forgiving,
less exacting than severe justice demands. In a court a just judge is
one who
listens patiently to all the arguments for and against the prisoner, and then,
comparing one with the other, gives the sentence exactly in accordance with the
guilt. If he inflicts more or less punishment than the prisoner deserves, or
for money or anything else gives an unfair sentence, then he is an unjust
judge. The judge might be merciful in this way. The laws say that for the
crime of which this prisoner is proved guilty he can be sent to prison for a
term not longer than ten years and not shorter than five: that is, for anything
between ten and five years. The judge could give him the full ten years that
the law allows and be just. But suppose he believed that the prisoner did not
know the law and did not intend to be as wicked as he was proved; or that it
was his first offense, or that he heard the prisonerīs mother, who was old and
infirm, pleading for him and saying he was her only support; or other
extenuating circumstances that could awaken sympathy: the judge might be
merciful and sentence him for the shortest term the law allows. But if the
judge dismissed every prisoner, no matter how guilty, without punishment, he
would not be a merciful but an unjust judge, who would soon be forced to leave
the court. In the same way, God is often merciful to sinners and punishes them
less than He could in strict justice. But if He were to allow every sinner to
go without any punishment whatsoever-as unbelievers say He should do, by having
no Hell for the wicked-then He would not be just. For as God is an Infinite
Being, all His perfections must be infinite; that is, He must be as infinitely
just as He is infinitely merciful, true, wise, or powerful.
Now He has promised to punish sin; and since He is infinitely true, He must
keep His promise.
A. Yes; there is but one God.
A. There can be but one God because God, being supreme and infinite, cannot
have an equal.
"Supreme" that is, the highest. "Equal"
when two are equal one
has everything the other has. You could say one pen is the equal of another if
it is just as nice and will write just as well; one mechanic is the equal of
another if he can do the work equally well. Two boys are equal in class if
they have exactly the same marks at the end of the month or year. You could
not have two persons chief For example, you could not have two chief generals
in an army; two presidents in the nation, or two governors in a state, or two
mayors in a city, or two principals in a school, unless they divide equally
their power, and then they will be equals and neither of them chief. God
cannot divide His power with anyone-so as to give it away entirely-because we
say He is infinite, and that means to have all. Others have only the loan of
their power from God. Therefore, all power and authority come from God; so
that when we disobey our parents or superiors who are placed over us, we
disobey God Himself.
A. In God there are three divine persons really distinct and equal in
all things-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
"Distinct," not mingled together. We call the first and second
persons
Father and Son, because the second is begotten by the first person, and not to
indicate that there is any difference in their age. We always see in the world
that a father is older than his son, so we get the idea perhaps that it is the
same in the Holy Trinity. But it is not so. God the Father, and God the Son,
and God the Holy Ghost existed from all eternity, and one did not exist before
the other. God the Son is just as old as God the Father, and this is another
great mystery. Even in nature we see that two things may begin to exist at the
same time, and yet one be the cause of the other. You know that fire is the
cause of heat; and yet the heat and the fire begin at the same time. Though we
cannot understand this mystery of the Father and Son, we must believe it on the
authority of God, who teaches it. First, second, and third person in the
Blessed Trinity does not mean, therefore, that one person was before the other,
or brought into existence by the other.
A. The Father is God and the first Person of the Blessed Trinity.
A. The Son is God and the second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
A. The Holy Ghost is God and the third Person of the Blessed Trinity.
A. By the Blessed Trinity I mean one God in three Divine Persons.
A. The three Divine Persons are equal in all things.
A. The three Divine Persons are one and the same
God, having one and the
same divine nature and substance.
Though they are one and the same, we sometimes attribute different works
to them. For example, works of creation we attribute to God the Father; works
of mercy to God the Son; and works of love and sanctification to the Holy
Ghost; and you will often find them thus spoken of in pious books; but all such
works are ..done by all the Persons of the Trinity;
because such works are the
works of God, and there is but one God.
A. We cannot fully understand how the three Divine Persons are one and the
same God, because this is a mystery.
"Fully"--entirely. We can
partly understand it. We know what
one God is and we know what three persons are; but how these two things go
together is the part we do not understand-the mystery.
"A truth," that is, a revealed truth-one made known to us by
God or His
Church. It is a truth which we must believe though we cannot understand it.
Let us take an example. When a boy goes to school he is taught that the earth
is round like an orange and revolving in two ways, one causing day and night
and the other producing the seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter. The boy
goes out into the country where he sees miles of level land and mountains
thousands of feet in height. Again he goes out on the ocean where sailors tell
him it is several miles in depth.
Now he may say: how can the earth be round if deep valleys, high mountains, and
level plains prove to my senses the very opposite, and the countless things at
rest upon its surface tell me it is motionless. Yet he believes even against
the testimony of his senses that the earth is round and moving, because
his-teacher could have no motive in deceiving him; knows better than he, having
learned more, and besides has been taught by others who after long years of
careful study and research have discovered these things and know them to be
true. If therefore we have to believe things that we do not understand on the
authority of men, why should we not believe other truths on the authority of
God? Yes, we must believe Him. If a boy knew all his
teacher knew there would
be no need of his going to school; he would be the equal in knowledge of his
teacher, and if we knew all that God knows we would be as great as He. As well
might we try to empty the whole ocean into the tiny holes that children dig in
the sand by its shore, as fully to comprehend the wisdom of God. This is the
mistake unbelievers make when they wish to understand with their limited
intelligence the boundless knowledge and mysterious ways of God, and when they
cannot understand refuse to believe. Are they not extremely foolish? Would
you not ridicule the boy who refuses to believe that the earth is round and
moving because he cannot understand it? As he grows older and learns more he
will comprehend it better; so we, when we leave this world and come into the
presence of God, shall see clearly many things that are unintelligible now.
For the present, we have only to believe them on the authority of God teaching
us. Another example. We take two little black seeds
that look just alike and
place them in the same kind of soil; we put the same kind of water upon them;
they have the same sunlight and air, and yet when they grow up one has a red
flower and one a blue. Where did the red and where did the blue come from?
From the black seed, or the brown soil, or the pure water,
air and sunlight?
We do not know. It is there, and that is all. We see it and believe it,
though we do not understand it.
So if we refuse to believe everything we do not understand, we shall soon
believe very little and make ourselves ridiculous.
A. God created Heaven and earth, and all things.
"Heaven" where God is and will always be. It means, too,
everything we
see in the sky above us. "Earth," the globe
on which we live.
A. God created Heaven and earth from nothing, by His word only; that is, by
a single act of His all-powerful will.
A. The chief creatures of God are angels and men.
A. Angels are pure spirits without a body, created to adore and enjoy God in
Heaven.
"Angels" are not the same as saints. Saints are those who at
one time
lived upon the earth as we do, and who on account of their very good lives are
now in Heaven. They had bodies as we have. The angels, on the contrary, never
lived visibly upon the earth. In the beginning God was alone. We take great
pleasure in looking at beautiful things. God, seeing His own beauty, and
knowing that others would have very great pleasure and happiness in seeing Him,
determined to create some beings who could enjoy this happiness; and thus He
wished to share with them the happiness which He Himself derived from seeing
His own beauty. Therefore He created angels who were to be in Heaven with Him,
singing His praises and worshipping before His throne.
The angels are not all equal in dignity, but are divided into nine classes, or
choirs, according to their rank or office, and, as theologians tell us,
arranged from the lowest to the highest and named as follows; angels,
archangels, virtues, powers, principalities, dominations, thrones, cherubim,
and seraphim. Archangels are higher than angels and are so called because sent
to do the most important works. It was the Archangel Michael who drove Lucifer
from Heaven and the Archangel Gabriel who announced to the Blessed Virgin that
she was to be the Mother of God. The angels receive their names from the
duties they perform. The word angel signifies messenger.
A. The angels were also created to assist before the throne of God and to
minister unto Him; they have often been sent as messengers from God to man; and
are also appointed our guardians.
The duties of the angels are many. Some remain always in Heaven with
God; some are sent to earth to be our guardians and to remain with us. Each of
us has an angel to take care of us. He is with us night and day, and offers
our prayers and good works to God. He prays for us, exhorts us to do good and
avoid evil; and he protects us from dangers spiritual and temporal. How
unfortunate then must one be to cause him to return to Heaven with sad
complaints to God; such as: "The one whom I have in charge will not obey
Thy
laws or use the grace Thou sendest him: with all my efforts to save him, he
continues to do wrong" He will be doubly sad when he sees other angels
returning with good reports and receiving new graces for those whom God has
committed to their care. If you love your guardian angel, never impose on him
the painful duty of bringing to God the report of your evil doings.
Now, how do we know that the angels offer our prayers and good works to God?
We know it from the beautiful story of Tobias, told in the Holy Scripture.
(Tobias). This holy man loved and feared God. He lived at a time when his
people were persecuted by a most cruel king, who wished to force them to give
up the true God and worship idols, but many of these good people suffered death
rather than deny God and obey the wicked king. When they were put to death,
their bodies were left lying on the ground, to be devoured by birds of prey or
wild animals. Anyone caught burying them was to be put to death by the kingīs
servants. Tobias used to carry the dead bodies of these holy martyrs into his
house and bury them at night.
One day when he returned very tired he lay down by the wall of his house to
rest, and, while lying there, some dirt fell into his eyes and he became blind.
This Tobias had a young son whose name was also Tobias; and as he himself was
now blind and poor, he wished to send his son into a
certain city, at a good
distance off, to collect some money that he had formerly loaned to a friend.
As the young man did not know the way, his father sent him out to look for a
guide. Young Tobias went out and found a beautiful young man to be his guide
and he consented, and he brought Tobias to the distant city. As they were on
their way they sat down by the bank of a river. Tobias went into the water
near the edge, and soon a great fish rushed at him. Tobias called to his
guide. The guide told him to take hold of the fish and drag it out upon the
shore. There they killed it, and kept part of its flesh for food and part for
medicine. Then they went on to the city, got the money and returned. The
guide told young Tobias to rub the part of the fish he had taken for medicine
upon his fatherīs eyes. He did so, and immediately his fatherīs eyes were
cured and he saw. Then both the father and son were so delighted with this
young guide, that they offered to give him half of all
they had. He refused to
take it and then told them he was the angel Raphael sent from God to be the
guide of this good manīs son. He told the old Tobias how he (the angel) had
carried up to God his prayers and good works while he was burying the dead.
When they heard he was an angel they fell down and reverenced him, being very
much afraid. From this beautiful history we know that the angels carry our
prayers and good works to God. Again we learn from the Holy Scripture (Gen.
28) in the history of another good man almost the same thing. The
patriarch Jacob was on a journey, and being tired, he lay down to rest with his
head upon a stone. As he lay there he had a vision in which he saw a great
ladder reaching up from earth to Heaven. At the top he saw Almighty God
standing, and on the ladder itself angels ascending and descending. Now the
holy Fathers of the Church tell us this is what is really taking place; the
angels are always going down and up from God to man, though not on a ladder and
not visibly as they appeared to Jacob. Besides the guardian angel for each
person, there are also guardian angels for each city and for each nation.
Again (Gen. 19) angels appeared to Lot to warn him about the destruction
of the wicked cities of
shepherds on the night Our Lord was born (Luke 2). The catechism says
angels have no bodies-how, then, could they appear? They took bodies made of
some very light substance which would make them visible, and appeared just like
beautiful young men, clad in flowing garments, as you frequently see them
represented in pictures. Angels were sometimes sent to punish men for their
sins, as the angel who killed in one night 185,000 men in the army of the
wicked king, Sennacherib, who blasphemed God, and was endeavoring to destroy
But here is a difficulty. If God Himself watches over us and sees all things,
why should the angels guard us? It is on account of Godīs goodness to us;
though it is not necessary. He does not wish us to have any excuse for being
bad, so He gives us each a special heavenly servant to watch and assist us by
his prayers. If a friend received us into his house and did all he could for
us himself, we should certainly be satisfied, but if he gave us a special
servant, though it would not be necessary, he would show us great respect and
kindness. Moreover whatever the angels do for us, we might say God Himself
does, for the angels are only obeying His commands.
A. The angels as God created them were good and happy.
A. All the angels did not remain good and happy; many of them sinned and
were cast into Hell; and these are called devils or bad angels.
God did not admit the angels into His presence at once. He placed them
for awhile on probation, as He did our first parents.
One of these angels was most beautiful, and was named Lucifer, which means
light-bearer. He was so perfect that he seems to have forgotten that he
received all his beauty and intelligence from God, and not content with what he
had, became sinfully proud and wished to be equal to God Himself. For his sin
he and all his followers were driven out of Heaven, and God then created Hell,
in which they were to suffer for all eternity. This same Lucifer is now called
Satan, and more commonly the devil, and those who accompanied him in his fall,
devils, or fallen angels.
A. The first man and woman were Adam and Eve.
In the beginning God created all things; something particular on each of
the six days of Creation. (Gen. 1). On
the first day He made light, on
the second, the firmament, or the heavens, and on the sixth day He created man
and called him Adam. God wished Adam to have a companion; so one day He caused
Adam to fall into a deep sleep, and then took from his side a rib, out of which
he formed Eve. Now God could have made Eve as He made Adam, by forming her
body out of the clay of the earth and breathing into it a soul, but He made Eve
out of Adamīs rib to show that they were to be husband and wife, and to impress
upon their minds the nature and sacredness of the love and union that should
exist between them.
A. Adam and Eve were innocent and holy when they came from the hand of
God.
God placed Adam and Eve in
them power over all the other creatures. Adam gave all the animals their
appropriate names and they were obedient to him. Even lions, tigers, and other
animals that we now fear so much, came and played about him. Our first
parents, in their state of original innocence, were the happy friends of God,
without sorrow or suffering of any kind.
A. To try their obedience God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of a certain
fruit which grew in the
He told them (Gen. 2) they could take of all the fruits in the
garden except the fruit of one tree, and if they disobeyed Him by eating the
fruit of that tree, they should surely die. God might have pointed out any
tree, because it was simply a test of obedience. He gave them a very simple
command, for if we are faithful in little things we shall surely be faithful in
greater. Moreover, it is not precisely the consideration of what is forbidden,
but of the authority by which it is forbidden that should deter us from
violating the command and prove our fidelity. Thus disobedience to our parents
and superiors, even in little things, becomes sinful. Someone might say:
"Why
did God not try their obedience by one of the Ten Commandments?" Let us
examine
them. "Remember the Sabbath." That one would be unnecessary: for
every day was
Sabbath with them; the only work was to praise and serve God. "Thou shalt
not
steal!ī They could not; everything was theirs; and so
for the other
Commandments. Therefore, God gave them a simple command telling them: If you
obey, you and all your posterity will be happy; every wish will be gratified,
neither sorrow nor affliction shall come upon you and you shall never die; but
if, on the contrary, you disobey, countless evils, misery and death will be
your punishment. The earth, now so fruitful, shall bring forth no crops
without cultivation, and after years of toil the dead bodies of yourselves and
children must lie buried in its soil. So having the gift of free will they
could take their choice, and either keep His command
and be happy, or disobey
Him and be miserable.
A. The chief blessings intended for Adam and Eve, had they
remained faithful
to God, were a constant state of happiness in this life and everlasting
glory
in the next.
Our first parents and their children were not to remain in the
probation upon earth, to be taken body and soul into Heaven without being
obliged to die.
A. Adam and Eve did not remain faithful to God, but broke His commandment by
eating the forbidden fruit.
As it is told in the Bible (Gen. 3), Eve went to the forbidden
tree and was standing looking at it, when the devil came in the form of a
serpent and, tempting, told her to take some of the fruit and eat. It does not
appear that she went and tasted the fruit of all the other trees and finally
came to this one, but rather that she went directly to the forbidden tree
first. Do we not sometimes imitate Eveīs conduct? As soon as we know a
certain thing is forbidden we are more strongly tempted to try it.
See, then, what caused Eveīs sin. She went into the
dangerous occasion, and
was admiring the forbidden fruit when the tempter came. She listened to him,
yielded to his wicked suggestions, and sinned. So will it be with us if
through curiosity we desire to see or hear things forbidden; for once in the
danger the devil will soon be on hand to tempt us-not visibly indeed, for that
would alarm us and defeat his purpose, but invisibly, like our guardian angels;
for the devil is a fallen angel who still possesses all the characteristics of
an angel except goodness. But this is not all. Eve not only took and ate the
fruit herself, but induced Adam to do likewise. Most sinners imitate Eve in
that respect. Not satisfied with offending God themselves, they lead others
into sin.
Why should the devil tempt us? God created man to be in Heaven, but the fallen
angels were jealous of man, and tempted him to sin so that he too should be
kept out of Heaven and might never enjoy what they lost; just as envious people
do not wish others to have what they cannot have themselves.
A. Adam and Eve on account of their sin lost innocence and holiness, and
were doomed to sickness and death.
They were innocent and holy because they were the friends of God and in
a state of grace, but by their sin they lost His grace and friendship.
"Doomed" means sentenced or condemned. The first evil result,
then, of
Adamīs sin was that he lost innocence and made his body a rebel against his
soul. Then he was to suffer poverty, hunger, cold, sickness, death, and every
kind of ill; but the worst consequence of all was that God closed Heaven
against him. After a few yearsī trial, as we said, God
was to take him into
Heaven; but now He has closed it against Adam and his posterity. All the
people in the world could never induce God to open it again; for He closed it
in accordance with His promise, and man was an exile and outcast from his
heavenly home.
A. On account of the disobedience of our first
parents we all share
in their sin and punishment, as we should have shared in their happiness
if
they had remained faithful.
Does it not seem strange that we should suffer for the sin of our first
parents, when we had nothing to do with it? No. It happens every day that
children suffer for the faults of their parents and we do not wonder at it.
Let us suppose a manīs father leaves him a large
fortune-houses, land, and
money-and that he and his children are happy in the enjoyment of their
inheritance. The children are sent to the best schools, have everything they
desire now, and bright hopes of happiness and prosperity in the future. But
alas! their hopes are vain. The father begins to drink
or gamble, and soon the
great fortune is squandered. House after house is sold and dollar after dollar
spent, till absolute poverty comes upon the children, and the sad condition of
their home tells of their distress. Do they not suffer for the sins of their
father, though they had nothing to do with them? Indeed, many families in the
world suffer thus through the faults of others, and most frequently of some of
their members. Could you blame the grandfather for leaving the estate?
Certainly not; for it was goodness on his part that made him give.
Let us
apply this example. What God gave Adam was to be ours also, and he squandered
and misused it because he had free will, which God could not take from him
without changing his nature; for it is our free will and intelligence that make
us men, distinct from and superior to all other animals. They can live, grow,
feel, hear, see, etc., as we can, but the want of intelligence and free will
leaves them mere brutes. Therefore, if God took away Adamīs intelligence and
free will, He would have made him a mere animal-though the most perfect.
When a man becomes insane or loses the use of his intelligence and free will,
we place him in an asylum and take care of him as we would a tame animal,
seldom allowing him to go about without being watched and guarded.
Let us take another example. Suppose I have a friend who is addicted to the
excessive drinking of strong liquor, and I say to him: "If you give up
that
detestable habit for one year, I will make you a present of this beautiful
house worth several thousand dollars. It will be yours as long as you live,
and at your death you may leave it to your children. I do not owe you
anything, but offer this as a free gift if you comply with my request:ī My
friend accepts the offer on these conditions, but the very next day
deliberately breaks his promise. I do not give him the house, because he did
not keep his agreement; and can anyone say on that account that I am unjust or
unkind to him or his children? Certainly not. Well,
God acted in the same
manner with Adam. He promised him Heaven, a home more beautiful than any
earthly palace the place Our Lord calls His fatherīs house (John 14:2)
and says there are many mansions, that is, dwelling
places, in it. God
promised this home to Adam on condition that he would observe one simple
command. He had no right to Heaven, but was to receive it, according to the
promise, as a free gift from God, and therefore God, who offered it
conditionally, was not obliged to give it when Adam violated his part of the
agreement.
The example is not a perfect one, for there is this difference in the cases
between Adam and my friend: when my friend does not get the house, he sustains
a loss, it is true; but he might still be my friend as he was before, and live
in my house; but when Adam lost Heaven, he lost Godīs friendship and grace, and
the loss of all grace is to be in sin. So that Adam by breaking the command
was left in sin; and as all his children sustain the same loss, they too are
all left in sin till they are baptized.
A. Our nature was corrupted by the sin of our first parents, which darkened
our understanding, weakened our will, and left us a strong inclination to
evil.
Our "nature was corrupted" is what I have said of the body
rebelling against the soul. Our "understanding darkened:" Adam
knew
much more without study than the most intelligent men could learn now with
constant application. Before his fall he saw things clearly and understood
them well, but after his sin everything had to be learned by the slow process
of study. Then the "will was weakened:" Before he fell he
could easily
resist temptation, for his will was strong. You know we sin by the will,
because unless we wish to do the evil we commit no sin; and if absolutely
forced by others to do wrong, we are free from the guilt as long as our will
despises and protests against the action. If forced, for example, to break my
neighborīs window, I have not to answer in my conscience for the unjust act,
because my will did not consent. So, on every occasion on which we sin, it is
the will that yields to the temptation. After Adamīs sin his will became weak
and less able to resist temptation; and as we are sharers in his misfortune, we
find great difficulty at times in overcoming sinful inclinations. But no
matter how violent the temptation or how prolonged and fierce the struggle
against it, we can always be victorious if determined not to yield; for God
gives us sufficient grace to resist every temptation; and if anyone should
excuse his fall by saying he could not help sinning, he would be guilty of
falsehood.
"A strong inclination" to do wrong-that is, unless always on
our guard
against it. Our Lord once cautioned His Apostles (Matt. 26:41) to watch
and pray lest they fall into temptation; teaching us also by the same warning
that, besides praying against our spiritual enemies, we must watch their
maneuvers and be ever ready to repel their attacks.
A. The sin which we inherit from our first parents is called Original
Sin.
A. This sin is called original because it comes down to us from our first
parents, and we are brought into the world with its
guilt on our souls.
A. This corruption of our nature and other punishments remain in us after
Original Sin is forgiven.
It remains that we may merit by overcoming its temptations; and also
that we may be kept humble by remembering our former sinful and unhappy state.
A. The Blessed Virgin Mary, through the merits of her
divine Son, was
preserved free from the guilt of Original Sin, and this privilege is
called her
Immaculate Conception.
The Blessed Virgin was to be the Mother of the Son of God. Now it would
not be proper for the Mother of God to be even for one moment the servant of
the devil, or under his power. If the Blessed Virgin had been in Original Sin,
she would have been in the service of the devil. Whatever disgraces a mother
disgraces also her son; so Our Lord would never permit His dear Mother to be
subject to the devil, and consequently He, through His merits, saved her from
Original Sin. She is the only one of the whole human race who enjoys this
great privilege, and it is called her "Immaculate Conception," that
is,
she was conceived-brought into existence by her mother-without having any spot
or stain of sin upon her soul, and hence without Original Sin.
Our Lord came into the world to crush the power which the devil had exercised
over men from the fall of Adam. This He did by meriting grace for them and
giving them this spiritual help to withstand the devil in all his attacks upon
them. As the Blessed Mother was never under the devilīs power, next to God she
has the greatest strength against him, and she will help us to resist him if we
seek her aid. The devil himself knows her power and fears her, and if he sees
her coming to our assistance will quickly fly. Never fail, then, in time of
temptation to call upon our Blessed Mother; she will hear and help you and pray
to God for you.
A. Original Sin is not the only kind of sin; there is another kind of sin
which we commit ourselves, called actual sin.
Sin is first or chiefly divided into original and actual; that is, into
the sin we inherit from our first parents and the sin we commit ourselves. We
may commit "actual" sin in two ways; either by doing what we
should not
do-stealing, for example-and thus we have a sin of commission, that is, a bad
act committed; or by not doing what we should do-not hearing Mass on Sunday,
for example-and thus we have a sin of omission, that is, a good act omitted.
So it is not enough to simply do no harm, we must also do some good. Heaven is
a reward, and we must do something to merit it. Suppose a man employed a boy
to do the work of his office, and when he came in the morning found that the
boy had neglected the work assigned to him, and when spoken to about it simply
answered: "Sir, I did no harm"; do you think he would be entitled to
his wages?
Of course he did not and should do no harm; but is his employer to pay him
wages for that? Certainly not. In like manner, God is
not going to reward us
for doing no harm; but on the contrary, He will punish us if we do wrong, and
give no reward unless we perform the work He has marked out for us. Neither
would the office boy deserve any wages if he did only what pleases himself, and
not the work assigned by his master. In the same way, God will not accept any
worship or religion but the one He has revealed. He tells us Himself how He
wishes to be worshipped, and our own invented methods will not please Him.
