Before Original Sin

Vol 8 Issue 5 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
January 31, 2015 ~ St. John Bosco, opn!

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (4)
2. Septuagesima Sunday
3. St Ignatius of Antioch
4 .Marriage and Parenthood (5)
5. Articles and notices

Dear Reader:

Tomorrow begins the pre-Lenten season. Holy Mother Church will be looking at reviewing the Ten Commandments as the faithful prepare to confess and receive their Easter Communion. Secular Society, in the name of Freedom, has taken the Ten Commandments out of the public view. Out of sight, out of mind. But, if one observes the liturgy, Holy Mother Church is always placing them before us: Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments (Ps. 111:1-3—Tract/Gradual for Martyrs, Doctors, Confessors, etc.). O Lord, make us obedient to your commandments. . . . (Postcommunion Prayer for Tuesday of the Second Week in Lent) The Commandments are not commands of a Master, but the Wisdom of a Father guiding His children through life (Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge; for I have believed thy commandments—Ps. 118:16.) It is acknowledgement that, after Original Sin, the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth (Gen. 8:21) and the care of discipline is love: and love is the keeping of her laws: and the keeping of her laws is the firm foundation of incorruption (Wisd. 6:19) For he that rejecteth wisdom, and discipline