Hence we see the folly of those who say that all religions are equally good,
and that we can be saved by practicing any of them. We can be saved only in
the one religion which God Himself has instituted, and by which He wishes to be
honored. Many also foolishly believe, or say they believe, that if they are
honest, sober, and the like, doing no injury to anyone, they shall be saved
without the practice of any form of religious worship. But
how about Godīs
laws and commands? Are they to be despised, disregarded, and neglected
entirely, without any fear of punishment? Surely not! And persons who thus
think they are doing no harm are neglecting to serve God-the greatest harm they
can do, and for which they will lose Heaven. God, we are told, assigned to
everyone in this world a certain work to perform in a particular state of life,
and this work is called "vocation." One, for instance, is to be a
priest;
another, a layman; one married; another single, etc. It is important for us to
discover our true vocation; for if we are in the state of life to which God has
called us, we shall be happy; but if we select our own work, our own state of
life without consulting Him, we shall seldom be happy in it. How are we to
know our vocation? Chiefly by praying to God and asking Him
to make it known
to us. Then if He gives us a strong inclination-constant, or nearly
constant-for a certain state of life, and the ability to fulfill its duties, we
may well believe that God wishes us to be in that state.
After we have begged Godīs assistance, we must ask our confessorīs advice in
the matter, and listen attentively to what the Holy Ghost inspires him to say.
The signs of our vocation are, therefore, as stated: first, a strong desire,
and second, an aptitude for the state to which we believe we are called. For
example, a young man might be very holy, but if unable to learn, he could never
be a priest. Another might be very learned and holy, but if too sickly to
perform a priestīs duties, he could not, or at least would not, be ordained.
Another might be learned and healthy, but not virtuous, and so he could never
be a priest. Aptitude, therefore, means all the qualities necessary, whether
of mind, or soul, or body. The same is true for a young girl who wishes to
become a religious; and the same, indeed, for any personīs vocation. We should
never enter a state of life to which we are not called, simply to please
parents or others. Neither should we be persuaded by them to give up a state
to which we are called; for we should embrace our true vocation at any
sacrifice, that in it we may serve God better, and be more certain of saving
our souls. Thus, parents and guardians who prevent their children from
entering the state to which they are called may sin grievously by exposing them
to eternal loss of salvation. Their sin is all the greater when they try to
influence their children in this matter for selfish or worldly motives. As
they may be selfish and prejudiced without knowing it, they too, should ask the
advice of their confessor, and good persons of experience. Oh! how many
children, sons and daughters, are made unhappy all the days of their life by
parents or superiors forcing them into some state to which they were not
called, or by keeping them from one to which they were called. This matter of
your vocation rests with yourselves and Almighty God,
and you are free to do
what He directs without consideration for anyone.
A. Actual sin is any willful thought, word, deed, or
omission contrary to
the law of God.
Three ways we may sin, by "thought"--allowing our minds to
dwell
on sinful things; "word"--by cursing, telling lies, etc.;
"deed"--by any kind of bad action. But to be sins, these
thoughts,
words and deeds must be willful; that is, we must fully know what we are doing,
and be free in doing it. Then they must be "contrary to the law of
God";
that is, violate some law He commands us to obey, whether it be a law He
gave directly Himself, or through His Church. We can also violate Godīs law by
neglecting to observe it, and thus sin, provided the neglect be
willful, and
the thing neglected commanded by God or by His Church.
A. There are two kinds of actual sin-mortal and venial.
"Mortal," that is, the sin which kills the
soul. When a man receives a
very severe wound, we say he is mortally wounded; that is, he will die from the
wound. As breath shows there is life in the body, so grace is the life of the
soul; when all the breath is out of the body, we say the man is dead. He can
perform no action to help himself or others. So when all grace is out of the
soul we say it is dead, because it is reduced to the condition of a dead body.
It can do no action worthy of merit, such as a soul should do; that is, it can
do no action that God is bound to reward-it is dead. But you will say the soul
never dies. You mean it will never cease to exist; but we call it dead when it
has lost all its power to do supernatural good.
"Venial" sin does not drive out all the grace; it wounds the
soul, it
weakens it just as slight wounds weaken the body. If it falls very frequently
into venial sin, it will fall very soon into mortal sin also; for the Holy
Scripture says that he that contemneth small things shall fall by little and
little. (Ecclus. 19:1). A venial sin seems a little thing, but if we do
not avoid it we shall by degrees fall into greater, or mortal, sin. Venial sin
makes God less friendly to us and displeases Him. Now if we really love God,
we will not displease Him even in the most trifling things.
A. Mortal sin is a grievous offense against the law of God.
"Grievous" that is, very great or serious. "Against
the law." If
we are in doubt whether anything is sinful or not, we must ask ourselves: is it
forbidden by God or His Church? and if we do not know
of any law forbidding it,
it cannot be a sin, at least for us.
Suppose, for example, a boy should doubt whether it is sinful or not to fly a
kite. Well, is there any law of God or of His Church saying it is sinful to
fly a kite? If not, then it cannot be a sin. But it might be sinful for
another reason, namely, his parents or superiors might forbid it, and there is
a law of God saying you must not disobey your parents or superiors. Therefore
a thing not sinful in itself, that is, not directly forbidden
by God or His
Church, may become sinful for some other reason well known to us.
We must not, however, doubt concerning the sinfulness or lawfulness of
everything we do; for that would be foolish and lead us to be scrupulous. If
we doubt at all we should have some good reason for doubting, that is, for
believing that the thing we are about to do is or is not forbidden. When,
therefore, we have such a doubt we must seek information from those who can
enlighten us on the subject, so that we may act without the danger of sinning.
It is our intention that makes the act we perform sinful or not. Let me
explain. Suppose during Lent a person should mistake Friday for Thursday and
should eat meat-that person would not commit a real sin, because it is not a
sin to eat meat on an ordinary Thursday. He would commit what we call a
material sin; that is, his action would be a sin if he really knew what he was
doing. On the other hand, if the person, thinking it was Friday when it was
really Thursday, ate meat, knowing it to be forbidden, that person would commit
a mortal sin, because he intended to do so. Therefore, if what we do is not
known to be a sin while we do it, it is no sin for us and cannot become a sin
afterwards. But as soon as we know or learn that what we did was wrong, it
would be a sin if we did the same thing again. In the same way, everything we
do thinking it to be wrong or sinful is wrong and sinful for us, though it may
not be wrong for those who know better. Again, it is sinful to judge others
for doing wrong, because they may not know that what they do is sinful. It
would be better for us to instruct than to blame them. The best we can do,
therefore, is to learn well all Godīs laws and the laws of His Church as they
are taught in the catechism, so that we may know when we are violating them or
when we are not, i.e., when we are sinning and when we are not.
A. This sin is called mortal because it deprives us of spiritual life, which
is sanctifying grace. and brings everlasting death and
damnation on the
soul.
When the soul is sent to Hell it is dead forever, because never again
will it be able to do a single meritorious act.
A. To make a sin mortal three things are necessary: a
grievous matter,
sufficient reflection, and full consent of the will.
"Grievous matter." To steal is
a sin. Now, if you steal only a pin the
act of stealing in that case could not be a mortal sin, because the
"matter,"
namely, the stealing of an ordinary pin, is not grievous.
But suppose it was a
diamond pin of great value, then it would surely be "grievous
matter."
"Sufficient reflection," that is, you must know what you are
doing at
the time you do it. For example, suppose while you stole the diamond pin you
thought you were stealing a pin with a small piece of glass, of little value,
you would not have sufficient reflection and would not commit a mortal sin till
you found out that what you had stolen was a valuable diamond; if you continued
to keep it after learning your mistake, you would surely commit a mortal sin.
"Full consent:ī Suppose you were shooting
at a target and accidentally
killed a man: you would not have the sin of murder, because you did not will or
wish to kill a man.
Therefore three things are necessary that your act may be a mortal sin:
A. Venial sin is a slight offense against the law of God in matters of less
importance, or in matters of great importance it is an offense committed
without sufficient reflection or full consent of the will.
"Slight ī " that is, a
small offense or fault; called
"venial," not because it is not a sin, but because God pardons
it more
willingly or easily than He does a mortal sin. "Less importance;" like
stealing an ordinary, common pin. "Great importance;ī
like stealing a
diamond pin. Without "reflection" or "consent," when
you did not
know it was a diamond and did not intend to steal a diamond.
A. The effects of venial sin are the lessening of the love
of God in our
heart, the making us less worthy of His help, and the weakening of the
power to
resist mortal sin.
"Lessening of the love;" because it lessens grace,
and grace increases
the love of God in us. It displeases God, and though we do not offend Him very
greatly, we still offend Him. "Weakening of the power to resist:ī If a
man is wounded, it will be easier to kill him than if he is in perfect health.
So mortal sin will more easily kill a soul already weakened by the wounds of
venial sin.
A. The chief sources of sin are seven: Pride,
Covetousness, Lust, Anger,
Gluttony, Envy, and Sloth; and they are commonly called capital sins.
A "source" is that from which anything else comes. The source
of
a river is the little spring on the Mountainside where the river first begins.
This little stream runs down the mountain, and as it goes along gathers
strength and size from other little streams running into it. It cuts its way
through the meadows, and marks the course and is the beginning of a great
river, sweeping all things before it and carrying them off to the ocean. Now,
if someone in the beginning had stopped up the little spring on the
mountain-the first source of the river-there would have been no river in that
particular place. It is just the same with sin. There is one sin that is the
source, and as it goes along like the stream it gathers strength; other sins
follow it and are united with it. Again: each of these "capital
sins,"
as they are called, is like a leader or a captain in an army, with so many
others under him and following him. Now, if you take away the head, the other
members of the body will perish; so if you destroy the capital sin, the other
sins that follow it will disappear also. Very few persons have all the capital
sins: some are guilty of one of them, some of two, some of three, but few if
any are guilty of them all. The one we are guilty of, and which is the cause
of all our other sins, is called our predominant sin or our ruling
passion. We should try to find it out, and labor to overcome it.
Every one of these capital sins has a great many other sins following it.
"Pride" is an inordinate self-esteem. Pride comes under the
First
Commandment; because by thinking too much of ourselves we neglect God, and give
to ourselves the honor due to Him. Of what have we to be proud? Of our
personal appearance? Disease may efface in one night every trace of
beauty.
Of our clothing? It is not ours; we have not produced
it; most of it is taken
from the lower animals-wool from the sheep, leather from the ox, feathers from
the bird, etc. Are we proud of our wealth, money or property? These may be
stolen or destroyed by fire. The learned may become insane, and so we have
nothing to be proud of but our good works. All that we have is from God, and
we can have it only as long as He wishes. We had nothing coming into the
world, and we leave it with nothing but the shroud in which we are buried; and
even this does not go with the soul, but remains with the body to rot in the
earth. Soon after death our bodies become so offensive that even our dearest
friends hasten to place them under ground, where they become the food of worms,
a mass of corruption loathsome to sight and smell. Why, then, should we be so
proud of this body, and commit so much sin for it, pamper it with every
delicacy, only to be the food of worms? This does not mean, however, that we
are not to keep our bodies clean, and take good care of them. We are bound to
do so, and could not neglect it without committing sin. The
one thing to be
avoided is taking too much care of them, and neglecting our soul and God on
their account. The followers of pride are: conceit, hypocrisy,
foolish
display in dress or conduct, harshness to others, waste of time on ourselves,
etc. "Covetousness," the same as avarice, greed, etc., is an
inordinate
desire for worldly goods. "Inordinate;" because it is not
avarice to
prudently provide for the future either for ourselves or others. Covetousness
comes under the Tenth Commandment, and is forbidden by it. We must be content
with what we have or can get honestly. The followers of covetousness
are: Want of charity, dishonest dealing, theft, etc. "Lust" is
the
desire for sins of the flesh; for impure thoughts, words, or actions. It comes
under the Sixth and Ninth Commandments, and includes all that is forbidden by
those Commandments. It is the habit of always violating, or of desiring to
violate, the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. Lust and impurity mean the same
thing. The followers of lust are, generally, neglect of prayer, neglect
of the Sacraments, and final loss of faith.
"Anger" comes under the Fifth Commandment. It is followed by
hatred,
the desire of revenge, etc.
"Gluttony" is the sin of eating or drinking too much. With
regard to
eating, it is committed by eating too often; by being too particular about what
we eat, by being too extravagant in always looking for the most costly things,
that we think others cannot have. With regard to drinking, it is generally
committed by taking too much of intoxicating liquors. The drunkard is a
glutton and commits the sin of gluttony every time he becomes intoxicated.
Gluttony, especially in drink, comes in a manner under the First Commandment,
because by depriving ourselves of our reason we cannot give God the honor and
respect which is His due. Think of how many sins the drunkard commits. He
becomes intoxicated, which in itself is a sin. He deprives himself of the use
of reason, abuses Godīs great gift, and becomes like a brute beast. Indeed in
a way he becomes worse than a beast; for beasts always follow the laws that God
has given to their nature, and never drink to excess. They obey God, and man
is the only one of Godīs creatures that does not always keep His laws. Think
too of the number of insane persons confined in asylums, who would give all in
this world for the use of their reason, if they could only understand their
miserable condition. Yet the drunkard abuses the gift that would make these
poor unfortunate lunatics happy. Again, the drunkard injures his health and
thus violates the Fifth Commandment by committing a kind of slow suicide. He
loses self-respect, makes use of sinful language; frequently neglects Mass and
all his religious duties, exposes himself to the
danger of death while in a
state of sin, gives scandal to his family and neighbors, and by his bad example
causes some to leave or remain out of the true Church. By continued
intemperance, he may become insane and remain in that condition till death puts
an end to his career and he goes unprepared before the judgment seat of God.
Besides all this he squanders the money he should put to a better use and turns
Godīs gifts into a means of offending Him. If a father, he neglects the
children and wife for whom he has promised to provide; leaves them cold and
hungry while he commits sin with the means that would make them comfortable.
Drunkenness therefore is a sin accompanied by many deplorable evils. There are
three great sins you should always be on your guard against during your whole
lives, namely, drunkenness, dishonesty, and impurity. If you avoid these you
will almost surely avoid all other sins; for nearly all sins can be traced back
to these three. They are the most dangerous, first, because they have most
followers, and secondly, because they grow upon us almost without our knowing
it. The drunkard begins perhaps as a boy by taking a little, even very little;
the second time he takes a little more; the next time still more, then he
begins to be fond of strong drink and can scarcely do without it; finally he
becomes the slave of intemperance and sells his soul and body for it. The
passions of dishonesty and impurity grow by degrees in the same manner.
Therefore avoid them in the beginning and resist them while they are under your
power. If you find yourself inclined to any of these sins in your youth, stop
them at once.
"Envy" is the desire to see another meet with misfortune that
we may be
benefited by it. We are glad when he does not succeed in his business, we are
sorry when anyone speaks well of him, etc. Envy comes under the Eighth
Commandment.
"Sloth" is committed when we idle our time, and are lazy; when
we are
indifferent about serving God; when we do anything slowly and poorly and in a
way that shows we would rather not do it. They are slothful who lie in bed
late in the morning and neglect their duty. Slothful people are often untidy
in their personal appearance; and they are nearly always in misery and want,
unless somebody else takes care of them. Sloth comes under the First
Commandment, because it has reference in a special manner to the way in which
we serve God. How, then, shall we best destroy sin in our souls? By finding
out our chief capital sin and rooting it out. If a strong oak tree is deeply
rooted in the ground, how will you best destroy its life? By cutting off the
branches? No. For with each returning spring new branches will grow. How
then? By cutting the root and then the great oak with all its branches will
die. In the same way our capital sin is the root, and as long as we leave it
in our souls other sins will grow out of it. While we are trying to destroy
our sins without touching our capital sin-our chief sin-we are only cutting off
branches that will grow again. Indeed a great many people are only cutting off
branches all the time and that is why they are not benefited as much as they
could be by the prayers they say, Masses they hear, Sacraments they receive,
and sermons they listen to. But do not imagine that because you are not
becoming better, when you pray, hear Mass, and receive the Sacraments, you are
doing no good at all. That would be a great mistake, and just such a thing as
the devil would suggest to make persons give up their
devotions. What is the
use, he might say, of your trying to be good? You are just as bad as you were
a year ago. Do not listen to that temptation. Were it not for your prayers
and your reception of the Sacraments, you would become a great deal worse than
you are. Suppose a man is rowing on the river against a very strong tide. He
is rowing as hard as he can and yet he is not advancing one foot up the stream.
Is he doing nothing therefore? Ah! he is doing a great
deal: he is preventing
himself from being carried with the current out into the ocean. He is keeping
himself where he is till the force of the tide diminishes, and then he can
advance. So they who are trying to be good are struggling against the strong
tide of temptation. If they cease to struggle against it, they will be carried
out into the great ocean of sin and lost forever. Someday the temptation will
grow weaker and then they will be able to advance towards Heaven. We feel
temptations most when we are trying to resist them and lead good lives, because
we are working against our evil inclinations-the strong tide of our passions.
We have no trouble going with them.
A. God did not abandon man after he fell into sin, but promised him a
Redeemer, who was to satisfy for manīs sin and reopen to him the gates of
Heaven.
"Abandon" means to leave to oneīs self. Adam and his posterity
were
slaves, but God took pity on them. He did not leave them to themselves, but
promised to help them.
"Gates of Heaven:" Heaven has no gates,
because it is not built of
material-of stone, or iron, or wood. It is only our way of speaking;
just as
we say "hand of God,ī although He has no hands.
Heaven is the magnificent home
God has prepared for us, and its gates are His power by which He keeps us out
or lets us in as He pleases. Our Lord, therefore, obtained admittance for us.
A. Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of mankind.
A. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the second Person
of the Blessed Trinity, true God and true man.
"True God:" He was true God equal to His Father from all
eternity. He
became man when He came upon the earth about 2,000 years ago, and was born on
Christmas Day. Now He is in Heaven as God and man. Therefore, He was God
always, but man only from the time of His Incarnation.
A. Jesus Christ is true God because He is the true and only Son of God the
Father.
God the Father, first Person of the Blessed Trinity, is His real Father,
and
care of Our Lord and watch over Him while on earth. A foster-father is not the
same as a stepfather. A stepfather is a second father that one gets when his
real father dies. A foster-father is one who takes a person, whether a
relative or a stranger, and adopts him as his son.
It was a very great honor for St. Joseph to be selected from among all men to
take care of the Son of God; to carry in his arms the great One of whom the
prophets spoke; the One for whom the whole world longed during so many thousand
years; so that next to our Blessed Mother St. Joseph deserves our greatest
honor.
A. Jesus Christ is true man because He is the Son of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, and has a body and soul like ours.
He has all that we have by nature, but not the things we have acquired
such as deformities, imperfections, and the like. Everything in Our Lord was
perfect. Above all, He had no sin of any kind; nor even inclination to sin.
He could be hungry, as He was when He fasted forty days in the desert.
(Matt. 4:2). He was thirsty, as He said on the Cross. (John
19:28). He could be wearied; as we read in the Holy Scripture (John
4:6) that He sat down by a well to rest, while His disciples went into the
city to buy food. All these sufferings come from our very nature. We say a
thing comes from our very nature when everybody has it. Now, everyone in the
world may at times be hungry, thirsty, or tired; but everybody in the world
need not have a toothache or headache, because such things are not common to
human nature, but due to some defect in our body; and such defects Our Lord did
not have, because He was a perfect man. Therefore, Our Lord had a body like
ours, not as it usually is with defects, but as it should be, perfect in all
things that belong to its nature, as Adamīs was before he sinned.
A. In Jesus Christ there are two natures: the nature of God and the nature
of man.
He was perfect God and perfect man. His human nature was under the full
power of His divine nature, and could not do anything contrary to His divine
will. You cannot understand how there can be two natures and two wills in one
person, because it is another of the great mysteries; but you must believe it,
just as you believe there are three Persons in one God, though you do not
understand it. Those who learn theology and study a great deal may understand
it better than you, but never fully. It will be enough, therefore, for you to
remember and believe that there are two natures-the divine nature and the human
nature-in the one person of Our Lord.
A. No, Jesus Christ is but one Divine Person.
"But one;" so that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity,
the Son of
God, the Messias, Christ, Jesus, Our Lord, Our Saviour, Our Redeemer, etc., are
all names for the one Person; and, besides these, there are many other names
given to Our Lord in the Holy Scripture, both in the Old and the New
Testaments.
A. Jesus Christ was always God, as He is the Second Person of the Blessed
Trinity, equal to His Father from all eternity.
A. Jesus Christ was not always man, but became man at the time of His
Incarnation.
A. By the Incarnation I mean that the Son of God was made man.
A. The Son of God was conceived and made man by the
power of the Holy Ghost,
in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
A. The Blessed Virgin Mary is truly the Mother of God, because the same
Divine Person who is the Son of God is also the Son of the Blessed Virgin
Mary.
A. The Son of God did not become man immediately after the
sin of our first
parents, but He was promised to them as a Redeemer.
God did not say to Adam when He would send the Redeemer, and so the
Redeemer did not come for about 4,000 years after He was first promised.
God permitted this long time to elapse in order that mankind might feel and
know how great an evil sin is, and what misery it brought upon the world.
During these 4,000 years men were becoming gradually worse. At one time-about
1,600 years after Adamīs sin they became so bad that God destroyed by a deluge,
or great flood of water, all persons and living things upon the earth, except
Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives, and the animals they had in the
ark with them. (Gen. 6). Let me now give you
more particulars about
this terrible punishment. After God determined to destroy all living things on
account of the wickedness of men, He told Noah, who was a good man, to build a
great ark, or ship, for himself and his family, and for some of all the living
creatures upon the earth. (Gen. 6). When
the ark was ready, Noah and
his family went into it, and the animals that were to be saved came by Godīs
power, and two by two were taken into the ark. Besides the two of each kind of
animals, Noah was required to take with him five more of each kind of clean
animals. Clean animals were certain animals which, according to Godīs law,
could be offered in sacrifice or eaten; they were such animals as the ox, the
sheep, the goat, etc. Therefore, seven of each of the clean
animals, and two
of each of the other kinds. Why did He have seven clean animals? two were to
be set free upon the dry earth with the other animals, and the other five were
for food and sacrifice. Noah spent a hundred years in making the ark. At that
time men lived much longer than they do now. Adam lived over 900 years and
Mathusala, the oldest man, lived to be 969 years old. There are many reasons
why men live a shorter time now than then. When the door of the ark was
closed, God sent a great rain that lasted for forty days and forty nights. All
the springs of water broke forth, and all the rivers and lakes overflowed their
banks. Men ran here And there to high places, while the water rose higher and
higher till it covered the tops of the mountains, and all not in the ark were
drowned. The big ark floated about for about a year; for although it stopped
raining after forty days, just think of the quantity of water that must have
fallen! Think of the rain what would fall during the whole of Lent from Ash
Wednesday to Easter Sunday-forty days. It took a long time, therefore, for the
waters to go down and finally disappear. When the waters began to go down,
Noah, wishing to know if any land was as yet above the water, opened the little
window, and sent out a raven or crow over the waters. The raven did not come
back, because it is a bird that eats flesh, and it found plenty of dead bodies
to feed upon. Then Noah sent out a dove, and the dove came back with the bough
of an olive tree in its mouth. From this Noah knew that the earth was becoming
dry again. After some days, the ark rested on the top of a mountain named
Ararat. When all the waters had dried up, Noah and his family and all the
animals passed out of the ark. He offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and he
and his family settled once more upon the earth. For a while, the descendants
of Noah were good, but when they became numerous they soon forgot the deluge
and its punishments, and became very wicked. Many forgot the true God
altogether, and began to worship the sun, moon, and stars. Some worshipped
animals, and others idols of wood or stone. They offered up human victims and
committed all kinds of sins most displeasing to God. Many were in slavery;
masters were cruel; and things were becoming daily worse, till just before the
coming of Our Lord the world was in a terrible condition of misery and sin.
The lawmakers tried to remedy these evils by their laws, and the teachers and
professors by their teaching; but all was of no avail. God Himself must save
the world.
God gave many promises of the Redeemer. The first one was given in the garden
to our first parents. God said (Gen. 3:15) to the serpent: I will put
enmities, that is hatred, between thee and the woman; that is, between the
devil and the Blessed Virgin-whom the holy writers call the second Eve; because
as the first Eve caused our fall, the second Eve helped us to rise again. I
will put also a great hatred between the devil and your Redeemer. The next
promise of the Redeemer was made to Abraham. (Gen. 15).
Another was
made to Isaac, and another to Jacob; and later these
promises were frequently
renewed through the prophets; so that during the four thousand years God
encouraged the good people, by promising from time to time the Redeemer.
Some of the prophets foretold to what family He would belong, and when He would
be born, and when and what He would suffer, and how He would die. They also
foretold signs or things that would come to pass just before the advent or
coming of the Messias (Gen. 49:10); so that when the people saw these
things coming to pass, they could know that the time of the Messias was at
hand. Thus when Our Lord came, the whole world was waiting and looking for the
promised Redeemer, because the signs foretold had appeared or were taking
place. But the majority did not recognize Our Lord when He came, on account of
the quiet, humble, and poor way in which He came. They were expecting to see
the Redeemer come as a great and powerful king, with mighty armies conquering
the world; and in this they were mistaken. If they had studied the Holy
Scriptures they would have learned how He was to come-poor and humble.
A. They who lived before the Son of God became man could be saved by
believing in the Redeemer to come, and by keeping the Commandments.
We have seen that God promised the Redeemer during four thousand years.
Now, those who believed these promises and kept all Godīs Commandments, and
observed all His laws as they knew them, could be saved. They could not, it is
true, enter into Heaven after their death, but they could wait in Limbo without
suffering till Our Lord opened Heaven for them. They were saved only through
the merits of Our Lord. And how could this be when Our Lord was not yet born?
Do you know what a promissory note is? It is this. When a man is not able to
pay his debts just now but will be able afterwards, he gives those to whom he
owes the money a promissory note, that is, a written promise that he will pay
at a certain time. Now, those who died before Our Lord was born had the Holy
Scripture promising that Christ would pay for them and for their sins when He
would come. So God saved them on account of this promise and kept them free
from suffering till Our Lord came. If any died when they were little infants,
their parents answered for them as godfathers and godmothers do now for infants
at Baptism.
A. The Son of God was conceived and made man on Annunciation Day-the day on
which the Angel Gabriel announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she was to be
the Mother of God.
"Annunciation Day" is the 25th of March. You can easily
remember that
feast. Everybody knows that St. Patrickīs Day is on the 17th of March, and
therefore eight days after it comes Annunciation day. There is another
feast
coming in between them, the feast of
Therefore it is easy to remember these three feasts coming all in March and
almost together. Annunciation is the name given to that day after the angel
came, but it was not called so before. Annunciation means to tell or make
known, and this is the day the angel made known to the Blessed Virgin that she
was selected for the high office of Mother of God. The Blessed Virgin was
expecting the Messias, and was probably praying for His speedy arrival, as were
the rest of her people, when suddenly the angel came and said: Hail, full of
grace. (See Hail Mary Expl.).
A. Christ was born on Christmas Day in a stable at Bethlehem, over nineteen
hundred years ago.
"Christmas Day" is the 25th of December, one week before the
New Year.
It is called Christmas Day since the time Our Lord was born, over nineteen
hundred years ago. "In a stable at
birth is in every way a very sad one. The Blessed Virgin and
in Palestine-called also the
was the country where Godīs people, the Jews, lived, and at the time we are
speaking of, it was under the power of the Roman Emperor, who had his soldiers
and governor there. He wished to find out how many people were there, and so
he ordered a census or count of the people to be made. (Luke 2). We
take the census very differently now from what they did then. We in the United
States, by order of the government, send men around from house to house to
write down the names; but in Palestine, when they wanted the number of the
people, everyone, no matter where he lived, had to go to the city or town where
his forefathers had lived and there register his name with all the others who
belonged to the same tribe or family. Now, the forefathers of
the Blessed Virgin belonged to the little town of
they had to leave
This was shortly before Christmas. When they got to
place crowded with people who also came to enroll their names. They went to
the inn or hotel to seek for lodging for the night. The hotels there were not
like ours. They were simply large buildings with small rooms and no furniture;
they were called caravansaries. A man was in charge of the building, and by
paying him something persons were allowed the use of a room. No food was sold
there, so travelers had to do their cooking at home and bring whatever they
needed with them. When the Blessed Virgin and
found all the rooms occupied. Then they went up and down the streets looking
for some house where they might stay. Nobody would take them in, because
Joseph
refused at every door, a very sad thing indeed. What were they to do? It was
growing dark, and the lights most likely were being
lighted here and there in
the houses. The old towns were not built as ours are, with houses on the
outskirts growing fewer as we advance into the country. They were surrounded
by great walls to keep out their enemies. There were several large gates in
these walls, through which the people entered or left the city. At night these
gates were closed and guarded. Nearly all the people lived within the walls
and the country was lonely and almost deserted. Only shepherds were to be
found in the country, and they lived in tents, which they carried about from
place to place, as soldiers do in time of war. Such was the country about
stay in the town they were forced to go into the country. They must have
suffered also from fear because the country was infested with wolves and wild
dogs, so fierce that they sometimes came into the towns and attacked the people
in the streets. Besides, many robbers were wandering about waiting for victims.
large caves in which these robbers frequently took refuge or divided their
spoils. Because the shepherds at times, especially in bad weather, brought
their animals into these caves, they are often called stables. The Blessed
Virgin and
into it for the night, and there Our Lord was born.
It was the month of December and must have been quite cold, so the little
Infant Jesus must have suffered greatly from the cold. If it had been a stable
such as we see in our days it would have been bad enough; but think of this
cold, dark, miserable cave, and yet it was Our Lord, the King of Heaven and
earth, who was born there. There are few people so poor that they have to live
in a cave. What wonderful humility, then, on the part of Our Lord. He could
have been born, if He wished, in the grandest palace man could construct and
have had thousands of angels to bring Him whatever He needed, for they are His
servants in Heaven. But Our Lord became so humble to teach us. What
impression should this make on those who are too fond of dress and too vain
about their homes.
It was foretold by the prophets that Our Lord would be born in Bethlehem, and
when the time was near at hand His parents were living in Nazareth; then the
Roman Emperor gave the decree that the census be taken, which obliged Our
Lordīs parents to go to Bethlehem, and thus Our Lord was born there, and the
words of the prophets fulfilled. See how God moves the whole world, if
necessary, to accomplish what He desires. But how naturally
He does
everything. Nobody knew-not even the Roman Emperor himself-that he was
giving
an edict to fulfill the prophecies and the promises of God. So, at times,
people do many things to carry out the designs of God, though they know it not.
We should never complain therefore to do unwillingly whatever work we have to
perform, because it may be something that God wishes us to do for some very
special end. If you look back upon your lives, you can see that God guided and
directed you upon many occasions.
A. Christ lived on earth about thirty-three years, and led a most holy life
in poverty and suffering.
The life of Our Lord was spent in the following manner. At the time Our
Lord was born in
East-perhaps from
leaving their own country came to
Herod was troubled, for he was afraid the new King
would deprive him of his
throne. He called together all the priests and asked them about this royal
child. They told him and the Magi that, according to the prophecies, the
Saviour should be born in
followed it to
They entered, and adored the Infant Jesus, and offered Him presents. Now,
Herod told them to come back after they had found the newborn King, and tell
him where He was, that he too might go and adore Him. But such was not Herodīs
real intention. He wished not to adore but to kill Him. See, then, how the
wicked pretend at times to do good, that they may
deceive us and lead us
astray. Be always on your guard against a person if you suspect his goodness.
But Herod could not deceive God, who, knowing his heart, warned the Wise Men
not to return to Herod, but to go back to their own country by another way,
which they did. We celebrate the day on which the Wise Men adored the Infant
Jesus on the feast of the Epiphany (six days after New Yearīs Day). When the
Magi did not return, Herod knew that they had avoided him. He was very angry
indeed, and in order to be sure of killing the poor little Infant Jesus, he had
all the infants or children in or near
old put to death. We honor these first little martyrs who suffered for Christ
on the feast of Holy Innocents-three days after Christmas.
After the departure of the Wise Men, God sent an angel to
him of Herodīs evil designs, and telling him to fly with Jesus and Mary into
nor did he ask to be allowed to wait till morning. He obeyed promptly; he
arose in the night, and started at once. What an example of obedience for us!
They must have had many hardships on the way. They must have suffered much
from hunger, cold, and fear. They dare not go on the best roads, for we may
well suppose that Herod had his spies out watching for any that might escape.
So they went by the roughest roads and longest way. In
strangers, and how could a poor old carpenter like
there! The Holy Family must at times have suffered greatly from want. They
remained in
At twelve years of age Our Lord went to the
sacrifice with His parents. (Luke 2:42). He afterwards returned to
anything of Him. Most likely He worked in the carpenter shop with His
foster-father,
At the age of thirty (Luke 3:23), Our Lord began His public life; that
is, His preaching, miracles, etc. His public life lasted a little over three
years, and then He was put to death on the Cross.
A. Christ lived so long on earth to show us the way to Heaven by His
teaching and example.
Christ went through all the stages of life that each might have an
example. He was an infant: then a child; then a young man, and finally a man.
He did not become an old man to set an example to the old, because if men
follow His example in their youth and manhood they will be good in old age.
Youth is the all-important time to learn. If you want a tree to grow straight,
you must keep it straight while it is only a little twig. You cannot
straighten an old oak tree that has grown up crooked. So you must be taught to
do right in your youth, that you may do the same when old. Of the hidden or
private life of Our Lord we, as I have said, know nothing, except that He was
obedient to His parents; for He wished to give an example also to those holy
persons who lead a life hidden from the world. Some books have given stories
about what Our Lord did in school, etc., but these stories are not true. The
only true things we know of Our Lord are those told in the Holy Scripture, or
handed down to us by the Church in her teachings, or those certainly revealed
to Godīs saints. Remember, then, that others are taught best by example, and
be careful of the example you give.
A. Jesus Christ suffered a bloody sweat, a cruel scourging, was crowned with
thorns, and was crucified.
After the Supper, Our Lord went with His Apostlesī to a little country
place just outside
the three Apostles, Peter, James, and John, to stay near the entrance, and to
watch and pray, while He Himself went further into the
Gethsemani, as this place was called, and throwing Himself upon His face,
prayed long and earnestly, but the Apostles fell asleep.
We often find persons who are in great anguish or dread covered with a cold
perspiration. Now, Our Lordīs agony in the garden was so intense that great
drops, not of sweat, but of blood, oozed from every pore, and trickled to the
ground.
There are three reasons given for this dreadful agony:
(1) They tried Him at night; and (2) they allowed Him no witnesses in His
defense, but even employed false witnesses to testify against Him, and thus
acted against all law and justice. Early in the morning they led Him to
Pilate, who commanded that He should be scourged. Then they stripped Our Lord
of His garments, fastened His hands to a low stone pillar, and there He was
"scourged" by the Roman soldiers. The lashes used by the
Romans were
made of leather, with pieces of bone, iron, or steel fastened into it, so that
every stroke would lay open the flesh. It is most likely these were the lashes
used upon Our Lord till every portion of His body was bruised and bleeding, and
they replaced His garments upon Him. Now, you know if you put a cloth upon a
fresh wound the blood will soak into it and cause it to adhere to the mangled
flesh. Our Blessed Lordīs garment, thus saturated with His blood, adhered to
His wounded body, and when again removed caused Him unspeakable pain. Next,
the soldiers, because Our Lord had said He was a king-meaning a spiritual
king-led Him into a large hall and mocked Him. They made a crown of long,
sharp thorns, and forced it down upon His brow with a heavy rod or reed; every
stroke driving the thorns into His head, and causing the blood to roll down His
sacred face. They again took off His garments, and opened anew the painful
wounds. Because kings wore purple, they put an old purple garment upon Him,
and made Him a mock king, genuflecting in ridicule as they passed before Him.
They struck Him in the face and spat upon Him; and yet it seems our patient
Lord said not a word in complaint. Then they put His garments upon Him, and
Pilate asked the people what he should do with Him, and they cried,
"Crucify
Him" It was then Friday morning, and probably
about ten or eleven oīclock.
They made a cross of heavy beams, and laying it upon His shoulders, forced Him
to carry it to
was not allowed to execute anyone in the city. Our Lord had not eaten anything
from Thursday evening, and then with all He suffered and the loss of blood, He
must have been very weak at eleven oīclock on Friday morning. He was weak, and
fell many times under the Cross. His suffering was increased by seeing His
Blessed Mother looking at Him. When He arrived at
garments and nailed Him to the Cross, driving the rough nails through His hands
and feet. It was then about twelve oīclock. From twelve to three in the
afternoon Our Blessed Saviour was hanging on the Cross, with a great multitude
of His enemies about Him mocking and saying cruel things. Even the two thieves
that were crucified with Him reviled Him, though one of them repented and was
pardoned before death. Our Lordīs poor Mother and His few friends stood at a
little distance witnessing all that was going on. When Our Lord was thirsty
His executioners gave Him gall to drink. At three oīclock He died, and there
was an earthquake and darkness, and the people were sorely afraid. But you will
ask, how could these soldiers be so cruel? They were
Romans; and in those days
men called gladiators used to fight with swords before the Roman Emperor and
all the people-just as actors play now for the amusement of their audience.
People who could enjoy such scenes as men slaying one another in deadly
conflict would scarcely be moved to pity by seeing a man scourged. Again, in
the early ages of the Church, during the persecutions, the Emperors used to
order the Christians to be thrown to wild beasts to be torn to pieces in the
presence of the people who applauded these horrible sights. They who could see
so many put to death would not mind putting one to death, even in the most
terrible manner.
A. Christ died on Good Friday.
"Good Friday," so called since that time.
A. We call that day good on which Christ died, because by His death He
showed His great love for man. and purchased for him
every blessing.
A. Christ died on
"
every city they have a special prison or place where all their criminals are
executed. Now, as the great
was called the City of
the Holy of Holies. The
like the body of our churches, called the Holy, and the other part, where the
Ark of the Covenant was kept, called the Holy of Holies. It had about the same
relation to the
Ark of the Covenant was a box about four feet long, two and a half feet high,
and two and a half feet wide, made of the finest wood, and ornamented with gold
in the most beautiful manner. In it were the tables of stone, on which were
written the Commandments of God; also the rod that Aaron-Mosesī brother-changed
into a serpent before King Pharaoh; also some of the manna with which the
people were miraculously fed during their forty yearsī journey in the desert
when they fled out of Egypt. All these things were figures of the true
religion. The
Holy Eucharist. The Holy of Holies was hidden from the people by a veil. Only
the Chief Priest was allowed into that sacred place, and but once a year. The
veil-called the veil of the Temple-hiding that Holy of Holies, though the
things mentioned above were no longer in it, was torn asunder when Our Lord
died on the Cross (Matt. 27:51); because after His death there was no
need any longer of figures; for after His death we have the tabernacle itself
and the real manna, the real bread from Heaven, viz., the body of Our Lord.
The veil was rent to show also that God would not remain any longer in the
of all these things, therefore, Jerusalem was called the Holy City, and no
criminals were put to death in it, but were conducted to Calvary-which means
the place of skulls-and were there put to death. I now call your attention to
one thing. If the Jews showed such great respect and reverence for the
containing only figures of the Blessed Sacrament, how should we behave in the
presence of the tabernacle on the altar containing the Blessed Sacrament
itself!
A. Christ was nailed to a cross and died on it, between two thieves.
"Two thieves," because they thought this would make His death
more
disgraceful-making Him equal to common criminals. One of these thieves, called
the penitent thief, repented of his sins and received Our Lordīs pardon before
his death. The other thief died in his sins. Holy writers tell us that one of
these thieves was saved to give poor sinners hope, and to teach them that they
may save their souls at the very last moment of their lives if only they are
heartily sorry for their sins and implore Godīs pardon for them. The other
thief remained and died impenitent, that sinners may fear to
put off their
conversion to the hour of death, thus rashly presuming on Godīs mercy.
Persons
who willfully delay their conversion and put off their repentance to the last
moment, living bad lives with the hope of dying well, may not accept the grace
to repent at the last moment, but may, like the unfortunate, impenitent thief,
die as they lived, in a state of sin.
A. Christ suffered and died for our sins.
It was not necessary for Our Lord to suffer so much, but He did it to
show how much He loved us and valued our souls, and how much He was willing to
give for them. We, alas! do not value our souls as
Christ did; we sometimes
sell them for the merest trifle-a momentīs gratification. How sinful!
A. From the sufferings and death of Christ we learn the
great evil of sin,
the hatred God bears to it, and the necessity of satisfying for it.
We learn "the great evil of sin" also from the misery it
brought
into the world; the "hatred God bears to it," from the
punishment He
inflicted on the wicked angels and on our first parents for it; and lastly, the
"necessity of satisfying for it," from the fact that God
allowed His
dear and only Son to suffer death itself for the sins even of others.
A. After Christīs death His soul descended into hell.
A. The hell into which Christīs soul descended was not the hell of the
damned, but a place or state of rest called Limbo, where the souls of the just
were waiting for Him.
Hell had many meanings in olden times. The grave was sometimes called
hell. Jacob, when he heard that wild beasts had devoured his son Joseph, said:
"I will go down with sorrow into hell." He meant the grave. Limbo is
not the
same as Purgatory. It does not exist now, or, if it does, is only for little
children who have never committed actual sin and who have died without Baptism.
They will never get into Heaven or see God, but they will not have to suffer
pains as they who are in Purgatory or Hell endure.
A. Christ descended into Limbo to preach to the souls who were in
prison-that is, to announce to them the joyful tidings of their redemption.
A. While Christīs soul was in Limbo His body was in the Holy Sepulchre.
"Sepulchre" is the same as tomb. It is like a little room. In
it the
coffin is not covered up with earth as it is in the grave, but is placed upon a
stand. We call such places vaults, and you can see many of them in any
cemetery or burying ground. Sometimes they are cut in the side of elevated
ground with their entrance level with the road, and sometimes they are built
altogether under the ground. The one in which Our Lord was placed was cut out
of the side of a rock, and had for a door a great stone against the entrance.
Our Lord was not placed in a coffin, but was wrapped in a linen cloth. It was
the custom of the Jewish people and of many other ancient nations to embalm the
bodies of the dead, wrap them in cloths, and cover them with sweet spices.
(Matt. 27:59). Thus it was that Mary Magdalene and other good women
came early in the morning to anoint the body of Our Lord. But you will say,
why did they not do it on Friday evening or night? The reason was this: The
day with the Jews began at sunset-generally about six oīclock-and ended at
sunset on the next evening. We count our twenty-four hours, or day, from
twelve at midnight till twelve the next night. Therefore, with the Jews six
oīclock on Friday evening was the beginning of Saturday. They kept Saturday,
or the Sabbath, instead of Sunday as a day of worship. On that day, which they
kept very strictly, it was not allowable to do work of any kind; so they could
not anoint Our Lordīs body till the Sabbath ended, which was about six oīclock,
or sunset on Saturday evening. So, as the Holy Scripture tells us, they came
very early in the morning; for Mary Magdalene and these good women were Jews,
and strictly observed the Jewish law. You must know that Our Lord Himself, the
Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, and the Apostles were Jews; and that the Jewish
religion was the true religion up to the coming of Our Lord; but as it was only
a figure and a promise of the Christian religion, it ceased to have any meaning
or to be the true religion when the Christian religion itself was established
by Our Lord.
A. Christ rose from the dead, glorious and immortal, on Easter Sunday, the
third day after His death.
"Rose" by His own power. This is the
greatest of all Our Lordīs
miracles, because all He taught is confirmed by it and depends upon it. A
miracle is a work that can be performed only by God, or by someone to whom He
has given the power. If anyone performs a real miracle to prove what he says,
his words must be true; for God, who is infinite truth, could not sanction a
lie-could not help an impostor to deceive us. Now Our Lord said He was the Son
of God; that He could forgive sins, etc.; and He performed miracles to prove
what He said. Therefore He must have told the truth. So all
those whom God
sent to do any great work were given the power to perform miracles that the
people might know they were really messengers from God. They, on the
other
hand, who claim-as many have done from time to time in the world-that they have
been sent by God to do some great work, and can give no convincing proof of
their mission, are not to be believed. Thus, when Martin Luther claimed
that
he was sent by God to reform the Catholic Church which had existed nearly 1,500
years before he was born-he performed no miracles, nor did he give any other
proof that he had any such commission from God; and he cannot therefore be
believed.
God has established all the laws of nature permanently. They will not vary or
change, so that we can depend upon them. We can always be sure that the sun
will rise and set; that the seasons will come; that fire will burn, etc. Now,
if we see three young men in a great fiery furnace without being burned
(Dan. 3), we say it is a great miracle; because naturally the fire would
burn them up if God did not prevent it. Again, water will not stand up like a
high wall without something keeping it back; it will always run about and fill
every empty spot near it. If, therefore, we see water standing up like a high
wall, as it did in the
Jordan, we say it is a miracle. So in all cases where the laws of nature do
not work in the ordinary manner, we say a miracle is being performed. Now Our
Lord performed many such miracles-many times He suspended the laws of
nature-which God alone can do, since He alone established them. Our Lord
called back the soul to the body after death, thus raising the dead. He healed
the sick, gave sight to the blind, cured the lame, etc., when
all medicine and
natural means were useless. He did all these things instantly as a rule,
and
without remedies. Therefore His miracles prove His divine power. Since the
resurrection was a great miracle, and Our Lord performed it to prove that He
was the true and only Son of God, He must have been just what He said He was.
"Glorious." Our Lord rose in the same body He had before His
death; but
when He rose it had new qualities-it was glorified.
The qualities of a
glorified body are four, viz.: brilliancy, agility, subtlety, and
impassability. (1) It has brilliancy; that is, it shines like a light; it
gives forth light; the soul shines through the body. You have heard of the
Transfiguration of Our Lord. One day He took three of His Apostles-Peter,
James, and John-unto a high mountain (Matt. 17); and as He was speaking
to them, suddenly His whole body began to shine like the sun. Then Moses and
Elias-two great and holy men of the Old Law-came and conversed with Him. The
Apostles were astonished and delighted at the sight, and wished to remain there
always. Our Lordīs body at that time showed one of the qualities of a
glorified body. The same three Apostles that saw Him thus transfigured and
heard the voice of the Heavenly Father saying, "This is My beloved
Son," were
present in the garden during Our Lordīs agony. He allowed them to see the
Transfiguration, so that when they should see Him suffering as man, they would
remember that they saw Him on the mountain glorified as God.
(2) Agility; that is, a glorified body can move rapidly from one place to
another, like the lightning itself. After His resurrection Our Lord was in
disciples going there. (Luke 24). They had left
Crucifixion, probably through fear, and were going along together talking about
what had happened during the days of Our Lordīs Passion. Suddenly Our Lord
came and walked and talked with them, but they did not know Him. They asked
Him to stay that night at their house, for it was growing dark. He did not
stop with them, and at supper they knew Him, and then He vanished from their
sight. An ordinary person would have to get up and walk away; but He vanished,
showing on this occasion the second quality of His glorified body-agility.
(3) Subtlety; that is, such a body can go where it pleases and cannot be
resisted by material things. It can pass through closed doors or gates, and
even walls cannot keep it out. It passes through everything, as light does
through glass without breaking it. At one time after Our Lordīs resurrection
the Apostles were gathered together in a room, for they were still afraid of
being put to death, and the doors were tightly closed. Suddenly Our Lord stood
in the midst of them and said: "Peace be to
you." (John 20:19). They
did not open the door for Him; neither wood nor stone could keep Him out: and
thus He showed that His body had the third quality.
(4) His body had the fourth quality also impassability, which means that it can
no longer suffer. Before His death, and at it, Our Lord suffered dreadful
torments, as you know; but after His resurrection nothing could injure or hurt
Him. The spear could not hurt His side, nor the nails His hands, nor the
thorns His head. Shortly after His resurrection Our Lord appeared to His
Apostles while Thomas, one of them, was absent. (John 20:24). When
Thomas returned, the other Apostles told him that they had seen the Lord risen
from the dead; but he would not believe them, saying: "Unless I see the
holes
where the nails were in His hands and feet, and put my finger into His side, I
will not believe." Now Our Lord, knowing all things, knew this also; so He
came
again when Thomas was present, and said to him: "Now, Thomas, put your
hand
into My side." Thomas cried out: "My Lord
and my God!" He believed then,
because he saw. Now if this body of Our Lordīs had been an ordinary body, it
would have caused Him pain to allow anyone to put his hand into the wound; but
it was impassable. It seems very strange, does it not,
that Thomas would not
believe what the other Apostles told him? God permitted this. Why? Because,
if they all believed easily, some enemies of Our Lord might say the Apostles
were simple men that believed everything without any proof. Now they
cannot
truly say so, because here was one of the Apostles, Thomas, who would not
believe without the very strongest kind of proof. Another person, one would
think, would have been satisfied with seeing Our Lordīs wounds; but Thomas
would not trust even his eyes-he must also touch before he would believe:
showing, therefore, that the Apostles were not deceived in anything Our Lord
did in their presence, for they had always the most convincing proofs.
After the Resurrection, at the last day, the bodies of all those who are to be
in Heaven will have the qualities I have mentioned; that is, they will be
glorified bodies.
Speaking of Our Lordīs wounds, I might tell you what the stigmata means, if you
should ever hear or read of it. There have been some persons in the
world-saints, of course who have had upon their hands, feet, and side wounds
just like those Our Lord had, and these wounds caused them great pain. For
example, St. Francis of
Up to 1883-that is, only a few years ago-there lived in
named Louise Lateau who had the stigmata. We have the most positive proof of
it, as you may see in the accounts of her life now published. Her wounds
caused her great pain and bled every Friday for many years. She was a delicate
seamstress, and lived with her mother and sisters in almost continual poverty.
She had always been remarkable for her true piety, patience in suffering, and
charity to the sick. I mention this young girl because she lived in our own
time, and is the latest person we know of who had the stigmata, or wounds of
Our Lord. So if you ever hear of the stigmata of St. Francis or others, you
will know that it means wounds like those of Our Lord impressed on their bodies
in a miraculous manner.
"Immortal"--that is never to die again, as it will be with us
also after
the Resurrection.
"The third day." It was not
three full days, but the parts of three
days. Suppose someone should ask you on Friday evening how long from now to
Sunday; you would answer: Sunday will be the third day from today. You would
count thus: Friday one, Saturday two, and Sunday itself three. So it was with
Our Lord. He died on Friday at about three in the afternoon, and remained in
the sepulchre till Sunday morning.
A. Christ stayed on earth forty days after His resurrection, to show that He
was truly risen from the dead, and to instruct His
Apostles.
After Our Lordīs resurrection He remained on earth forty days: but you
must not think He was visible all that time. No. He did not appear to
everybody, but only to certain persons, and not all the time to them either.
He appeared to His Apostles and others in all about nine times; at least, we
know for certain that He appeared nine times, though He may have appeared
oftener. He showed that "He was truly risen," for He ate with
His
Apostles and conversed with them. (Luke 24:42). It was after the
resurrection that He breathed on them and gave them the power to forgive sins.
(John 20).
A. After forty days Christ ascended into Heaven,
and the day on which He
ascended into Heaven is called Ascension Day.
One day He was on a mountain with His Apostles and disciples; and as He
was talking to them He began to rise up slowly and quietly, just as you have
sometimes seen a balloon soar up into the air without noise. Higher and higher
He ascended; and as they gazed up at Him, the clouds opened to receive Him,
then closed under Him: and that was the last of Our Lordīs mission as man upon
earth. The Ascension took place forty days after the resurrection. (Acts
1).
A. In Heaven Christ sits at the right hand of God the Father
Almighty.
A. When I say that Christ sits at the right hand of God, I mean that Christ
as God is equal to His Father in all things, and that as man He is in the
highest place in Heaven next to God.
A. The Holy Ghost is the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity.
A. The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son.
A. The Holy Ghost is equal to the Father and the
Son, being the same Lord
and God as they are.
A. The Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles ten days after the Ascension
of Our Lord; and the day on which He came down upon the Apostles is called
Whit-Sunday or Pentecost.
We have seen already that the Apostles fled and were very much afraid
when Our Lord was taken prisoner. Even Peter, the chief of the Apostles, who
said he would die rather than leave Our Lord, shamefully denied Him; and
John
Our Lordīs enemies. After the Crucifixion of Our Lord, the Apostles, afraid of
being put to death, shut themselves up in a room. Ten days after Our Lordīs
Ascension they were praying as usual in their room, when suddenly they heard
the sound as it were of a great wind, and then they saw tongues the shape of
our own, but all on fire, coming, and one tongue resting on the head of each
Apostle present. (Acts 2).
This was the Holy Ghost coming to them. The Holy Ghost, being a pure spirit
without a body, can take any form He pleases. He sometimes came in the form of
a dove; so when you see a dove painted in a church near the altar, it is there
to represent the Holy Ghost. You could not paint a spirit, so angels and God
Himself are generally represented in pictures as they at some time appeared to
men.
"Whit-Sunday," or White-Sunday; probably so called because in
the early
ages of the Church converts were baptized on the day before, and after their
Baptism wore white robes or garments as a mark of the soulīs purity after
Baptism.
"Pentecost" means the fiftieth day, because the feast comes
fifty days
after the resurrection of Our Lord. After His resurrection He remained forty
days upon earth, and ten days after He ascended into Heaven the Holy Ghost
came, thus making the fifty days.
After the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles they were no longer timid men.
They went forth boldly into the streets and preached Christ crucified, telling
the people how the Son of God -- the true Messias promised -- had been put to
death. Many who heard them believed and were baptized. The first time St.
Peter preached to the people three thousand were converted (Acts 2:41);
so that when all the Apostles preached the number of Christians increased
rapidly, and the Christian religion was soon carried to distant parts of the
world.
At the time Our Lord was put to death the Jews were celebrating a great feast
in
churches, and in all of them sacrifice, that is, the Holy Mass, is offered.
The Jews had only one temple where sacrifice could be offered, and that was in
they assembled to pray and hear the Holy Scriptures read; but they could not
offer sacrifice in them. Three times a year they went to
celebrate their great feasts. One of these feasts was called the Pasch, or
Passover, and it was during the celebration of that feast that Our Lord was put
to death; so that there were many persons from all parts of the nation present
at the sad execution. I must now tell you why they celebrated the Pasch. We
generally celebrate a feast to commemorate -- to remind us of -- some great
event; and the Jews celebrated this feast to remind them of their deliverance
from the slavery of the Egyptians, in which their ancestors had been suffering
for about two hundred years. At the end of that time God sent Moses to deliver
them. You should know, then, who Moses was and what he did to deliver his
people, and you should know also something of the
history of his people -- the
Israelites -- and how they came to be in
At the time I am now going to speak of the old patriarch Jacob, Abrahamīs
grandson, had eleven sons -- for Benjamin, the twelfth son, was born afterwards
-- and the youngest was called Joseph. Joseph was the favorite of his father,
and his brothers were jealous of him. The brothers were shepherds, and used to
take their flocks to feed at a great distance from home, and did not return for
a long time. One day the father sent Joseph to his brothers to see if all were
well. They hated Joseph because his father loved him best; and when they saw
him coming they agreed never to let him return to his father. (Gen. 37). They
intended to kill him. While they were debating about how they should put him
to death -- he was then only sixteen years old -- some merchants passed on
their way to
merchants. Then they took Josephīs coat and dipped it in the blood of a kid,
and sent it to their poor old father, saying they had found it, and making him
believe that some wild beast on the way had eaten Joseph. When the merchants
arrived in
brought him as a slave to his own house. While there, Joseph was falsely
accused of a great crime, and cast into prison. While Joseph
was in prison the
king had a dream. (Gen. 41). He saw in the
dream seven fat cows coming up out
of a river, followed by seven lean cows; and the lean cows ate up the fat cows.
He saw also seven fat ears of corn and seven lean ears of corn; and the seven
lean ears ate up the seven fat ears. The king was very much troubled, and
called together all his wise men to tell him what the dream meant, but they
could not. Then the king heard of Joseph, and sent for him. Now Joseph was a
very good young man, and God showed him the meaning; so he told the king that
the seven fat ears of corn and the seven fat cows meant seven years of great
abundance in Egypt, and that the seven lean ears and the seven lean cows meant
seven years of famine that would follow, and all the abundance of the previous
seven years would be consumed. So he advised the king to build great barns
during the years of plenty, and gather up all the corn everywhere to save it
for the years of famine. The king was delighted at Josephīs wisdom, and made
him after himself the most powerful in the kingdom, giving him charge of
everything, so that Joseph himself might do what he had advised. Now it
happened years after this that there was a famine in the country where Josephīs
father lived, and he sent all his sons down into
42). They did not know their brother Joseph, but he knew them; and
after
forgiving them for what they had done to him, he sent them home with an
abundance of corn. Afterwards Josephīs father and brothers left their own
country and came to live near Joseph in
(Gen. 47), and they lived there in peace and happiness. Learn from this
beautiful history of Joseph how God protects those that love and serve Him no
matter where they are or in what danger they may be placed; and how He even
turns the evil deeds of their enemies into blessings for them.
After the death of Joseph and his brothers, their descendants became very
numerous, and the new king of the Egyptians began to persecute them. (Ex.
2). He imposed upon them the hardest works, and treated them most
cruelly.
He ordered that all their male infants should, as soon as born, be thrown into
the River Nile. Now about that time Moses was born. (Ex. 2).
His
mother did not obey the kingīs order, but hid him for about three months. When
she could conceal him no longer she made a little cradle of rushes, and
covering it over with pitch or tar to keep out the water, placed him in it, and
then laid it in the tall grass by the edge of the river, sending his little
sister to watch what would become of him. Just then the kingīs daughter came
down to bathe, and seeing the little child, ordered one of her servants to
bring him to her. At that moment Mosesī little sister, pretending not to know
him, ran up and asked the kingīs daughter if she wished to procure a nurse for
him. The kingīs daughter replied in the affirmative and permitted her to bring
one; so Mosesī own mother was brought and engaged to be his nurse: but he was
not known as her son, but as the adopted son of the kingīs daughter. When
Moses grew up he was an officer in the kingīs army; but because he took the
part of his persecuted countrymen he offended the king, and had to fly from the
palace. He then went into another country and became a shepherd.
During all this time the persecuted Israelites were praying to the true God to
be delivered from the slavery of the Egyptians, who were idolaters. One day
Moses saw a bush burning; and as he came near to look at it, he heard a voice
telling him not to come too near, and bidding him take off his shoes, for he
was on holy ground. (Ex. 3). It was God who thus appeared and spoke to him,
and He ordered him to take off his shoes as a mark of respect and reverence.
When we want to show our respect for any person or place, we take off our hats;
but the people of that country, instead of their hats, took off their shoes.
It was the custom of the country and did not seem strange to them.
Then God told Moses that He was going to send him to deliver His people from
the Egyptians and lead them back to their own country; and He sent Aaron, the
brother of Moses, with him. Then Moses said to God, the king of Egypt will not
let the people go, and what can I do? God gave Moses two signs or miracles to
show the king, so that he could know that Moses was really sent by Him. He
gave him power to change a rod into a serpent, and back again into a rod; power
also to bring a disease instantly upon his hand, and to heal it instantly. (Ex.
4). Do these, said Almighty God, in the presence of the king. Then Moses and
Aaron went to the king and did as God commanded them; and when the rod of Aaron
became a serpent, the kingīs magicians -- that is, men who do apparently
wonderful things by sleight of hand or the power of the devil -- cast their
rods upon the ground, and they also became serpents -- not that their rods were
changed into serpents, but the devil, who was helping them, took away instantly
their rods and put real serpents in their place -- but Aaronīs serpent
swallowed them up. (Ex. 7). After these signs the king would not let
the people go with Moses; for God permitted the kingīs heart to be hardened, so
that all the Egyptians might see the great work God was going to do for His
people.
Then God sent the ten plagues upon the Egyptians, while the Israelites -- Godīs
people -- suffered nothing from these plagues.
The first plague was blood. All the water in the land was converted
into blood. (Ex. 7). The king then sent for Moses and promised that if
he would take away the plague he would allow all the people to depart. Moses
prayed to God, and the plague was removed. But after it was taken away the
kingīs heart was hardened again and he would not keep his promise. Just as
people in sickness, distress, or danger sometimes promise God they will lead
better lives if only He will help them, and when they are saved they do not
keep their promises, so did Pharao; and therefore God sent another plague. The
second plague was frogs. Great numbers of them came out of the rivers
and lakes, and filled all the houses of the Egyptians, and crawled into their
food, beds, etc. Again the king sent for Moses and did as before; and again
Moses prayed, and all the frogs went back into the waters or died. (Ex. 8).
But the king again hardened his heart and did not keep his promise. The
third plague was sciniphs (Ex. 8) -- very small flies, that filled the
land. Imagine our country filled with mosquitoes so numerous that you could
scarcely walk through them; it would be a dreadful plague. As it is, two or
three might cause you considerable annoyance, and pain: what then if there were
millions doubly venomous, because sent to punish you? So these little flies
must have greatly punished the Egyptians. The fourth plague was flies
that filled the land and covered everything, to the great disgust of the
people. The fifth plague was murrain -- a disease that broke out among
the cattle. The sixth plague was a disease -- boils -- that broke out
on men and beasts, so that scarcely anyone could move on account of the pains
and suffering. The seventh plague was hail, that fell in large pieces
and destroyed all their crops. The eighth plague was locusts. These are
very destructive little animals. They look something like our grasshoppers,
but are about two or three times their size. They fly and come in millions.
They come to this country in great numbers -- almost a plague -- every fifteen
or twenty-five years, and the farmers fear them very much. They eat up every
green blade or leaf, and thus destroy all the crops and trees. When the
locusts came upon Egypt, Moses, at the kingīs request, prayed, and God sent a
strong wind that swept them into the sea, where they perished in the water.
The ninth plague was a horrible darkness for three days in all the land
of Egypt. The tenth plague, the last, was the most terrible of all --
the killing of the firstborn in all the land of Egypt. (Ex. 12). God
instructed Moses to tell the Israelites in the land that on a certain night
they were to take a lamb in each family, kill it, and sprinkle its blood on the
doorposts of their houses. They were then to cook the lamb and eat it
standing, with their garments ready as for a journey. (Ex. 12). The lamb was
called the paschal lamb, and was, after that, to be eaten every year, at about
what is with us Easter-time, in commemoration of this event. That night God
sent an angel through all the land, and he killed the firstborn of man and
beast in all the houses of the Egyptians. That is, he killed the eldest son in
the house; and if the father was the firstborn in his fatherīs family, he was
killed also; and the same for the beasts. This was a terrible punishment. In
the house of every Egyptian there were some dead but not one in the houses of
the Israelites; for when the angel saw the blood of the lamb on the doorposts,
he passed over and did not enter into their houses, so that this event, called
Passover or Pasch, was kept always as a great feast by Godīs people. This
paschal lamb was a figure of our blessed Lord, for as its blood saved the
Israelites from death, so Our Lordīs blood saved and still saves us from
eternal death in Hell.
After that dreadful night Pharao allowed the people to depart with Moses; but
when they had gone as far as the Red Sea, he was sorry he let them go, and set
out with a great army to bring them back. There the people stood, with the sea
before them and Pharao and his army coming behind them; but God provided for
them a means of escape. At Godīs command, Moses stretched his rod over the
sea, and the waters divided and stood like great walls on either side and all
the people passed through the opening in the waters, on the dry bed of the sea.
(Ex. 14).
Pharao attempted to follow them, but when he and his army were on the dry bed
of the sea, between the two walls of water, God allowed the waters to close
over them, and they were all drowned. Then the Israelites began the great
journey through the desert, in which they travelled for forty years. During
all that time God fed them with manna. He Himself, as a guide, went with them
in a cloud, that shaded them from the heat of the sun during the day and was a
light for them at night. But you will ask: Was the desert so large that it
took forty years to cross it? No, but these people, notwithstanding all God
had done for them, sinned against Him in the desert; so He permitted them to
wander about through it till a new generation of people grew up, who were to be
led into the promised land by Josue, the successor of Moses. From this we may
learn a lesson for ourselves: God will always punish those who deserve it, even
though He loves them and may often have done great things to save them; but He
will wait for His own time to punish.
The Israelites then, as I have said, went from every part of the land up to the
Temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the Pasch each year. It was during one of
these celebrations that Our Lord was put to death, and during another feast
that St. Peter preached to the people after Our Lordīs death. He spoke only in
one language, and yet all his hearers understood, for each heard his own
language spoken. (Acts 2:6). This was called the gift of tongues, and
was given to the Apostles when the Holy Ghost came upon them. For example, if
each of you came from a different country and understood the language only of
the country from which you came, and I gave the instructions only in English,
then if everyone thought I was speaking his language -- German, French,
Spanish, Italian, etc -- and understood me, I would have what is called the
gift of tongues, and it would be a great miracle, as it was when bestowed upon
the Apostles.
In the first ages of the Church God performed more miracles than He does now,
because they are not now so necessary. These miracles were performed only to
make the Church better known, and to prove that she was the true Church, with
her power and authority from God. That can now be known and seen in Christian
countries without miracles. These special gifts, like the gift of tongues,
were given also to some of the early Christians by the Holy Ghost, when they
received Confirmation; but they were not a part of or necessary for
Confirmation, but only to show the power of the true religion. Those who heard
St. Peter preach, when they went back to their own countries told what they had
seen and heard, and thus their countrymen were prepared to receive the Gospel
when the Apostles came to preach it.
A. The Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles in the form of tongues of
fire.
A. Our Lord Jesus Christ sent the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles.
A. Christ sent the Holy Ghost to sanctify His Church, to enlighten and
strengthen the Apostles, and to enable them to preach the Gospel.
"Sanctify," to make more holy by the grace which He would give
to the
members of the Church. "To enlighten." The Apostles did not
understand
very well everything Our Lord taught while He was with them; but after the Holy
Ghost came upon them they understood perfectly, and remembered many things
which Our Lord said to them, and understood the true meaning of all. The
prophets foretold that when the Messias, Christ, would come, He would bring all
the world under His power. The prophets meant in a spiritual sense; but most
of the people understood that He was to be a great general, with powerful
armies, who would subdue all the nations of the earth, and bring them under the
authority of the Jews. We know they thought that the great kingdom He was to
establish upon earth would be a temporal kingdom, from many of their sayings
and actions. One day the mother of two of Our Lordīs Apostles came to ask Him
if, when He had established His kingdom upon the earth, He would give her sons
honorable positions in it, and place them high in authority. (Matt. 20:20).
Our Lord told her she did not understand what she was asking. This shows
that even some of the Apostles -- much less the people -- did not understand
the full nature of Our Lordīs mission upon earth, nor of His kingdom, the
Church. Often too, when He preached to the people, the Apostles asked Him on
His return what His sermon meant (Luke 8:9). But after the Holy Ghost
came, they were enlightened, and understood all without difficulty.
"Strengthen." I told you already that before the Holy Ghost
came they
were timid and afraid of being arrested, but that afterwards they went out
boldly, and taught all they had learned from Our Lord. They were often taken
prisoners and scourged, but it mattered not -- they were firm in their faith,
and could suffer anything for Christ after they had been enlightened and
strengthened by the Holy Ghost. Finally, they were all, with the exception of
St. John, put to death for their holy faith. St. Peter and St. Paul were
crucified at Rome about the year 65, that is, about thirty-two years after the
death of Our Lord. St. James was beheaded by order of King Herod. St. John
lived the longest, and was the only one of the Apostles who was not put to
death, though he was cast into a large vessel of boiling oil, but was
miraculously saved.
Certainly by dying for their faith the Apostles showed that they were not
impostors or hypocrites. They must really have believed what they taught,
otherwise they would not have laid down their lives for it. They were certain
of what they taught, as we saw when speaking of St. Thomas.
A. The Holy Ghost will abide with the Church forever, and guide it in the
way of holiness and truth.
"Abide" means to stay with us.
A. The chief effects of the redemption are two: the satisfaction of Godīs
justice by Christīs sufferings and death, and the gaining of grace for men.
An effect is that which is caused by something else. If you place a
danger signal on a broken railroad track the effect will be preventing the
wreck of the train, and the cause will be your placing the signal. Many
effects may flow from one cause. In our example, see all the good effects that
may follow your placing the signal -- the cars are not broken, the passengers
are not killed, the rails are not torn out of their places, etc. Thus the
redemption had two effects, namely, to satisfy God for the offense offered Him
by the sins of men, and to merit grace to be used for our benefit.
A. By grace I mean a supernatural gift of God bestowed on us, through the
merits of Jesus Christ, for our salvation.
"Supernatural," that is, above nature. "A gift"; something,
therefore, that God does not owe us. He owes us nothing, strictly speaking.
Health, talents, and such things are natural gifts, and belong to our nature as
men; but grace is something above our nature, given to our soul. God gives it
to us on account of the love He has for His Son, Our Lord, who merited it for
us by dying for us. "Merits." A merit is some excellence or
goodness
which entitles one to honor or reward. Grace is a help we get to do something
that will be pleasing to God. When there is anything in our daily works that
we cannot do alone, we naturally look for help; for example, to lift some heavy
weight is only a natural act, not a supernatural act, and the help we need for
it is only natural help. But if we are going to do something above and beyond
our nature, and cannot do it alone, we must not look for natural, but for
supernatural help; that is, the help must always be like the work to be done.
Therefore all spiritual works need spiritual help, and spiritual help is grace.
A. There are two kinds of grace: sanctifying grace and actual grace.
A. Sanctifying grace is that grace which makes the soul holy and pleasing to
God.
"Sanctifying," that is, making us holy by cleansing, purifying
our
souls. Sin renders the soul ugly and displeasing to God, and grace purifies
it. Suppose I have something bright and beautiful given to me, and take no
care of it, but let it lie around in dusty places until it becomes tarnished
and soiled, loses all its beauty, and appears black and ugly. To restore its
beauty I must clean and polish it. Thus the soul blackened by sin must be
cleaned by Godīs grace. If the soul is in mortal sin -- altogether blackened
-- then sanctifying grace brings back its brightness and makes it pleasing to
God; but if the soul is already bright, though stained or darkened a little by
venial sin, then grace makes it still brighter.
A. Those graces or gifts of God by which we believe in Him, and hope in Him,
and love Him, are called the divine virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
"Virtues." Virtue is the habit of doing good. The opposite to
virtue
is vice, which is the habit of doing evil. We acquire a habit bad or good when
we do the same thing very frequently. We then do it easily and almost without
thinking; as a man, for instance, who has the habit of cursing curses almost
without knowing it, though that does not excuse him, but makes his case worse,
by showing that he must have cursed very often to acquire the habit. If,
however, he is striving to overcome the bad habit, and should unintentionally
curse now and then, it would not be a sin, since he did not wish to curse, and
was trying to overcome the vice. One act does not make a virtue or a vice. A
person who gives alms only once cannot be said to have the virtue of charity.
A man who curses only once a year cannot be said to have the vice of cursing.
Faith, hope, and charity are infused by God into our souls, and are therefore
called infused virtues, to distinguish them from the virtues we acquire.
A. Faith is a divine virtue by which we firmly believe the truths which God
has revealed.
"A divine virtue" is one that is heavenly or holy. Faith is
the habit
of always believing all that God has revealed and the Church teaches.
"Firmly," that is, without the slightest doubt. "Revealed,"
that
is, made known to us. Revelation is the collection of all the truths that God
has made known to us. But why do we believe? Because we clearly see and know
the truth of what is revealed? No, but because God reveals it; we believe it
though we cannot see it or even understand it. If we see it plainly, then we
believe it rather because we see it than because God makes it known to us.
Suppose a friend should come and tell you the church is on fire. If he never
told you lies, and had no reason for telling you any now, you would believe him
-- not because you know of the fire, but because he tells you; but afterwards,
when you see the church or read of the fire in the papers, you have proof of
what he told you, but you believed it just as firmly when he told you as you do
afterwards. In the same way God tells us His great truths and we believe them;
because we know that since God is infinitely true He cannot deceive us or be
deceived. But if afterwards by studying and thinking we find proof that God
told us the truth, we do not believe with any greater faith, for we always
believed without doubting, and we study chiefly that we may have arguments to
prove the truth of Godīs revelations to others who do not believe. Suppose
some person was present when your friend came and said the church is burning,
and that that person would not believe your friend. What would you do? Why,
convince him that what your friend said was true by showing him the account of
the fire in the papers. Thus learning does not change our faith, which, as I
have said, is not acquired by study, but is infused into our souls by God. The
little boy who hears what God taught, and believes it firmly because God taught
it, has as good a faith as his teacher who has studied all the reasons why he
should believe.
A. Hope is a divine virtue by which we firmly trust that God will give us
eternal life and the means to obtain it.
"Eternal," that is, everlastings life -- life without end. "Means,"
that is, His grace, because without Godīs grace we cannot do any
supernatural thing.
A. Charity is a divine virtue by which we love God above all things for His
own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
The virtue of charity makes us "love God," because He is so
good
and beautiful, wise and powerful in Himself; therefore for His own sake and
without any other consideration. "Above all things," in such a
way that
we would rather lose anything than offend Him. But someone may say, he thinks
he loves his parents more than God. Well, let us see. To repeat an example
already given, suppose his parents told him to steal, and he knew stealing to
be a sin; if he would not steal, that would show, would it not, that he loved
God more than his parents, for he would rather offend his parents than God.
That is the kind of love we must have for God; not mere feeling, but the firm
belief that God is the best of all, and when we have to choose between
offending God and losing something, be it goods or friends, we would rather
lose anything than offend God.
"Neighbor." Not merely the person living near us, but all men
of every
kind and nation -- even our enemies. The people who lived at the time of Our
Lord in His country used to dispute about just what persons were to be
considered their neighbors; so one day they asked Our Lord, and He answered
them by telling them the following. Said He: (Luke 10:30) A man was
once going down from Jerusalem, and on the way robbers beat him, robbed him,
and left him on the wayside dying. First one man came by, looked at the
wounded man, and passed on; then another came and did the same; finally a third
man came, who was of a different religion and nationality from the wounded man.
But he did not consider these things. He dressed the poor manīs wounds, placed
him upon his horse and brought him to an inn or hotel, and paid the innkeeper
to take care of him. "Now," said Our Lord, "which of these three
was neighbor
to the wounded man?" And they answered rightly, "The man that helped
him." Our
Lord, by this example, wished to teach them and us that everybody is our
neighbor who is in distress of any kind and needs our help. Neighbor,
therefore, means every human being, no matter where he lives or what his color,
learning, manners, etc., for every human being in the world is a child of God
and has been redeemed by Our Lord. Therefore every child of God is my
neighbor, and even more -- he is my brother; for God is his father and mine
also, and if he is good enough for God to love, he should be good enough for
me.
"As ourselves." Not with as much love, but with the same kind
of love;
that is, we are to follow the rule laid down by Our Lord: "Do unto others
as
you would have others do unto you." Never do to anyone what you would not
like
to have done to yourself; and always do for another just what you would wish
another to do for you, if you were in the same position. Our neighbor is our
equal and gifted with all the gifts that we ourselves have. When we come into
the world we are all equal. We have a body and a soul, with the power to
develop them. Money, learning, wealth, fame, and all else that makes up the
difference between men in the world are acquired in the world; and when men
die, they go out of the world without any of these things, just as they came
into it. The real difference between them in the next world will depend upon
the things they have done, good or bad, while here. We should love our
neighbor also on another account: namely, that he is one day to be in Heaven
with us; and if he is to be with us for all eternity, why should we hate him
now? On the other hand, if our neighbor is to be in Hell on account of his bad
life, why should we hate him? We should rather pity him, for he will have
enough to suffer without our hatred.
A. Actual grace is that help of God which enlightens our mind and moves our
will to shun evil and do good.
"Actual." Sanctifying grace continues with us, but when grace
is given
just so that we may do a good act or avoid a bad one, it is called actual
grace. Suppose, for example, I see a poor man and am able to aid him. When my
conscience tells me to give him assistance, I am just then receiving an actual
grace, which moves me and helps me to do that good act; and just as soon as I
give the help, the actual grace ceases, because no longer needed. It was given
for that one good act, and now that the act is done, the actual grace has
produced its effect. Again, a boy is going to Mass on Sunday and meets other
boys who try to persuade him to remain away from Mass and go to some other
place. When he hears his conscience telling him to go to Mass by all means, he
is receiving just then an actual grace to avoid the mortal sin of missing Mass,
and the grace lasts just as long as the temptation. Sacramental grace is
sanctifying grace -- given in the Sacraments -- which contains for us a right
to actual graces when we need them. These actual graces are given to help us
to fulfill the end for which each of the Sacraments was instituted. They are
different for each Sacrament, and are given just when we need them; that is,
just when we are tempted against the object or end for which the Sacrament was
instituted.
A. Grace is necessary for salvation, because without grace we can do nothing
to merit Heaven.
A. We can and unfortunately often do resist the grace of God.
Grace is a gift, and no one is obliged to take a gift; but if God offers
a gift and we refuse to take it, we offend and insult Him. To insult God is to
sin. Therefore to refuse to accept, or to make bad use of the grace God gives
us, is to sin.
A. The grace of perseverance is a particular gift of God which enables us to
continue in the state of grace till death.
"Perseverance" here does not mean perseverance in our
undertakings, but
perseverance in grace -- never in mortal sin, always a friend of God. Now, if
God keeps us from all sin till the day of our death and takes us while we are
His friends, then He gives us what we call the gift of final perseverance. We
cannot, strictly speaking, merit this great grace, but only pray for it; so
anyone who commits mortal sin may be taken just in that state and be lost for
all eternity.
A. The means instituted by Our lord to enable men at all times to share in
the fruits of the Redemption are the Church and the Sacraments.
Our Lord instituted the Church to carry on the work He Himself was doing
upon the earth -- teaching the ignorant, visiting the sick, helping the poor,
forgiving sins, etc. He commanded all men to hear the Church teaching, just as
they would hear Himself. But suppose some persons should establish a false
Church and claim that it was the true Church of Our Lord, how could people know
the true Church from false churches? When a man invents anything to be sold,
what does he do that people may know the true article -- say a pen? Why, he
puts his trademark upon it. Now the trademark is a certain sign which shows
that the article bearing it is the genuine article; and if others use the
trademark on imitation articles, they are liable to be punished by law. Now
Our Lord did the same. He gave His Church four marks or characteristics to
distinguish it from all false churches. He said, "My Church will be one;
it
will be holy; it will be catholic; it will be apostolic; and if any church has
not these four marks, you may be sure it is not My Church." Some false
church
may seem to have one or two, but never all the marks; so when you find even one
of the marks wanting, you will know it is not the true Church established by
Christ. Therefore, all the religions that claim to be the true religion cannot
be so. If one man says a thing is white and another says it is black, or if one
says a thing is true and another says it is false, they cannot both be right.
Only one can be right, and if we wish to know the truth we have to find out
which one it is. So when one religion says a thing is true and another
religion says the same thing is false, one of them must be wrong, and it is our
duty to find out the one that is right. Therefore, of all the religions
claiming to be the true religion of Our Lord, only one can be telling the
truth, and that one is the religion or Church that can show the four given
marks. The Roman Catholic Church is the only one that can show these marks,
and is, therefore, the only true Church, as we shall see in the next lesson.
"Fruits of His redemption," that is, to receive the grace
merited by Our
Lord when He redeemed us by His death.
A. The Church is the congregation of all those who profess the faith of
Christ, partake of the same Sacraments, and are governed by their lawful
pastors under one visible head.
"Congregation." Not the building, therefore; because if Mass
was
offered up in an open field, with the people kneeling about, it would still be
the church of that place. The buildings that we use for churches might have
been used for anything else -- a public hall, theater, or school, for example;
but when these buildings we call churches are blessed or consecrated, they
become holy. They are holy also because the Gospel is preached in them, the
Sacraments are administered in them, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is
offered in them. But they are holy especially because Our Lord dwells in them
in the tabernacle, where He lives and sees and hears just as truly as He did
when He was man upon earth.
In the early ages the Christians had no churches -- they met secretly in
private houses. Later, when the cruel pagan emperors began to persecute and
put to death the Christians, they made large tunnels under ground and in these
places they heard Mass and received the Sacraments. These underground churches
were called the catacombs, and some of them may still be seen at Rome. In
these catacombs, too, the Christians buried their dead, especially the bodies
of the holy martyrs. On their tombs -- generally of stone -- Mass was
celebrated.
In every altar the table, or flat part on which the priest celebrates Mass,
should be of stone; but if the altar is made of wood, then at least the part
just in front of the tabernacle must be of stone and large enough to hold say
two chalices -- that is, about ten or twelve inches square. In this stone are
placed some relics of the holy martyrs. A piece is cut out of the stone and
the relic placed in the opening. Then the bishop puts the little piece of
stone back into its place over the relic, seals the opening, blesses the stone,
and gives it to the Church. This is called the altar stone. You cannot see it
because it is covered with the altar cloth; but unless it is in the altar the
priest cannot say Mass. This stone reminds us of the stone tombs of the saints
upon which Mass was celebrated.
The Church -- that is, the Christians -- was persecuted for about three hundred
years after the death of Our Lord. These persecutions took place at ten
different times and under ten different Roman emperors. Orders were given to
put to death all the Christians wherever they could be found. Some were cast
into prison, some exiled, some taken to the Roman Coliseum -- an immense
building constructed for public amusements -- where they were put to death in
the most terrible manner in the presence of the emperor and people assembled to
witness these fearful scenes. Some were stripped of their clothing and left
standing alone while savage beasts, wild with hunger, were let loose upon them.
Sometimes by a miracle of God the animals would not harm them, and then the
Christians were either put to death by the sword, mangled by some terrible
machine, or burned. In these dreadful sufferings the Christians remained
faithful and firm, though they could have saved their lives by denying Our Lord
or offering sacrifice to idols. The few who through fear did deny their faith
are now forgotten and unknown; while those who remained steadfast are honored
as saints in Heaven and upon earth; the Church sings their praises and tells
every year of their holy lives and triumph over all their enemies.
Even some pagans who came to see the Christians put to death were so touched by
their patience, fortitude, courage, and constancy, that they also declared
themselves anxious to become Christians, and were put to death, thus becoming
martyrs baptized in their own blood. How many lessons we may learn from all
this:
Our churches are never very far from us, and generally well lighted,
ventilated, furnished with seats and every convenience, and in these respects
unlike the dark, damp, underground churches of the early Christians. Moreover,
we may attend our churches freely and without the least danger to our lives;
while the Christians of the early ages were constantly in dread and danger of
being seized and put to death. Even at the present day, in many countries
where holy missionaries are trying to teach the true religion, their converts
sometimes have to go great distances to hear Mass, and even then it is not
celebrated in comfortable churches, but probably on the slope of a rugged
mountain or in some lonely valley or wood where they may not be seen, for they
fear if they are captured -- as often happens -- both they and their priest
will be put to death. You can read in the account of foreign missions that
almost every year some priests and many people are martyred for their faith.
Is it not disgraceful, then, to see some Catholics giving up their holy faith
and the practice of their religion so easily -- sometimes for a little money,
property, or gain; or even for a bad habit, or for irreligious companions and
friends? What answer will they make on the day of judgment when they stand
side by side with those who died for the faith?
"All those who profess the faith," etc. The Pope, bishops,
priests, and
people all taken together are the Church, and each congregation or parish is
only a part of the Church.
"Partake," that is, receive. "Lawful pastors,"
that is, each
priest in his own parish, each bishop in his own diocese, and the Pope
throughout the world. "Visible head," that is, one who can be
seen, for
invisible means cannot be seen.
A. Jesus Christ is the invisible head of the Church.
"Invisible head." If, for example, a merchant of one country
wishes to
establish a branch of his business in another, he remains in the new country
long enough to establish the branch business, and then appointing someone to
take his place, returns to his own country. He is still the head of the new
establishment, but its invisible head for the people of that country, while its
visible head is the agent or representative he has placed in charge to carry on
the business in his name and interest. When Our Lord wished to establish His
Church He came from Heaven; and when about to return to Heaven appointed St.
Peter to take His place upon earth and rule the Church as directed. You see,
therefore, that Our Lord, though not on earth, is still the real head and owner
of the Church, and whatever His agent or vicar -- that is, our Holy Father, the
Pope -- does in the Church, he does it with the authority of Our Lord Himself.
A. Our Holy Father the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, is the vicar of Christ on
earth and the visible head of the Church.
The "Bishop of Rome" is always Pope. If the Bishop of New
York,
or of Baltimore, or of Boston, became Pope, he would become the Bishop of Rome
and cease to be the Bishop of New York, Baltimore, or Boston, because St.
Peter, the first Pope, was Bishop of Rome; and therefore only the bishops of
Rome are his lawful successors -- the true Popes -- the true visible heads of
the Church. The bishops of the other dioceses of the world are the lawful
successors of the other Apostles who taught and established churches throughout
the world. The bishops of the world are subject to the Pope, just as the other
Apostles were subject to St. Peter, who was appointed their chief, by Our Lord
Himself.
"Vicar," that is, one who holds anotherīs place and acts in
his name.
A. The Pope, the Bishop of Rome, is the visible head of the Church because
he is the successor of St. Peter, whom Christ made the chief of the Apostles
and the visible head of the Church.
"Of Rome." That is why we are called Roman Catholics; to show
that we
are united to the real successor of St. Peter, and are therefore members of the
true apostolic Church.
A. The successors of the other Apostles are the bishops of the holy Catholic
Church.
We know the Apostles were bishops, because they could make laws for the
Church, consecrate other bishops, ordain priests, and give Confirmation --
powers that belong only to bishops, and are still exercised by them.
A. Christ founded the Church to teach, govern, sanctify, and save all
men.
"Teach" religion. "Govern" in things that
regard salvation.
"Sanctify," make good. "Save" all who wish to
be saved.
A. All are bound to belong to the Church, and he who knows the Church to be
the true Church and remains out of it, cannot be saved.
Anyone who knows the Catholic religion to be the true religion and will
not embrace it cannot enter into Heaven. If one not a Catholic doubts whether
the church to which he belongs is the true Church, he must settle his doubt,
seek the true Church, and enter it; for if he continues to live in doubt, he
becomes like the one who knows the true Church and is deterred by worldly
considerations from entering it.
In like manner one who, doubting, fears to examine the religion he professes
lest he should discover its falsity and be convinced of the truth of the
Catholic faith, cannot be saved.
Suppose, however, that there is a non-Catholic who firmly believes that the
church to which he belongs is the true Church, and who has never -- even in the
past -- had the slightest doubt of that fact -- what will become of him?
If he was validly baptized and never committed a mortal sin, he will be saved;
because, believing himself a member of the true Church, he was doing all he
could to serve God according to his knowledge and the dictates of his
conscience. But if ever he committed a mortal sin, his salvation would be very
much more difficult. A mortal sin once committed remains on the soul till it
is forgiven. Now, how could his mortal sin be forgiven? Not in the Sacrament
of Penance, for the Protestant does not go to confession; and if he does, his
minister -- not being a true priest -- has no power to forgive sins. Does he
know that without confession it requires an act of perfect contrition to blot
out mortal sin, and can he easily make such an act? What we call contrition is
often only imperfect contrition -- that is, sorrow for our sins because we fear
their punishment in Hell or dread the loss of Heaven. If a Catholic -- with
all the instruction he has received about how to make an act of perfect
contrition and all the practice he has had in making such acts -- might find it
difficult to make an act of perfect contrition after having committed a mortal
sin, how much difficulty will not a Protestant have in making an act of perfect
contrition, who does not know about this requirement and who has not been
taught to make continued acts of perfect contrition all his life. It is to be
feared either he would not know of this necessary means of regaining Godīs
friendship, or he would be unable to elicit the necessary act of perfect
contrition, and thus the mortal sin would remain upon his soul and he would die
an enemy of God.
If, then, we found a Protestant who never committed a mortal sin after Baptism,
and who never had the slightest doubt about the truth of his religion, that
person would be saved; because, being baptized, he is a member of the Church,
and being free from mortal sin he is a friend of God and could not in justice
be condemned to Hell. Such a person would attend Mass and receive the
Sacraments if he knew the Catholic Church to be the only true Church.
I am giving you an example, however, that is rarely found, except in the case
of infants or very small children baptized in Protestant sects. All infants
rightly baptized by anyone are really children of the Church, no matter what
religion their parents may profess. Indeed, all persons who are baptized are
children of the Church; but those among them who deny its teaching, reject its
Sacraments, and refuse to submit to its lawful pastors, are rebellious children
known as heretics.
I said I gave you an example that can scarcely be found, namely, of a person
not a Catholic, who really never doubted the truth of his religion, and who,
moreover, never committed during his whole life a mortal sin. There are so few
such persons that we can practically say for all those who are not visibly
members of the Catholic Church, believing its doctrines, receiving its
Sacraments, and being governed by its visible head, our Holy Father, the Pope,
salvation is an extremely difficult matter.
I do not speak here of pagans who have never heard of Our Lord or His holy
religion, but of those outside the Church who claim to be good Christians
without being members of the Catholic Church.
A. The attributes of the Church are three: authority, infallibility, and
indefectibility.
A. By the authority of the Church I mean the right and power which the Pope
and the bishops, as the successors of the Apostles, have to teach and govern
the faithful.
Authority is the power which one person has over another, so as to be
able to exact obedience. A teacher has authority over his scholars, because
they must obey him; but the teacher need not obey the scholars, because they
have no authority over him. God alone has authority of Himself and from
Himself All others who have authority receive it from God, either directly or
through someone else. The Pope has authority from God Himself, and the priests
get theirs through their bishops. Therefore, to resist or disobey lawful
authority is to resist and disobey God Himself. If one of you were placed in
charge of the class in my absence, he would have lawful authority, and the rest
of you should obey him-not on account of himself, but on account of the
authority he has. Thus the President of the United States, the governor, the
mayor, etc., are only ordinary citizens before their election; but after they
have been elected and placed in office they exercise lawful authority over us,
and we are bound as good citizens and as good Catholics to respect and obey
them.
A. By the infallibility of the Church I mean that the Church cannot err when
it teaches a doctrine of faith or morals.
"Infallibility." When we say Church is infallible, we mean
that it
cannot make a mistake or err in what it teaches; that the Pope, the head of the
Church, is infallible when he teaches ex cathedra -- that is, as
the successor of St. Peter, the vicar of Christ. Cathedra signifies a
seat, ex stands for "out of"; therefore, ex cathedra means out
of the
chair or office of St. Peter, because chair is sometimes used for office. Thus
we say the presidential chair is opposed to this or that, when we intend to say
the president, or the one in that office, is opposed to it. The cathedral is
the church in which the bishop usually officiates, so called on account of the
bishopīs cathedra, or throne, being in it.
A. The Church teaches infallibly when it speaks through the Pope and bishops
united in general council, or through the Pope alone when he proclaims to all
the faithful a doctrine of faith or morals.
But how will we know when the Pope speaks ex cathedra, when he is
speaking daily to people from all parts of the world? To speak ex cathedra
or infallibly, three things are required:
You understand now what the infallibility of the Pope implies, and that it does
not mean, as the enemies of the Church say, that the Pope cannot sin, cannot be
mistaken in anything. The Pope can sin just the same as anyone else; he could
be a very bad man if he wanted to be so, and take the punishment God would
inflict for his sins. Could he not be very angry, entirely neglect prayer, or
pray with willful distraction; could he not be proud, covetous, etc.? And these
are sins. Therefore he could sin; and hence he has to go to confession and
seek forgiveness just as we do. Therefore remember this: whether the Pope be a
bad man or a good man in his private life, he must always tell the truth when
he speaks ex cathedra, because the Holy Ghost is guiding him and will
not permit him to err or teach falsehood in faith or morals.
We have examples in the Bible (Numbers 22, 23) where God sometimes makes
even bad men foretell the truth. Once He gave an ass the power to speak, that
it might protest against the wrongdoing of its wicked and cruel rider.
We have seen how governments interfere with the rights of the Holy Father, and
thus he has need of his temporal power that he may be altogether independent of
any government. Now let me explain to you what is meant by the Temporal Power
of the Pope. Well, then, the Holy Father should have some city or states, not
belonging to any government, in which he would be the chief and only ruler. Up
to the year 1870 the Holy Father did have such states: they were called the
Papal States, and the power he had over them just like that of any other
ruler-was called the temporal power.
Now how did he get those states and how did he lose them? He got them in the
most just manner, and held possession of them for about a thousand years.
Hundreds of years ago the people of Rome and the surrounding countries elected
the Pope their sole ruler. He was already their spiritual ruler, and they made
him also their temporal ruler. Then the Pope protected and governed them as
other rulers do. Later, kings and princes added other lands, and thus by
degrees the possessions of the Pope became quite extended.
How did he lose these possessions? The Italian government took them from him
in the most unjust manner. Besides the lands, they deprived the Church of
other property donated to it by its faithful children. No ruler in the world
had a more just claim or better right to his possessions than the Holy Father,
and a government robbed him of them as a thief might take forcibly from you
whatever had been justly given to you, when he found you were unable to defend
yourself against him.
But has the Holy Father need of his temporal power? Yes, the Holy Father has
need of some temporal power. He must be free and independent in governing the
Church. He must be free to say what he wishes to all Catholics throughout the
world, and free to hear whatever they have to say to him. But if the Pope is
under another ruler he cannot be free. That ruler may cast him into prison,
and not allow him to communicate with the bishops of the world. At least, he
can say nothing about the injustice of the ruler who is over him. Therefore
the Pope must have some possessions of his own, that he may not be afraid of
the injustice of any ruler, and may speak out the truth boldly to the whole
world, denouncing bad rulers and praising good ones as they deserve.
Mind, I do not say what possessions the Holy Father should have but simply that
he should have some, in which he would be altogether independent. In justice
he should have all that was taken from him. We have a good example here in the
United States to illustrate the need of the independence of the Pope. You know
every State in the United States is a little government in itself, with its own
governor, legislature, laws, etc. Now over all these little governments or
States we have the government of the United States, with the President at its
head. In the beginning the members of the United States Government assembled
to transact the business of the nation sometimes in one State and sometimes in
another-sometimes in New York and sometimes in Pennsylvania, etc. But they
soon found that in order to be independent of every State and just to all, they
must have some territory or possessions of their own not under the power of any
State. So some of the States granted them Washington and the country about it
for ten miles square-now called the District of Columbia which the United
States government could freely perform its duties. In a similar manner the
Holy Father is over all the governments of the world in matters of religion-in
matters of justice and right; and just as the United States government has to
decide between the rights of one State and the rights of another, so the Holy
Father has sometimes to decide between the rights of one government and the
rights of another, and must, in order to be just with all, be free and
independent of all.
Again, the temporal power of the Pope is very useful to the Church; for with
the money and goods received from his possessions the Holy Father can educate
priests and teachers, print books, etc., for the foreign missions. He can also
support churches, school, and institutions in poor countries, and especially
where the missionaries are laboring for the conversion of the native heathens.
When the Holy Father had his own possessions he could do much that he cannot
now do for the conversion of pagan nations. At present he must depend entirely
upon the charitable offerings of the faithful for all good works, even for his
own support. The offering we make once a year for the support of the Holy
Father is called "Peterīs pence," because it began by everyone
sending yearly a
penny to the Pope, the successor of St. Peter.
A. By the indefectibility of the Church I mean that the Church, as Christ
founded it, will last till the end of time.
Therefore indefectibility means that the Church can never change any of
the doctrines that Our Lord taught, nor ever cease to exist. When we say it is
infallible, we mean that it cannot teach error while it lasts; but when we say
it is indefectible, we mean that it will last forever and be infallible
forever, and also that it will always remain the same as Our Lord founded it.
There are two things that you must clearly understand and not confound, namely,
the two kinds of laws in the Church-those which Our Lord gave it and those
which it made itself. The laws that Our Lord gave it can never change For
example, the Church could not abolish one of the Sacraments, leaving only six;
neither could it add a new one, making eight. But when, for example, the
Church declares that on a certain day we cannot eat flesh meat, it makes the
law itself, and can change it when it wishes. Our Lord left His Church free to
make certain laws, just as they would be needed. It has always exercised this
power, and made laws to suit the circumstances of the place or times. Even now
it does away with some of its old laws that are no longer useful, and makes new
ones that are more necessary. But the doctrines, the truths of faith or
morals, the things we must believe and do to save our souls, it never changes
and never can change: it may regulate some things in the application of the
divine laws, but the laws themselves can never change in substance.
A. These attributes are found in their fullness in the Pope, the visible
head of the Church, whose infallible authority to teach bishops, priests, and
people in matters of faith or morals will last to the end of the world.
A. The Church has four marks by which it may be known: it is one; it is
holy; it is catholic; it is apostolic.
A. The Church is one because all its members agree in one faith, are all in
one communion, and are all under one head.
The Catholic Church is "one," first in government and second
in
doctrine. In government every pastor has a certain parish or territory
in which all the people belong to his congregation-they form his flock. He has
to take care only of these, to teach them, give them the Sacraments, etc. He
has not to be responsible for those outside his parish. Then over the pastor
we have the bishop, who looks after a certain number of pastors; then comes the
archbishop over a certain number of bishops; next comes the primate, who is
head of all the archbishops in the country; and over all the primates of the
world we have the Holy Father. Thus, when the Holy Father speaks to the
bishops, the bishops speak to the priests, and the priests to the people. The
Church is therefore one in government, like a great army spread over the world.
We can go up step by step from the lowest member of the Church to the
highest-the Holy Father; and from him to Our Lord Himself, who is the invisible
head of all. This regular body of priests, bishops, archbishops, etc., so
arranged, one superior to the other, is called the hierarchy of the Church.
The Church is one also in doctrine-that is, every one of the three
hundred million of Catholics in the world believes exactly the same truths. If
any Catholic denies only one article of faith, though he believes all the rest,
he ceases to be a Catholic, and is cut off from the Church. If, for example,
you would not believe Matrimony or Holy Orders a Sacrament, or that Our Lord is
present in the Holy Eucharist, you would not be a Catholic, though you believed
all the other teachings of the Church.
Therefore the Church is one both in government and teaching or doctrine. Now,
has any other Church claiming to be Christīs Church that mark? No. The
Protestant religions are not one either in government or belief The Protestants
of England have no authority over the Protestants of America, and those of
America have nothing to say over those of Germany or France. So every country
is independent, and they have no chief head. Neither are they one in belief.
In the same country there are many kinds of Protestants, Episcopalians,
Presbyterians, Methodists, etc., who do not believe the same thing. Even those
who attend the same church and profess the same religion do not all believe the
same. Everyone, they say, has a right to interpret the Holy Scriptures
according to his own views, so they take many different meanings out of the
very same words. There must be some chief person to tell the true meaning of
the Holy Scriptures when there is a dispute about it; but they have no such
chief, and the result is they are never done disputing.
The United States has a constitution and laws. Now, suppose every citizen was
allowed to construe the laws to suit himself, without any regard for the rights
of others, what a fine state of affairs we should soon have. But the wise
makers of the constitution and laws of the United States did not leave us in
such danger. They appointed judges to interpret or explain the laws and give
the correct meaning when disputes arise. Then in Washington there is a chief
judge for the whole United States; and when he says the words of the law mean
this or that, every citizen must abide by his decision, and there is no appeal
from it. Just in the same way Our Lord made laws for all men, and while He was
upon earth He explained them Himself. He never left all men free to take their
own meaning out of them. He appointed judges-the bishops; and a chief judge
for the whole world the Pope. The Holy Ghost guides him, as we have seen
above, so that he cannot make mistakes in the meaning of Christīs laws; and
when he says, this is what the words of Our Lord in His law signify, no one who
is a true Christian can refuse to believe, or can appeal from his decision.
A. The Church is holy because its founder, Jesus Christ, is holy; because it
teaches a holy doctrine, invites all to a holy life, and because of the eminent
holiness of so many thousands of its children.
Protestant religions have not holy doctrines if we examine them closely.
They teach, for example, that faith without good works will save us, and thus
take away the motives for doing good; that marriage is not binding for life-the
husband and wife may for some causes separate, or get a divorce, and marry
again. This would leave the children without the care of their proper parents,
sometimes without a home, and nearly always without religious instruction. The
same persons might separate again and marry another time, and thus there would
be nothing but confusion and immorality in society. Again, some of their
doctrines teach that we cannot help sinning; so everyone could excuse himself
for his sins by saying he could not help them, which you can easily see would
lead to the worst of consequences. Lastly, their doctrines have never made one
saint-acknowledged as such from miracles performed. Protestants are so called
because, when their ancestors rebelled against the Church about three hundred
years ago, the Church made certain laws and they protested against them,
separated from the Church, and formed a new religion of their own.
A. The Church is catholic or universal because it subsists in all ages,
teaches all nations, and maintains all truth.
"Subsists" means to have existence.
"Catholic," The word catholic signifies universal. The Church
is
universal in three ways, viz.: in time, in place, and in doctrine. It is
universal in time; for from the day Our Lord commissioned His Apostles to
preach to the whole world down to the present, it has existed, taught, and
labored in every age. It is universal in place; that is, it is not confined to
one part of the world, but teaches throughout the entire world. It is
universal in doctrine, for it teaches the same doctrines and administers the
same Sacraments everywhere; and its doctrines are suited to all classes of
men-to the ignorant as well as the learned, to the poor as well as the rich.
It teaches by the voice of its priests and bishops, and all, civilized or
uncivilized, to whom its voice reaches, can learn its doctrines, receive its
Sacraments, and practice its devotions.
It has converted all the pagan nations that have ever been converted, and the
title catholic belongs to the Roman Catholic Church alone. All Protestant
churches that claim this title do so unjustly. They are not universal in time,
and cannot be called the Church of all ages, because they were established only
three hundred or four hundred or less years ago. They are not catholic in
place, because they are mostly confined to particular countries. They are not
universal in doctrine, because what they teach in one country they reject in
another; and even in the same country, what they teach at one time they reject
at another. Wherever it is possible for civilized people to go, there you will
find a priest saying Mass in just the same way you see him saying it here. It
is a great consolation for one in a strange country to enter a church and hear
Mass, perceiving no difference in the vestments, ceremonies, or language of the
priest. A little altar boy from the United States could serve Mass in any part
of the world. See, therefore, the great advantage the Church has in using the
Latin language instead of the vernacular or ordinary language of the people.
If the Church used the usual language of the people, the Mass would seem
different in every country; while natives would understand the words of the
priest, strangers would not.
The Latin language is now what we call a dead language; that is, it is not the
common language of any country; and because it is a dead language does not
change: another reason why the Church uses it, that nothing may change in its
divine service. The prayers used in the Church are exactly the same today as
they were when they were written many centuries ago. The living languages-that
is, those in use, such as English, French, German, etc., are always changing a
little new words are being added, and the meaning of old ones changed. The
Church uses the same language all over the world to show that it is not the
Church of any particular country, but the true Church of all men everywhere.
Again, using only one language, the Church can hold its great councils, call
together all the bishops of the world, that they may condemn errors or make
wise laws. When the Holy Father addresses them in Latin they can all
understand and answer him. If, therefore, the Church did not use the same
language everywhere how could this be done, unless everyone present understood
all the languages of the world-which is a thing nearly impossible. But someone
might say, if the Mass was said in English we could follow it better. You can
follow just as well in Latin, for in nearly all prayerbooks you have besides
the Latin said by the priest the meaning of it in English on the same page, or
you have the English alone.
A. The Church is apostolic because it was founded by Christ on His
Apostles and is governed by their lawful successors, and because it has never
ceased, and never will cease, to teach their doctrine.
"Apostolic," which means that the Church was founded at the
time of the
Apostles, and has been the same ever since.
Since the time of St. Peter, the first Pope, there have been 261 Popes. You
can go back from our present Holy Father, Pius XI, to Benedict XV, who was
before him, to Pius X, who was before him, to Leo XIII, before him, and so on
one by one till you come to St. Peter himself, who lived at the time of Our
Lord. Thus the Church is apostolic in its origin or beginning.
It is also apostolic in its teaching; for all the doctrines it teaches now were
taught by the Apostles. The Church does not make new doctrines, but it teaches
its truths more clearly and distinctly when someone denies them. For example
it would not be necessary for you to prove yourself good and honest till
somebody said you were bad and dishonest. You prove your honesty when it is
denied, but both you and your friends believed it always, though you did not
declare it till it was denied. In just the same way the Church always believed
that Our Lord is the Son of God; that there are seven Sacraments; that the Pope
is infallible, etc. These truths and all the others were believed by the
Apostles, and the Church proclaimed them in a special manner when they were
denied. Then it called together in council all its bishops, and they, with the
Holy Father, proclaimed these truths-not as new doctrines, but as truths always
believed by the Church, and now defined because denied.
Protestants have not for their churches the mark apostolic. How could their
churches be founded by the Apostles, when the Apostles were dead more than
fourteen hundred years before there were any Protestant churches? What is
more, they have changed the teachings of the Apostles; and so they have not the
mark apostolic either in their origin or teaching.
But they say the Catholic Church fell into error and made mistakes, and that
God wished reformers to correct these errors. How could the Church fall into
error when Our Lord promised to remain always with- it, and to send the Holy
Ghost to guide and teach it forever? And, secondly, if God sent the
Protestants to correct the mistakes of the Catholic Church, what proof do they
give us that they have such power from God? When, as we have seen, God sends
anyone to do a special work, He always gives him power to prove his mission.
When He sent Moses, He gave him signs-the plagues of Egypt. When He sent His
prophets, they called down fire and rain from Heaven. (3 Kings 18). But
Protestants have shown us no signs and performed no miracles; therefore we
cannot believe their assertion that God sent them to correct the Catholic
Church. Neither can we believe that Our Lord broke His promise to stay with
the Church. We shall see the whole truth of the matter if we go back to the
establishment of the Protestant religion and consider the life of Luther and
the others who founded it.
Luther, then a young man, while out one day saw his friend killed at his side
by a stroke of lightning. Much affected by that sad event, Luther became a
priest in the order of the Augustinians. He was a learned man and a great
preacher, but very proud. The Holy Father was completing St. Peterīs Church in
Rome, and about that time granted an indulgence to those giving alms for the
purpose, just as pastors now offer Masses for those who contribute means to
build a new church, or hospital, asylum, etc.
The Holy Father sent Dominican priests to preach about this indulgence and
collect this money. Then Luther, when he found that he, a great preacher, was
not appointed, was probably jealous. He first began to preach against the
abuses of indulgences: but pride made him go further, and soon he began to
preach against the doctrine of indulgences, and thus became a heretic. Then he
was condemned by the Pope, and cut off from the Church. Being proud, he would
not submit, but began to form a new religion, now called Protestant. But how
did he get the people to follow him? Oh, very easily. Then, as now, there
were plenty of bad and indifferent Catholics. At that time the Church was rich
and had much property and lands; because when rich Catholics died they often
left to the Church property for its own support and the support of its
institutions. Even during their lifetime kings and princes sometimes gave the
Church large donations of lands and money. The Church then was supported by
these gifts and the income or rents of the lands, and did not need to look for
collections from the people, as it has to do now. Here, then, is how Luther
got many to follow him. He told greedy princes that if they came with him they
could become rich by seizing the property of all the churches, and the greedy
princes, glad of an excuse, went with him. Then he told the people-the bad
Catholics-that fasting was too severe; going to confession too hard; hearing
Mass every Sunday too difficult; and if they renounced their faith and embraced
his new religion he would do away with all these things: so they also followed
him. He himself broke his solemn vows made to God, and the people easily
followed his example.
Those attending the Protestant churches in our times are generally rich and
refined people, but you must not think that the first Protestants of three
hundred years ago were just like them. No. Many of them were from the lowest
and worst-I do not say poorest-classes in society; and when they got an excuse,
they went about destroying churches and institutions, burning beautiful
statues, paintings, music, books, and works of art that the Church had
collected and preserved for centuries. This you may read in any of the
histories of the Church and times. The Protestants of the present day praise
all these works of art now; but if their ancestors had had their way every
beautiful work of art would have been destroyed.
Some persons say they would not be members of the Catholic Church because so
many poor people attend it. Then they do not want to belong to the Church of
Our Lord, because His Church is the Church of both poor and rich. When St.
John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Our Lord if He were really the
Messias, Our Lord did not say yes or no, but told them to relate to John what
they had heard and seen (Matt. 11:5), namely, that He (Christ) cured the
blind, the lame, and the deaf, and preached to the poor. Therefore Our Lord
gave preaching to the poor as a proof that He is the true Redeemer; and since
Our Lord Himself had the poor in His congregation, the Church everywhere must
have the poor among its members, for it must do what Our Lord did. So if you
see a church to which the poor people never go, in which they are not welcome,
you have good reason to suspect it is not the Church of Our Lord not the true
Church. Again, poverty and riches belong only to this world and make a
distinction only here. The one who is poorest in this worldīs goods may be
richest in Godīs grace. Indeed, if most Protestants studied the early history
of their religion they would not be proud, but ashamed of it. How little they
would think of their ancestors who gave
up God for some worldly gain, while the Catholic martyrs gave up everything,
even their lives, rather than forsake God and the true religion.
A. These attributes and marks are found in the Holy Roman Catholic Church
alone.
We have seen that some religions may seem to have one or two of the
marks; but the Catholic Church alone has them all, and is consequently the only
true Church of Christ. The other religions are not one-that is, united over
the world; they give no proof of holiness, never having had any great saints
whom God acknowledged as such by performing miracles for them. They are not
catholic, because they have not taught in all ages and nations. They are not
apostolic, because established hundreds of years after the Apostles. They are
not infallible, for they have now declared things to be false which they
formerly declared to be true; they are not indefectible-they are not as Our
Lord founded them, for He never founded them; and they are constantly making
changes in their beliefs and practices.
The marks of the Church are necessary also because the Church must be a visible
Church, that all men may be able to see and know it; for Our Lord said,
"He
that will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and the
publican." (Matt. 18:17). Heathens were those who worshipped false
gods. Publicans were men who gathered the taxes from the Jews for the Romans;
they were generally very cruel to the people, and were much hated and despised
by them. Therefore Our Lord meant: if anyone will not obey the Church, you
should avoid him as you avoid the heathens and the publicans, whom you despise.
Now no one can be blamed for not obeying a church that is invisible and
unknown. Therefore the true Church must be a visible body and easily known to
all who earnestly seek it as the Church of Christ. But if some shut their eyes
and refuse to look at the light of truth, ignorance will not excuse them; they
must be blamed and fall under the sentence of Our Lord.
A. A Sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.
Three things are necessary to make a Sacrament. There must be:
Now, a sign is that which tells us that something else exists. Smoke indicates
the presence of fire.
A red light on a railroad tells that there is danger at the spot. Therefore,
the outward signs in the Sacraments tell us that there is in the Sacraments
something we do not see and which they signify and impart. For example, the
outward sign in Baptism is the pouring of the water on the head of the person
to be baptized, and the saying of the words. Water is generally used for
cleaning purposes. Water, therefore, is used in Baptism as an outward sign to
show that as the water cleans the body, so the grace given in Baptism cleans
the soul. It is not a mere sign, for at the very moment that the priest pours
the water and says the words of Baptism, by the pouring of the water and saying
of the words with the proper intention the soul is cleansed from Original Sin;
that is, the inward grace is given by the application of the outward sign.
Again, in Confirmation the outward sign is the anointing with oil, the Bishopīs
prayer, and the placing of his hands upon us. Now what inward grace is given
in Confirmation? A grace which strengthens us in our faith. Oil, therefore,
is used for the outward sign in this Sacrament, because oil gives strength and
light.
In olden times the gladiators-men who fought with swords as prize-fighters do
now with their hands-used oil upon their bodies to make them strong. Oil was
used also to heal wounds. Thus in Confirmation the application of this outward
sign of strength gives the inward grace of light and strength. Moreover, oil
easily spreads itself over anything and remains on it. A drop of water falling
on paper dries up quickly; but a drop of oil soaks in and spreads over it. So
oil is used to show also that the grace of Confirmation spreads out over our
whole lives, and strengthens us in our faith at all times.
Again, in Penance we have the outward sign when the priest raises his hand and
pronounces over us the words of absolution.
If we did not have these outward signs how could anyone know just at what time
the graces are given? We can know now, for at the very moment the outward sign
is applied the grace is given; because it is the application of the sign that
by divine institution gives the grace, and thus the two must take place
together.
"Institution by Christ" is absolutely necessary because He
gives all
grace, and He alone can determine the manner in which He wishes it distributed.
The Church can distribute His grace, but only in the way He wishes. Hence it
cannot make new Sacraments or abolish old ones.
A. There are seven Sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist,
Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.
The life of our soul is in many ways similar to the life of our body.
Our bodies must first be born, then strengthened, then fed. When sick, we must
be cured: and when about to die, we must be taken care of. Then there must be
someone to rule others, and there must be persons to be governed. In like
manner, we are spiritually born into a new life by Baptism, we are strengthened
by Confirmation, fed with the Holy Eucharist, and cured of the maladies of our
souls by Penance. By Extreme Unction we are helped at the hour of death; by
Holy Orders our spiritual rulers are appointed by God; and by Matrimony
families, with a father at the head and children to be ruled, are established.
Thus we have our spiritual life similar in many things to our physical or
bodily life.
A. The Sacraments have the power of giving grace from the merits of Jesus
Christ.
Our Lord died to merit grace for us, and appointed the Sacraments as the
chief means by which it was to be given.
A. Some of the Sacraments give sanctifying grace, and others increase it in
our souls.
Baptism and Penance give this sanctifying grace when there is not any of
it in the soul. But the other Sacraments are received while we are in a state
of grace, and they therefore increase the quantity of it in our souls.
A. The Sacraments that give sanctifying grace are Baptism and Penance; and
they are called Sacraments of the dead.
"Of the dead," Not of a dead person; for when a person is dead
he cannot
receive any of the Sacraments. It is only while we live upon earth that we are
on trial, and can do good or evil, and merit grace. At death we receive simply
our reward or punishment for what we have done while living. Therefore,
Sacraments of the dead mean Sacraments given to a dead soul, that is, to a soul
in mortal sin. When grace--its life--is all out of the soul it can do nothing
to merit Heaven; and we say it is dead, because the dead can do nothing for
themselves. If a person receives--as many do--the Sacrament of Penance while
his soul is not in a state of mortal sin, what then? Then the soul--already
living--receives an increase of sanctifying grace, that is, greater spiritual
life and strength.
A. Baptism and Penance are called Sacraments of the dead because they take
away sin, which is the death of the soul, and give grace, which is its life.
A. The Sacraments that increase sanctifying grace in the soul are:
Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony; and
they are called Sacraments of the living.
A. Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony
are called the Sacraments of the living because those who receive them worthily
are already living the life of grace.
A. He who receives the Sacraments of the living in mortal sin commits a
sacrilege, which is a great sin, because it is an abuse of a sacred thing.
"Sacrilege," There are other ways besides the unworthy
reception of the
Sacraments in which a person may commit sacrilege. You could commit it by
treating any sacred thing with great disrespect. For example, by making common
use of the sacred vessels used at the altar; by stealing from the church; by
turning the church into a market, etc. You could commit it also by willfully
killing or wounding persons consecrated to God, such as nuns, priests, bishops,
etc. Therefore sacrilege can be committed by willfully abusing or treating
with great irreverence any sacred person, sacred place, or sacred thing.
A. Besides sanctifying grace, the Sacraments give another grace, called
sacramental.
A. Sacramental grace is a special help which God gives to attain the end for
which He instituted each Sacrament.
For example, what was the end for which Penance was instituted? To
forgive sins and keep us out of sin. Therefore -the sacramental grace given in
Penance is a grace that will enable us to overcome temptation and avoid the
sins we have been in the habit of committing. When a person is ill the
doctorīs medicine generally produces two effects: one is to cure the disease
and the other to strengthen the person so that he may not fall back into the
old condition. Well, it is just the same in the Sacraments; the grace given
produces two effects: one is to sanctify us and the other to prevent us from
falling into the same sins. Again, Confirmation was instituted that we might
become more perfect Christians, stronger in our faith. Therefore the
sacramental grace of Confirmation will strengthen us to profess our faith when
circumstances require it; or when we are tempted to doubt any revealed truth,
it will help us to overcome the temptation. So in all the Sacraments we
receive the sacramental grace or special help given to attain the end for which
the Sacraments were separately instituted.
A. The Sacraments always give grace, if we receive them with the right
dispositions.
"Right dispositions"; that is, if we do all that God and the
Church
require us to do when we receive them. For instance, in Penance the right
disposition is to confess all our mortal sins as we know them, to be sorry for
them, and have the determination never to commit them again. The right
disposition for the Holy Eucharist is to be in a state of grace, and-except in
special cases of sickness-fasting for one hour.
A. We can receive the Sacraments more than once, except Baptism,
Confirmation, and Holy Orders.
Baptism is so important that if we do not receive it we cannot receive
any other of the Sacraments. Now, to administer Baptism validly, that is,
properly, everything must be done exactly as Our Lord intended and the Church
teaches. The proper kind of water and all the exact words must be used. Also,
the water must touch the body, that is, the head if possible. Now persons not
knowing well how to baptize might neglect some of these things, and thus the
person would not e baptized. The Church wishes to be certain that all its
children are baptized; so when there is any doubt about the first Baptism, it
baptizes again conditionally, that is, the priest says in giving the Baptism
over again: If you are not baptized already, I baptize you now. Therefore if
the person was rightly baptized the first time, the second ceremony has no
effect, because the priest does not intend to give Baptism a second time. But
if the first Baptism was not rightly given, then the second takes effect. In
either case Baptism is given only once; for if the first was valid, the second
is not given; and if the first was invalid, the second is given.
Converts to the Church are generally baptized conditionally, because there is
doubt about the validity of the Baptism they received.
The Sacraments may be given conditionally when we doubt if they were or can be
validly given.
A. We cannot receive Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders more than once,
because they imprint a character in the soul.
"A character," It is a spiritual character, and remains
forever, so that
whether the person is in Heaven or Hell this mark will be seen. It will show
that those having it were Christians, who received Baptism, Confirmation, or
Holy Orders. If they are in Heaven, these characters will shine out to their
honor, and will show how well they used the grace God gave them. If they are
in Hell, these characters will be to their disgrace, and show how many gifts
and graces God bestowed upon them, and how shamefully they abused all.
A. The character which these Sacraments imprint in the soul is a spiritual
mark which remains forever.
A. This character remains in the soul even after death: for the honor and
glory of those who are saved; for the shame and punishment of those who are
lost.
A. Baptism is a Sacrament which cleanses us from Original Sin, makes us
Christians, children of God, and heirs of Heaven.
"Christians," that is, members of the Church of Christ. "Children
of
God," that is, adopted children. All men are children of God by their
creation, but Christians are children of God, not merely by creation, but also
by grace and union with Our Lord. "Heirs of Heaven." An heir
is one who
inherits property, money, or goods at the death of another. These things are
left by a will or given by the laws of the State, when the person dies without
making a will. A will is a written statement in which a person declares what
he wishes to have done, at his death, with whatever he possesses the charitable
objects or the persons to whom he wishes to leave his goods. This will is
called also the last testament. It is signed by witnesses, and after the death
of the testator is committed to the care of a person-called the executor whose
business it is to see that all stated in the will or testament is carried out.
There is an officer in the State to take these things in hand and settle them
according to law, when the amount left is large, and there is a dispute about
it. You can understand better now why we call the Bible the Old and the New
Testament. When Our Lord died we were left an inheritance and spiritual
property. The inheritance was Heaven, which we had lost through the sin of
Adam and regained by the death of Our Lord. The spiritual property was Godīs
grace, which He merited for us. The Old Testament contains the promise of what
Our Lord would leave us at His death, and the New Testament shows that He kept
His promise and did leave what He said. The Old Testament was written before
He died, and the New Testament after His death. The witnesses of these
testaments were the patriarchs, prophets, Apostles, and evangelists, who heard
God making the promises through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The Church
is the executor of Christīs will, and it is its business to see that all men
receive what Christ left them, namely, Godīs grace and Heaven. It must also
see that they are not cheated out of it by their enemies-the devil, the world,
and the flesh.
A. Actual sins and all the punishment due to them are remitted by Baptism,
if the person baptized be guilty of any.
We know that Baptism remits Original Sin. But suppose a person is not
baptized till he is twenty-five or thirty years old; he has surely committed
some sins since he was seven years of age-the time at which he received the use
of reason. Now the question asks, Are all his sins, those he committed himself
as well as the Original Sin, forgiven by Baptism? The answer is, Yes. All his
sins are forgiven, so that he has not to confess them. But he must be heartily
sorry for them and have the firm determination of never committing them again,
just as in confession. Moreover, that he may not have to confess these sins,
we must be absolutely certain that he was never baptized before. Besides
remitting the sins themselves, Baptism remits all the temporal punishment due
to them.
In the Sacrament of Penance the sinner is saved from the eternal
punishment-that is, Hell-and from part of the temporal punishment. But
although the sins have been forgiven, the sinner must make satisfaction to God
for the insult offered by his sins.
Therefore, he must suffer punishment in this world or in Purgatory. We call
this punishment temporal, because it will not last forever. You can make this
satisfaction to God while on earth, and thus avoid much of the temporal
punishment by prayers, fasting, gaining indulgences, alms, and good works; and
even by bearing your sufferings, trials, and afflictions patiently, and
offering them up to God in satisfaction for your sins.
In Baptism both the eternal and temporal debt are washed away; so that if a
person just baptized died immediately, he would go directly to Heaven, not to
Purgatory: because persons go to Purgatory to pay off the temporal debt.
Neither could that person gain an indulgence, because indulgences are only to
help us to pay the temporal debt. Neither could that person receive the
Sacrament of Penance, because Penance remits only sin committed after Baptism,
and that person had no sins to remit, because he died just after receiving
Baptism. See, then, the goodness of Our Lord in instituting Baptism, to
forgive everything and leave us as free from guilt as our first parents were
when God created them.
A. Baptism is necessary to salvation, because without it we cannot enter
into the kingdom of Heaven.
Those who through no fault of theirs die without Baptism, though they
have never committed sin, cannot enter Heaven neither will they go to Hell.
After the Last Judgment there will be no Purgatory. Where, then, will they go?
God in His goodness will provide a place of rest for them, where they will not
suffer and will be in a state of natural peace; but they will never see God or
Heaven. God might have created us for a purely natural and material end, so
that we would live forever upon the earth and be naturally happy with the good
things God would give us. But then we would never have known of Heaven or God
as we do now. Such happiness on earth would be nothing compared to the
delights of Heaven and the presence of God; so that, now, since God has given
us, through His holy revelations, a knowledge of Himself and Heaven, we would
be miserable if left always upon the earth. Those, then, who die without
Baptism do not know what they have lost, and are naturally happy; but we who
know all they have lost for want of Baptism know how very unfortunate they are.
Think, then, what a terrible crime it is to willfully allow anyone to die
without Baptism, or to deprive a little child of life before it can be
baptized! Suppose all the members of a family but one little infant have been
baptized; when the Day of Judgment comes, while all the other members of a
family-father, mother, and children-may go into Heaven, that little one will
have to remain out; that little brother or sister will be separated from its
family forever, and never, never see God or Heaven. How heartless and cruel,
then, must a person be who would deprive that little infant of happiness for
all eternity-just that its mother or someone else might have a little less
trouble or suffering here upon earth.
A. The priest is the ordinary minister of Baptism; but in case of necessity
anyone who has the use of reason may baptize.
"Ordinary" that is, the one who has a right to baptize and
generally
does; others can baptize only in case of necessity.
"Priest" and all above him-bishops, and the Pope; for they
have all the
power the priest has, and more besides. "Minister" is the name
given
here to one who performs any of the sacred rites or ceremonies of the Church.
"Necessity." When the ordinary minister cannot be had and when
Baptism
must be given; for if it is not absolutely necessary to give the Baptism, then
you must wait for the ordinary minister.
"Anyone" Even persons not Catholics or not Christians may, in
case of
necessity, baptize a person wishing to receive Baptism, if they know how to
baptize and seriously wish to do what the Church of Christ does when it
baptizes. You cannot baptize a person against his will. Neither can you
baptize an infant whose parents are unwilling to have the child baptized, or
when the child will not be brought up in the Catholic religion. But if the
child is dying, it can and should be baptized, even without the consent of the
parents.
"Use of "reason" Because the person must intend to do
what Our Lord
ordered to be done in giving Baptism; and a little child could not understand,
and could not therefore baptize.
A. Whoever baptizes should pour water on the head of the person to be
baptized, and say, while pouring the water: I baptize thee in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
When the priest baptizes in the church, he uses consecrated water-that
is, water blessed for that purpose on Holy Saturday, and mixed with holy oil.
When he or any other, in case of necessity, baptizes in a private house, he may
use plain, clean water, and he baptizes without the other ceremonies used in
the church. Remember, in Baptism you can use ordinary clean water, warm or
cold. When the priest or anyone baptizes by simply pouring the water and
pronouncing the words of Baptism, we call it private Baptism. The Baptism
given in church with all the ceremonies is called solemn Baptism. Any person
baptized privately should be brought to the church afterwards to have the rest
of the ceremonies performed.
It will increase your respect for the Sacrament to know what ceremonies are
used in solemn Baptism, and what they signify. The following things must be
prepared: the holy oils, a little salt, a little pitcher or something similar
to pour the water from, a vessel to receive the water when poured, some cotton,
two stoles, one white and one purple, towels, a white cloth, candle, and
candlestick.
All being ready, the person holding the infant takes it on the right arm, face
up, and the priest, having learned the name it is to be given, begins by asking
the one to be baptized, "What do you ask of the Church of God?" And
the
godparents answer for the child, "Faith." If the person receiving
Baptism is
capable of answering for himself, he must do so. Then the priest exhorts the
child to keep the Commandments and love God; then he breathes three times upon
it and bids the evil spirit depart. He next prays for the child and puts a
little salt into its mouth, as a sign of the wisdom that Faith gives, and again
prays for the child. Then he places the end of his stole over it as a sign
that it is led into the Church; for Baptism is given in a place called the
baptistery, railed off from the church and near the door, because formerly the
ceremony up to this point was performed outside the church, and at this part of
the ceremony the person was led in to be baptized. Then before Baptism the
person says the Creed and the Our Father; for when a grown person is to be
baptized he must first be instructed in all the truths of religion, and he must
say the Creed to show that he believes them. Again the priest prays and places
a little spittle on the ears and nose of the child, using at the same time the
words used by Our Lord when He spit upon the ground, and rubbing the spittle
and clay upon the eyes of the blind man, healed him. (John 9:6). The
priest next asks the child if it renounces the devil and all his works and
pomps--that is, vanities and empty shows; and having received the answer
anoints it with holy oil on the breast and back. Then he again asks for a
profession of faith, and finally baptizes it. After Baptism he anoints its
head with holy chrism, places a white cloth upon it to signify the purity it
received in Baptism, and as a sign that it must keep its soul free from sin.
Then he places in its hand a lighted candle, to signify the light of faith it
has received in Baptism. We are baptized at the door of the church to show
that without Baptism we are out of the Church. We are often signed with the
Sign of the Cross to remind us that our salvation is due to the Cross and
Passion of Our Lord. The priestīs stole is placed over us to show that the
Church takes us under its protection and shields us from the power of the
devil. We are anointed as a sign that we are freed from our sins and
strengthened to fight for Christ. The white cloth or garment is placed upon us
to remind us of the glory of the Resurrection; the light is placed in our hand
to show that we should burn with Christian charity.
A. There are three kinds of Baptism: Baptism of water, of desire, and of
blood.
A. Baptism of water is that which is given by pouring water on the head of
the person to be baptized, and saying at the same time, I baptize thee in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
A. Baptism of desire is an ardent wish to receive Baptism, and to do all
that God has ordained for out salvation.
"Ardent wish" by one who has no opportunity of being
baptized-for no one
can baptize himself. He must be sorry for his sins and have the desire of
receiving the Baptism of water as soon as he can; just as a person in mortal
sin and without a priest to absolve him may, when in danger of death, save his
soul from Hell by an act of perfect contrition and the firm resolution of going
to confession as soon as possible.
Baptism of desire would be useful and necessary if there was no water at hand
or no person to baptize; or if the one wishing to be baptized and those about
him did not know exactly how Baptism was to be given-which might easily happen
in pagan lands. One thing you must especially remember in giving Baptism in
case of necessity: namely, that it would not do for one person to pour the
water and another to say the words. The same person must do both, or the
Baptism will not be valid. If you are called to baptize in case of necessity,
be very careful to observe the following points, otherwise the Baptism will not
be valid: use clean water and nothing but water-no other liquid would do. Say
every one of the exact words: "I baptize thee in the name of the Father,
and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." It would not do to say, "I baptize
thee in the
name of God"; or, "I baptize thee in the name of the Blessed
Trinity"; nor
would it do to say simply, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of
the Holy Ghost," without saying, "I baptize thee." Say the words
at the same
time you pour the water, and be sure the water touches the skin. It would not
do to pour the water simply on the hair. You must not sprinkle the water, but
pour it upon the head.
When you have followed the above instructions carefully and are sure you have
baptized properly, never under any circumstance repeat the Baptism on the same
person. It is a sin to try to baptize more than once when you know Baptism can
be given only once. The sight of the person dying and the fact that you are
called for the first time may cause you to be somewhat excited; but be calm,
remember the importance of the Sacrament, and you will administer it as
directed. Parents should not baptize their own children in case of necessity,
if there is any other person present who can validly do it. Remember those who
administer Baptism contract a spiritual relationship with the person they
baptize (not with his parents). If they wished, years afterwards, to marry the
person they baptized, they must make this relationship known to the priest.
Sponsors are not necessary in private Baptism. A person may be sponsor for a
child in Baptism without being present at the Baptism, provided someone else
holds the child in his name and answers the questions he himself would answer
if he were present. Such a sponsor is said to stand for the child by proxy,
and he, and not the one who holds the child, is then the real godparent when,
at the request of the parents or priest he has consented to be sponsor.
A. Baptism of blood is the shedding of oneīs blood for the faith of
Christ.
Baptism of blood, called martyrdom, is received by those who were not
baptized with water, but were put to death for their Catholic faith. This
takes place even nowadays in pagan countries where the missionaries are trying
to convert the poor natives. These pagans have to be instructed before they
are baptized. They do everything required of them, let us suppose, and are
waiting for the day of Baptism. Those who are being thus instructed are called
Catechumens. Someday, while they are attending their instructions, the enemies
of religion rush down upon them and put them to death. They do not resist, but
willingly suffer death for the sake of the true religion. They are martyrs
then and are baptized in their own blood; although, as we said above, blood
would not do for an ordinary Baptism even when we could not get water; so that
if a person drew blood from his own body and asked to be baptized with it, the
Baptism would not be valid. Neither would they be martyrs if put to death not
for religion or virtue but for some other reason-say political.
A. Baptism of desire or of blood is sufficient to produce the effects of the
Baptism of water, if it is impossible to receive the Baptism of water.
A. In Baptism we promise to renounce the devil with all his works and
pomps.
A. The name of a saint is given in Baptism in order that the person baptized
may imitate his virtues and have him for a protector.
The saint whose name we bear is called Our patron saint. This saint has
a special love for us and a special care over us. People take the names of
great men because they admire their good qualities or their great deeds. So we
take saintsī names because we admire their Christian virtues and great
Christian deeds. We should, therefore, read the life of our patron saint and
try to imitate his virtues, and the day on which the Church celebrates the
feast of our patron saint should be a great day for us also. The Church
generally celebrates the saintīs feast on the day on which he died, that is, as
we believe, the day on which he entered into Heaven.
A. Godfathers and godmothers are given in Baptism in order that they may
promise in the name of the child what the child itself would promise if it had
the use of reason.
A. The obligation of a godfather and a godmother is to instruct the child in
its religious duties if the parents neglect to do so or die.
This is a very important obligation, and we should be faithful in the
fulfillment of it before God. Godfathers and godmothers are also called
sponsors. The following persons cannot be sponsors:
Therefore parents should select as sponsors for their children only good,
practical Catholics-not Catholics merely in name, but those who live up to
their faith, and who will be an example for their children. To repeat what has
already been said, godparents contract a spiritual relationship with their
godchild, and in the event of marriage, they must make known this relationship
to the priest. The godfather and the godmother do not contract a relationship
between themselves, or with the childīs parents, but only with the child so
that neither the godfather nor the godmother could later marry their godchild
without first obtaining proper dispensation; that is, permission from the
Church granted by the bishop or Pope. With regard to names, parents should
never be induced by any motive to give their child some foolish or fancy name
taken from books, places, or things. Above all, they should never select the
name of any enemy of the Church or unbeliever, but the name of one of Godīs
saints who will be a model for the child. Whatever name is taken, if it be not
a saintīs name, the name of some saint should be given as a middle name. If
this has been omitted in Baptism, it should be supplied in Confirmation, at
which time a new name can be added. Again, if a saintīs name has been taken in
Baptism it should not be shortened or changed so as to mean nothing; as, for
example, Mazie, Miz, etc., for Mary. When your correct name is mentioned your
saint is honored, and I might say invoked, because it should remind you of him.
For that reason you should not have meaningless or foolish pet names, known
only to your family or your friends.
A. Confirmation is a Sacrament through which we receive the Holy Ghost to
make us strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ.
In Baptism we are made Christians, but we are not very strong in our
faith till the Holy Ghost comes in Confirmation. You remember how timid the
Apostles were before the coming of the Holy Ghost, and how firm and determined
in their faith they were afterwards; and how fearlessly they preached even to
those who crucified Our Lord. "Soldiers," because we must
fight for our
salvation against our three enemies, the devil, the world, and the flesh. Our
Lord is our great leader in this warfare, and we must follow Him and fight as
He directs. A soldier that fights as he pleases and not as his general
commands, will surely be beaten.
A. The bishop is the ordinary minister of Confirmation.
"Ordinary," because in some very distant countries where on
account of
the small number of Christians they have as yet no bishops, the Pope allows
some priest to give Confirmation; but then he must use the holy oil consecrated
by a bishop, and cannot consecrate oil himself.
A. The bishop extends his hands over those who are to be confirmed, prays
that they may receive the Holy Ghost, and anoints the forehead of each with
holy chrism in the form of a cross.
A. Holy chrism is a mixture of olive oil and balm, consecrated by the
bishop.
The oil signifies the strength we receive, and the balm that we should
be free from the corruption of sin, and give forth the sweetness of virtue.
A. In anointing the person he confirms the bishop says: 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.
A. By anointing the forehead with chrism in the form of a cross is meant,
that the Christian who is confirmed must openly profess and practice his faith,
never be ashamed of it, and rather die than deny it.
"Openly profess" that is, acknowledge that he is a Catholic
when it is
necessary to do so. He need not proclaim it in the streets. "Practice"
it without regard for what other people think, say, or do. "Ashamed"
of a religion so glorious as the Catholic religion? Would we not be proud
to belong to a society of which kings and princes were members? Well, a few
centuries ago nearly all the kings, princes, and great men of the earth were
Catholics. All the saints were Catholics. All the Popes were Catholics. At
present over three hundred million people in the world are Catholics. This
Church was founded when Christ Our Lord was on earth, and is nearly two
thousand years old. All the other churches are only a few hundred years old.
We ought, therefore, to be proud of our religion, for which and in which so
many noble persons died. We should feel proud that we are Catholics; while
Protestants should feel ashamed in our presence, for they have deserted the
true standard of Christ, and followed some other leader who set up a religion
of his own in opposition to the true Church of Our Lord. They will not have
the cross or crucifix, the standard of Christ, in their churches or houses or
about their persons, and yet they claim to be Christians redeemed by the Cross.
We are called upon to defend or profess our religion when we have to do what
the Church and God require us to do: for example, hear Mass on Sundays and holy
days; abstain from the use of fleshmeat on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of
Lent, fast on fast-days, and the like, when we are among persons not Catholics.
A. The bishop gives the person he confirms a slight blow on the cheek to put
him in mind that he must be ready to suffer anything, even death, for the sake
of Christ.
A. To receive Confirmation worthily it is necessary to be in the state of
grace.
A. Persons of an age to learn should know the chief mysteries of faith and
the duties of a Christian, and be instructed in the nature and effects of this
Sacrament.
How can one be a good soldier who does not know the rules and
regulations of the army nor understand the commands of his general? How can
one be a good Christian who does not understand the laws of the Church and the
teachings of Christ? The "nature"--that is, understand the
Sacrament
itself. "Effects" that is, what it does in our souls.
A. It is a sin to neglect Confirmation, especially in these evil days
when faith and morals are exposed to so many and such violent temptations.
"Temptations"--from the sayings and writings of the enemies of
religion.
To neglect it when we have an opportunity of receiving it without any very
great difficulty would be a sin. When persons have been unfortunate enough to
grow up without Confirmation, they should come at any time in their lives to
receive it, and not be ashamed to do so on account of their age or condition in
life.
A. The effects of Confirmation are an increase of sanctifying grace, the
strengthening of our faith, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
"Increase;" because we must be in a state of grace, that is,
having
already sanctifying grace in our souls when we receive Confirmation.
"Strengtheningī " so that we have no doubt about the
doctrines we
believe.
A. The gifts of the Holy Ghost are wisdom, understanding, counsel,
fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.
A. We receive the gift of fear of the Lord to fill us with a dread of
sin.
On account of the goodness of God and the punishment He can inflict.
A. We receive the gift of piety to make us love God as a Father, and obey
Him because we love Him.
A. We receive the gift of knowledge to enable us to discover the will of God
in all things.
A. We receive the gift of fortitude to strengthen us to do the will of God
in all things.
Some know the will of God-what they should do-but they have not the
courage to follow the dictates of their conscience. For example, a person goes
with bad company: the gift of knowledge will teach him that he should give it
up; but the gift of fortitude will enable him to do what his conscience shows
him to be right.
A. We receive the gift of counsel to warn us of the deceits of the devil,
and of the dangers to salvation.
The devil is much wiser than we are, and has much more experience, being
among the people of the world ever since the time of Adam-about 6,000 years.
He could therefore easily deceive and overcome us if God Himself by the gift of
counsel did not enable us to discover his tricks and expose his plots. When at
times we are tempted, our conscience warns us, and if we follow the warning we
shall escape the sin. Counsel tells us when persons or places are dangerous
for our salvation.
A. We receive the gift of understanding to enable us to know more clearly
the mysteries of faith.
"Mysteries," truths we could never know by reason, but only by
the
teaching of God; and the gift of understanding enables us to know better what
His teaching means. The Apostles heard and knew what Our Lord taught, but they
did not fully understand the whole meaning till the Holy Ghost had come.
A. We receive the gift of wisdom to give us a relish for the things of God
and to direct our whole life and all our actions to His honor and glory.
"Relish," a liking for, a desire for.
A. The beatitudes are:
The beatitudes are part of a sermon Our Lord once preached to the people on the
Mount. (Matt. 5). When Our Lord wished to preach, the Jews would not
always allow Him to enter their synagogues or meeting houses; so He preached to
the people in the open air. Sometimes He stood in a boat by the seashore;
sometimes on a little hill, with the people standing or sitting near Him. Did
you ever think how you would have acted if you lived at that time and were
present when Our Lord preached? How anxious you would have been to get near to
Him? How you would have pushed your way through the crowd and listened to
every word? Why, then, do you sometimes pay so little attention in church or
at instructions when the words of Our Lord are repeated to you? Our Lord
instituted a Church which, as we know, is sometimes called the kingdom of
Heaven. In this sermon He laid down the condition for being good subjects of
His kingdom; that is, He gives the virtues we should practice to be good
children of the Church. He tells us what rewards we shall have for practicing
these virtues and leading a holy life: namely, Godīs grace and blessing in this
world and everlasting glory in Heaven.
A. The twelve fruits of the Holy Ghost are charity, joy, peace, patience,
benignity, goodness, long-suffering, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, and
chastity.
"Fruits," the things that grow from the gifts of the Holy
Ghost.
"Charity," love of God and. our neighbor, "Peace"
with God and
man and ourselves. With God, because we are His friends. With man, because we
deal justly with all and are kind to all. With ourselves, because we have a
good conscience, that does not accuse us of sin. "Benignity,"
disposition to do good and show kindness. "Long-suffering"--same
as
patience. "Modesty, continency, and chastity" refer to
purity in
thoughts, words, looks, and actions.
A. Penance is a Sacrament in which the sins committed after Baptism are
forgiven.
One who has never been baptized could not go to confession and receive
absolution, nor indeed any of the Sacraments.
A. The Sacrament of Penance remits sin and restores the friendship of God to
the soul by means of the absolution of the priest.
"Absolution" means the words the priest says at the time he
forgives the
sins. Absolve means to loose or free. When ministers or ambassadors
are sent by our government to represent the United States in England, France,
Germany, or other countries, whatever they do there officially is done by the
United States. If they make an agreement with the governments to which they
are sent, the United States sanctions it, and the very moment they sign the
agreement it is signed and sanctioned by the authority of our government whose
representatives they are, and their official action becomes the action of the
United States itself. But when their term of office expires, though they
remain in the foreign countries, they have no longer any power to sign
agreements in the name and with the authority of the United States.
You see, therefore, that it is the power that is given them, and not their own,
that they exercise. In like manner Our Lord commissioned His priests and gave
them the power to forgive sins, and whatever they do in the Sacrament of
Penance He Himself does. At the very moment the priest pronounces the words of
absolution on earth his sentence is ratified in Heaven and the sins of the
penitent are blotted out.
It may increase your veneration for the Sacrament to know the precise manner in
which absolution is given. After the confession and giving of the penance, the
priest first prays for the sinner, saying: "May Almighty God have mercy on
you,
and, your sins being forgiven, bring you to life everlasting. Amen." Then,
raising his right hand over the penitent, he says: "May the Almighty and
merciful Lord grant you pardon, absolution, and remission of your sins.
Amen."
Then he continues: "May Our Lord Jesus Christ absolve you, and 1, by His
authority, absolve you from every bond of excommunication and interdict, as far
as I have power and you stand in need. Then I absolve you from your sins, in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." At
these
last words he makes the Sign of the Cross over the penitent. In conclusion he
directs to God a prayer in behalf of the penitent in the following words:
"May
the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary and
of all the saints, and whatsoever good you may have done or evil you may have
suffered, be to you unto the remission of your sins, the increase of grace, and
the recompense of everlasting life. Amen." Then the priest says, "God
bless
you" "Go in peace: or some other expression showing his delight at
your
reconciliation with God.
A. I know that the priest has the power of absolving from sins
committed after Baptism, because Jesus Christ granted that power to the priests
of His Church when He said: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you
shall
forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall retain, they are
retained:ī
Every Christian knows Our Lord Himself had power to forgive sins: (1)
because He was God, and (2) because He often did forgive them while on earth,.
and proved that He did by performing some miracle; as, for example (Mark 2;
John 5), when He cured the poor men who had been sick and suffering for
many years, He said to them, "Thy sins are forgiven thee; arise, take up
thy
bed, and walk:ī And the men did so. Since Our Lord had the power Himself, He
could give it to His Apostles if He wished, and He did give it to them and
their successors. For if He did not, how could we and all others who, after
Baptism, have fallen into sin be cleansed from it? This Sacrament of Penance
was for all time, and so He left the power with His Church, which is to last as
long as there is a living human being upon the earth. Our Lord promised to His
Apostles before His death this power to forgive sins (Matt. 18:18), and
He gave it to them after His resurrection (John 20:23), when He appeared to
them and breathed on them, and said: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they
are
forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained"
A. The priests of the Church exercise the power of forgiving sins by hearing
the confession of sins, and granting pardon for them as ministers of God and in
His name.
The power to forgive sins implies the obligation of going to confession;
because, as most sins are secret, how could the Apostles know what sins to
forgive and what sins to retain-that is, not to forgive-unless they were told
by the sinner what sins he had committed? īThey could not see into his heart
as God can, and know his sins; and so if the sinner wished his sins forgiven,
he had to confess them to the Apostles or their successors. Therefore, since
we have the Sacrament of Penance, we must also have confession.
A. To receive the Sacrament of Penance worthily we must do five things:
When we are about to go to confession the first thing we should do is to pray
to the Holy Ghost to give us light to know and remember all our sins; to fully
understand how displeasing they are to God, and to have a great sorrow for
them, which includes the resolution of never committing them again. The next
thing we should do is:
A. The examination of conscience is an earnest effort to recall to mind all
the sins we have committed since our last worthy confession.
"Worthy confession," because if we made bad confessions we
must tell how
often we made them, and whether we received Holy Communion after them or not,
and also all the sins we told in the bad confessions, and all others committed
since the good confession. If, for example, a boy made a good confession in
January, and in confession in February concealed a mortal sin and went to
confession after that every month to December, he would have to go back to his
last good confession, and repeat all the sins committed since January, and also
say that he had gone to confession once a month and made bad confessions all
these times.
A. We can make a good examination of conscience by calling to memory the
Commandments of God, the precepts of the Church, the seven capital sins, and
the particular duties of our state in life, to find out the sins we have
committed.
A. Before beginning the examination of conscience we should pray to God to
give us light to know our sins and grace to detest them.
A. Contrition or sorrow for sin is a hatred of sin and a true grief of the
soul for having offended God, with a firm purpose of sinning no more.
"Offended" that is, done something to displease Him.
A. The sorrow we should have for our sins should be interior, supernatural,
universal, and sovereign.
A. When I say that our sorrow should be interior, I mean that it should come
from the heart, and not merely from the lips.
"Interior" that is, we must really have the sorrow in our
hearts. A
boy, for example, might cry in the confessional and pretend to the priest to be
very sorry, and the priest might be deceived and absolve him; but God, who sees
into our hearts, would know that he was not really sorry, but only pretending,
that his sorrow was not interior, but exterior; and God therefore would
withhold His forgiveness and would not blot out the sins, and the boy would
have a new sin of sacrilege upon his soul; because it is a sacrilege to allow
the priest to give you absolution if you know you have not the right
disposition, and you are not trying to do all that is required for a good
confession. So you understand you might deceive the priest and receive
absolution, but God would not allow the absolution to take effect, and the sins
would remain; for if the priest knew your dispositions as God did, or as you
know them, he would not give you absolution till your dispositions changed.
A. When I say that our sorrow should be supernatural, I mean that it should
be prompted by the grace of God, and excited by motives which spring from
faith, and not by merely natural motives.
"Supernatural"--that is, we must be sorry for the sin on
account of some
reason that God has made known to us. For example, either because our sin is
displeasing to God, or because we have lost Heaven by it, or because we fear to
be punished for it in Hell or Purgatory. But if we are sorry for our sin only
on account of some natural motive, then our sorrow is not of the right kind.
If a man was sorry for stealing only because he was caught and had to go to
prison for it, his sorrow would only be natural. Or if a boy was sorry for
telling lies only because he got a whipping for it, his sorrow would only be
natural. Or if a man was sorry for being intoxicated because he lost his
situation and injured his health, he would not have the necessary kind of
sorrow. These persons must be sorry for stealing, lying, or being intoxicated
because all these are sins against God--things forbidden by Him and worthy of
His punishment. If we are sorry for having offended God on account of His own
goodness, our contrition is said to be perfect. If we are sorry for the
sins because by them we are in great danger of being punished by God, or
because we have lost Heaven by them, and without any regard for Godīs own
goodness, then our contrition is said to be imperfect. Imperfect
contrition is called attrition.
A. When I say that our sorrow should be universal, I mean that we should be
sorry for our mortal sins without exception.
"Universal." If a person committed ten mortal sins, and was
sorry for
nine, but not for the tenth, then none of the sins would be forgiven. If you
committed a thousand mortal sins, and were sorry for all but one, none would be
forgiven. Why? Because you can never have Godīs grace and mortal sin in the
soul at the same time. Now this mortal sin will be on your soul till you are
sorry for it, and while it is on your soul Godīs grace will not come to you.
Again, you cannot be half sorry for having offended God; either you must be
entirely sorry, or not sorry at all. Therefore you cannot be sorry for only
part of your mortal sins.
A. When I say that our sorrow should be sovereign I mean that we should
grieve more for having offended God than for any other evil that can befall
us.
A. We should be sorry for our sins, because sin is the greatest of evils and
an offense against God our Creator, Preserver, and Redeemer, and because it
shuts us out of Heaven and condemns us to the eternal pains of Hell.
We consider an evil great in proportion to the length of time we have to
bear it. To be blind is certainly a misfortune; but it is a greater misfortune
to be blind for our whole life than for one day. Sin, therefore, is the
greatest of all evils; because the misfortune it brings upon us lasts not
merely for a great many years, but for all eternity. Even slight sufferings
would be terrible if they lasted forever, but the sufferings for mortal sin are
worse than we can describe or imagine, and they are forever. The greatest
evils in this world will not last forever, and are small when compared with
sin. Sin makes us ungrateful to God, who gives us our existence.
"Our Preserver," because if God ceased to watch over us and
provide for
us, even for a short time, we would cease to exist.
"Our Redeemer," who suffered so much for us.
A. There are two kinds of contrition: perfect contrition and imperfect
contrition.
A. Perfect contrition is that which fills us with sorrow and hatred for sin
because it offends God, who is infinitely good in Himself and worthy of all
love.
It can be a very hard thing to have perfect contrition, but we should
always try to have it, so that our contrition may be as perfect as possible.
This perfect contrition is the kind of contrition we must have if our mortal
sins are to be forgiven if we are in danger of death and cannot go to
confession. Imperfect contrition with the priestīs absolution will blot out
our mortal sins.
A. Imperfect contrition is that by which we hate what offends God because by
it we lose Heaven and deserve Hell; or because sin is so hateful in itself.
A. Imperfect contrition is sufficient for a worthy confession, but we should
endeavor to have perfect contrition.
A. By a firm purpose of sinning no more I mean a fixed resolve not only to
avoid all mortal sin, but also its near occasions.
"Fixed." Not for a certain time, but for all the future.
A. By the near occasions of sin I mean all the persons, places and things
that may easily lead us into sin.
"Occasions." There are many kinds of occasions of sin. First,
we
have voluntary and necessary occasions, or those we can avoid and those we
cannot avoid. For example: if a companion uses immodest conversation we can
avoid that occasion, because we can keep away from him; but if the one who sins
is a member of our own family, always living with us, we cannot so easily avoid
that occasion. Second, near and remote occasions. An occasion is said
to be "near" when we usually fall into sin by it. For
instance, if a
man gets intoxicated almost every time he visits a certain place, then that
place is a "near occasion" of sin for him; but if he gets
intoxicated
only once out of every fifty times or so that he goes there, then it is said to
be a "remote occasion." Now, it is not enough to avoid the
sins: we must
also avoid the occasions. If we have a firm purpose of amendment, if we desire
to do better, we must be resolved to avoid everything that will lead us to sin.
It is not enough to say, I will go to that place or with that person, but I
will never again commit the same sins. No matter what you think now, if you go
into the occasion, you will fall again; because Our Lord, who cannot speak
falsely, says: "He who loves the danger will perish in it." Now the
occasion of
sin is always "the danger"; and if you go into it, Our Lordīs words
will come
true, and you will fall miserably. Take away the cause, take away the
occasion, and then the sin will cease of itself. Let us suppose the plaster in
your house fell down, and you found that it fell because there was a leak in
the water-pipe above, and the water coming through wet the plaster and made it
fall. What is the first thing your father would do in that case? Why, get a
plumber and stop up the leak in the pipe before putting up the plaster again.
Would it not be foolish to engage a plasterer to repair the ceiling while the
pipe was still leaking? Everyone would say that man must be out of his mind:
the plaster will fall down as often as he puts it up, and it matters not either
how well he puts it up. If he wants it to stay up, he must first mend the
pipe-take away the cause of its falling. Now the occasion of sin is like the
leak in the pipe-in the case of sin, it will very likely cause you to fall
every time. Stop up the leak, take away the occasion, and then you will not
fall into sin-at least not so frequently.
"The persons" are generally bad companions, and though they
may not be
bad when alone, they are bad when with us, and thus we become also bad
companions for them, and occasions of sin.
"The places," Liquor saloons, low theaters, dance halls, and
all places
where we may see or hear anything against faith or morals.
"Things," Bad books, pictures, and the like.
A. Confession is the telling of our sins to a duly authorized priest, for
the purpose of obtaining forgiveness.
"Duly authorized"--one sent by the bishop of the diocese in
which you
are.
"Forgiveness." You might tell a priest all your sins while in
ordinary
conversation with him, but that would not be confession, because you would not
be telling them to have them pardoned. If a person has lost the use of his
speech, he can make his confession by writing his sins on a paper and giving it
to the priest in the confessional. If the priest returns the paper the
penitent must be careful to destroy it afterwards. Also, if you have a poor
memory you may write down the sins you wish to confess, and read them from the
paper in the confessional; then you also must be careful to destroy the paper
after confession. If a person whose language the priest does not understand is
dying, or is obliged to make his yearly confession, he must tell what he can by
signs, show that he is sorry for his sins, and thus receive absolution. In a
word, the priest would act with him as he would with one who had lost the use
of his speech and power to write.
A. We are bound to confess all our mortal sins, but it is well also to
confess our venial sins.
"Bound"--obliged in such a way that our confession would be
bad if we
did not tell them.
"Well," because we should tell all the sins we can remember;
but if we
did not tell a venial sin after we had told a mortal sin, our confession would
not be bad. Or if we committed a little venial sin after confession, that
should not keep us from Holy Communion; because the Holy Communion itself would
blot out that and any other venial sin we might have upon our souls: so that
you should never let anything keep you away, unless you are certain you have
committed a mortal sin after the confession, or have broken your fast.
A. The chief qualities of a good confession are three: it must be humble,
sincere, and entire.
A. Our confession is humble when we accuse ourselves of our sins,
with a deep sense of shame and sorrow for having offended God.
A. Our confession is sincere when we tell our sins honestly and truthfully,
neither exaggerating nor excusing them.
"Exaggerating." You must never tell in confession a sin you
did not
commit, any more than conceal one you did commit. You must tell just the sins
committed, and no more or less; and if you are in doubt whether you have
committed the sin, or whether the thing done was a sin, then you must tell your
doubts to the priest: but do not say you committed such and such sins when you
do not know whether you did or not, or only because you think it likely that
you did.
A. Our confession is entire when we tell the number and kinds of our sins
and the circumstances which change their nature.
"Number"--the exact number, if you know it; as, for example,
when we
miss Mass we can generally tell exactly the number of times. But when we tell
lies, for instance, we may not know the exact number: then we say how often in
the day, or that it is a habit with us, etc.
"Kinds" whether they are cursing, or stealing, or lying, etc.
"Circumstances which change their nature," In the case of
stealing, for
example, you need not tell whether it was from a grocery, a bakery, or
dry-goods store you stole, for that circumstance does not change the nature of
the sin: you have simply to tell the amount you took. But if you stole from a
church you would have to tell that, because that is a circumstance that gives
the sin of stealing a new character, and makes it sacrilegious stealing. Or if
you stole from a poor beggar all he possessed in the world, so that you left
him starving, that would be a circumstance making your sin worse, and so you
would have to tell it. Therefore you have to tell any circumstance that really
makes your sin much worse or less than it seems; all other circumstances you
need not tell: they will only confuse you, and make you forget your sins and
waste the priestīs time.
A. If we cannot remember the number of our sins, we should tell the
number as nearly as possible, and say how often we have sinned in a day, a
week, or a month and how long the habit or practice has lasted.
A. If without our fault we forget to confess a mortal sin, our confession is
worthy, and the sin is forgiven; but it must be told in confession if it again
comes to our mind.
A. It is a grievous offense willfully to conceal a mortal sin in
confession, because we thereby tell a lie to the Holy Ghost, and make our
confession worthless.
"A lie to the Holy Ghost," God sees every sin we commit, and
in His
presence we present ourselves to the priest in the confessional, and declare
that we are confessing all. If, then, we willfully conceal a sin that we are
bound to confess, God is a witness to our sacrilegious lie. If I see you in
some place to which you were forbidden to go, and you, knowing that I saw you,
positively deny that you were there, your guilt would be doubly great, for,
besides the sin of disobedience committed by going to the forbidden place, you
also resist the known truth, and endeavor to prove that 1, when I declare I saw
you, am telling what is untrue. In a similar manner, concealing a sin in
confession is equivalent to denying before God that we are guilty of it.
Besides, it is a great folly to conceal a sin, because it must be confessed
sooner or later, and the longer we conceal it the deeper will be our sense of
shame for the sacrileges committed. Again, why should one be ashamed to
confess to the priest what he has not been ashamed to do before God, unless he
has greater respect for the priest than he has for the Almighty God-an
absurdity we cannot believe. Moreover, the shame you experience in telling
your sins is a kind of penance for them. Do you not suppose Our Lord knew,
when He instituted the Sacrament of Penance, that people would be ashamed to
confess? Certainly He did; and that act of humility is pleasing to God, and is
a kind of punishment for your sins, and probably takes away some of the
punishment you would have to suffer for them. Often, too, the thought of
having to confess will keep you from committing the sin. There is another
thought that should encourage us to gladly make a full confession of all our
sins, and it is this: it is easier to tell them to the priest alone than to
have them exposed, unforgiven, before the whole world on the Day of Judgment.
Do not imagine that your confessor will think less of you on account of your
sins. The confessor does not think of your sins after he leaves the
confessional. How could he remember all the confessions he hears ī
often hundreds in a single month? And what is more-he does not even wish to
recall the sinful things heard in the confessional, because he wishes to keep
his own mind pure, and his soul free from every stain. The priest is always
better pleased to hear the confession of a great sinner or of one who has been
a long time from the Sacraments, than of one who goes frequently or who has
little to tell. He is not glad, of course, that the sinner has committed great
sins, but he is glad that since he has had the misfortune to sin so much, he
has now the grace and courage to seek forgiveness. Our Lord once said (Luke
15:7) while preaching, that the angels and saints in Heaven rejoice more at
seeing one sinner doing penance than they do over ninety-nine good persons who
did not need to do penance. The greater the danger to which a person has been
exposed, the more thankful he and his friends are for escape or recovery from
it. If your brother fell into the ocean and was rescued just as he was going
down for the last time, you would feel more
grateful than if he was rescued from some little pond into which he had
slipped, and in which there was scarcely any danger of his being drowned. So,
also, the nearer we are to losing our, souls and going to Hell, the more
delighted the angels and saints are when we are saved. One who has escaped
great danger will more carefully avoid similar accidents in the future: in like
manner, the sinner, after having escaped the danger of eternal death by the
pardon of his sins, should never again risk his salvation.
A. He who has willfully concealed a mortal sin in confession must not only
confess it, but must also repeat all the sins he has committed since his last
worthy confession.
"Willfully," Remember, forgetting is not the same as
concealing; but if
you should willfully neglect to examine your conscience or make any effort to
know your sins before going to confession, then forgetting would be equivalent
to concealing. Without any preparation your confession could hardly be a good
one. When you are in doubt whether an action is sinful or not, or whether you
have confessed it before, you should not leave the confessional with the doubt
upon your mind.
It is a foolish practice, however, to be always disturbing your conscience by
thinking of past sins, especially of those that occurred very early in your
life. Sometimes it is dangerous; because if, while thinking of your past sins,
you should take pleasure in them, you would commit a new sin similar to the
past sins in which you take delight.
It is best, therefore, not to dwell in thought upon any particular past sin
with the time, place, and circumstances of its commission; but simply to
remember in general that you have in the past sinned against this or that
Commandment or virtue.
The past is no longer under our control, while the future is, and becomes for
us, therefore, the all-important portion of our lives. Not unfrequently it may
be an artifice of the devil to keep us so occupied with past deeds that we may
not attend to the dangers of the future. Do not, then, after your confession
spend your time in thinking of the sins you confessed, but of how you will
avoid them in the future. When a wound is healed up, nobody thinks of opening
it again to see if it has healed properly; so when the wounds made in our souls
by sin are healed up by the absolution, we should not open them again.
This is the rule with regard to our ordinary confessions; but we should
sometimes make a general confession. What is a general confession? It is the
confession of the sins of our whole life or of a portion-say one, two or five,
etc., years-of our life. A general confession may be necessary, useful, or
hurtful. It is necessary, as you know, when our past confessions were bad. It
is useful, though not necessary, on special occasions in our lives; for
example, in the time of a retreat or mission; in the time of preparation for
First Communion, Confirmation, Matrimony, etc., or in preparing for death. It
is very useful also for persons about to change their state of life; for such
as are about to become priests or religious, etc. It is useful because it
gives us a better knowledge of the state of our souls, as we see their
condition not merely for a month or two, but for our whole lifetime. We are
looking at them as God will look at them in the Last Judgment, considering all
the good and evil we have ever done, and comparing the amount of the one with
the amount of the other. We resolve to increase the good and diminish the evil
in our future lives. We promise to do penance for the past and to avoid sin
for the future; and thus we are benefited in general confession by this
judgment of ourselves, as we may call it.
General confession is hurtful to scrupulous persons. Scrupulous persons are
those who think almost everything they do is a sin. They are always
dissatisfied with their confessions, and fear to approach the Sacraments.
Their conscience is never at ease, and they are forever unhappy. It is very
wrong for them to think and act in this manner, and they must use every means
in their power to overcome their scruples.
Our Lord in His goodness never intended to make us unhappy by instituting the
Sacraments, but on the contrary to make us happy, and set our minds and
consciences at ease in the reception of His grace. Scrupulous persons must do
exactly whatever their confessor advises, no matter what they themselves may
think. Such persons, as you can plainly see, should not make general
confessions, because their consciences would be more disturbed than pacified by
them.
You prepare for general confession as you would for any other, except that you
take a longer time for it, and do not pay so much attention to your more
trifling sins.
A. The priest gives us a penance after confession, that we may satisfy God
for the temporal punishment due to our sins.
"Penance," The little penance the priest gives may not fully
satisfy
God, but shows by our accepting it that we are willing to do penance. What,
for example, is a penance of five "Our Fathers" compared with the
guilt of one
mortal sin, for which we would have to suffer in Hell for all eternity? Then
think of the penances performed by the Christians many centuries ago, in the
early ages of the Church. There were four stages of penance. The churches
were divided into four parts by railings and gates. The first railing across
the church was at some distance from the altar, the second was a little below
the middle of the church, and the third was near the door. Those who committed
great sins had to stand clad in coarse garments near the entrance of the
church, and beg the prayers of those who entered. After they had done this
kind of penance for a certain time, they were allowed to come into the church
as far as the second railing. They were allowed to hear the sermon, but were
not permitted to be present at the Mass. After doing sufficient penance, they
were allowed to remain for Mass, but could not receive Holy Communion. When
they had performed all the penance imposed upon them, they were allowed to
receive the Sacraments and enjoy all the rights and privileges of faithful
children of the Church. These penances lasted for many days and sometimes for
years, according to the gravity of the sins committed. The sins for which
these severe penances were performed were generally sins that had been
committed publicly, and hence the penance, amendment, and reparation had also
to be public.
"Temporal Punishment," Every sin has two punishments attached
to it. one
called the eternal and the other the temporal. Let me explain by an example.
If 1, turning highway robber, waylay a man, beat him and steal his watch, I do
him, as you see, a double injury, and deserve a double punishment for the
twofold crime of beating and robbing him. He might pardon me for the injuries
caused by the beating, but that would not free me from the obligation of
restoring to him his watch or its value, for the fact that he forgives me for
the act of stealing does not give me the right to keep what justly belongs to
him. Now, when we sin against God we in the first place insult Him, and
secondly rob Him of what is deservedly His due; namely, the worship, respect,
obedience, love, etc., that we owe Him as our Creator, Preserver, and Redeemer.
In the Sacrament of Penance God forgives the insult offered by sinning, but
requires us to make restitution for that of which the sin has deprived Him. In
every sin there is an act of turning away from God and an act of turning to
some creature in His stead. If a soldier pledged to defend his country deserts
his army in time of war, he is guilty of a dishonorable, contemptible act; but
if, besides deserting his own army, he goes over to aid the enemy, he becomes
guilty of another and still greater crime-he becomes a traitor for whom the
laws of nations reserve their severest penalties. By sin we, who in Baptism
and Confirmation have promised to serve God and war against His enemies, desert
Him and go over to them; for Our Blessed Lord has said: He that is not with Me
is against Me.
We pay the temporal debt due to our sins, that is, make the restitution, by our
penances upon earth, or by our suffering in Purgatory, or by both combined.
The penances performed upon earth are very acceptable and pleasing to God; and
hence we should be most anxious to do penance here that we may have less to
suffer in Purgatory. St. Augustine, who had been a great sinner, often prayed
that God might send him many tribulations while on earth, that he might have
less to endure in Purgatory. Therefore, after performing the penance the
priest gives you in the confessional, it is wise to impose upon yourself other
light penances in keeping with your age and condition, but never undertake
severe penances or make religious vows and promises without consulting your
confessor. In every case be careful first of all to perform the penance
imposed upon you in the reception of the Sacrament. The penance given in
confession has a special value, which none of the penances selected by yourself
could have.
If you forget to say your penance, your confession is not on that account
worthless; but as the penance is one of the parts of the Sacrament, namely, the
satisfaction, you should say it as soon as possible, and in the manner your
confessor directs. If you cannot perform the penance imposed by your
confessor, you should inform him of that fact, and ask him to give you another
in its stead.
Indulgences also are a means of satisfying for this temporal punishment.
Sometimes God inflicts the temporal punishment in this world by sending us
misfortunes or sufferings, especially such as are brought on by the sins
committed.
A. The Sacrament of Penance remits the eternal punishment due to sin, but it
does not always remit the temporal punishment which God requires as
satisfaction for our sins.
Remember that Baptism differs from Penance in this respect, that
although they both remit sin, Penance does not take away all the
temporal punishment, while Baptism takes away all the punishment, both eternal
and temporal; so that if we died immediately after Baptism we would go directly
to Heaven, while if we died immediately after Penance we would generally go to
Purgatory to make satisfaction for the temporal debt.
A. God requires a temporal punishment as a satisfaction for sin to teach us
the great evil of sin, and to prevent us from failing again.
A. The chief means by which we satisfy God for the temporal punishment due
to sin are: prayer, fasting, almsgiving, all spiritual and corporal works of
mercy, and the patient suffering of the ills of life.
"Chief," but not the only means. "Fasting," especially
the fasts
imposed by the Church-in Lent for instance. Lent is the forty days before
Easter Sunday during which we fast and pray to prepare ourselves for the
resurrection of Our Lord, and also to remind us of His own fast of forty days
before His Passion. "Almsgiving"--that is, money or goods
given to the
poor. "Spiritual" works of mercy are those good works we do
for
personsī souls. "Corporal" works of mercy are those we do for
their
bodies. "Ills of life"--sickness or poverty or misfortune,
especially
when we have not brought them upon ourselves by sin.
A. The chief spiritual works of mercy are seven: to admonish the sinner, to
instruct the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to comfort the sorrowful, to
bear wrongs patiently, to forgive all injuries, and to pray for the living and
the dead.
"To admonish the sinner." If we love our neighbor we should
help him in
his distress, even when it is an inconvenience to us. We should help him also
to correct his faults, we should point them out and warn him of them. We are
obliged to do so in the following circumstances: First. When his fault is a
mortal sin. Second. When we have some authority or influence over him.
Third. When there is reason to believe that our warning will make him better
instead of worse. If our advice only makes him worse, then we should not say
anything to him about his fault, but keep out of his company ourselves.
"Ignorant" especially in their religion. "Doubtful"
about
something in religion which you can explain and make clear to them.
"Comfort," saying kind words of encouragement to them. "Wrongs,"
things not deserved; for example, persons talking ill about us, accusing us
falsely, etc.; but if the false accusations, etc., are going to give scandal,
then we must defend ourselves against them. If, for instance, lies were told
about the father of a family, and it were likely all his children would believe
them and lose their respect for his authority, then he must let them know the
truth. But when we patiently suffer wrongs that injure only ourselves, and
that are known only to God and ourselves, God sees our sufferings and rewards
us. What matters it what people think we are if God knows all our doings and
is pleased with them? "Living"--especially for the conversion
of
sinners, or for those who are on their deathbed. "The dead"--those
suffering in Purgatory, especially if we have ever caused them to sin.
A. The chief corporal works of mercy are seven: to feed the hungry, to give
drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to ransom the captive, to harbor the
harborless, to visit the sick, and to bury the dead.
"Ransom the captive"--that is, chiefly those who while
teaching or
defending the true religion in pagan lands are taken prisoners by the enemies
of our faith. You have perhaps heard of the Crusades or read about them in
your history. Now let me briefly tell you what they were and why they were
commenced. About the year 570, that is, about thirteen hundred years ago, when
the Christian religion was spread over nearly the whole world, a man named
Mahomet was born in Arabia. He pretended to be a great prophet sent from God,
and gathered many followers about him. He told them his religion must be
spread by the sword. He plundered cities and towns, and divided the spoils
with his followers. He told them that all who died fighting for him would
certainly go to Heaven. In a short time his followers became very numerous;
for his religion was an easy and profitable one, allowing them to commit sin
without fear of punishment, and giving them share of his plunder. Many others
not influenced by these motives joined his religion for fear of being put to
death. His followers were afterwards called by the general name of Saracens.
They took possession of the Holy Land, of the City of Jerusalem, of the tomb of
Our Lord, and of every spot rendered dear to Christians by Our Saviourīs life
and labors there. They persecuted the Christians who went to visit the Holy
Land, and put many of them to death. When the news of these dreadful crimes
reached Europe, the Christian kings and princes, at the request of the Pope,
raised large armies and set out for the East to war against the Saracens and
recover the Holy Land. Eight of these expeditions, or Crusades, as they are
called, went out during two hundred years, that is, from 1095 to 1272. Those
who took part in them are called Crusaders, from the word cross, because
every soldier wore a red cross upon his shoulder.
Some of these expeditions were successful, and some were not; but, on the
whole, they prevented the Saracens from coming to Europe and taking possession
of it. Many of the Christian soldiers and many of the pilgrims who visited the
Holy Land were taken prisoners by the Saracens and held, threatened with death,
till the Christians in Europe paid large sums of money as a ransom for their
liberty. To free these captives was a great act of charity, and is one of the
corporal works of mercy. Ransom means to pay money for anotherīs
freedom. Even now there are sometimes captives in pagan lands.
A pilgrim is one who goes on a journey to visit some holy place for the purpose
of thus honoring God. He would not be a pilgrim if he went merely through
curiosity. He must go with the holy intention of making his visit an act of
worship. In our time pilgrimages to the Holy Land, to Rome, and other places
are quite frequent. "To harbor" that is, to give one who has
no home a
place of rest. A harbor is an inlet of the ocean where ships can rest and be
out of danger; so we can also call the home or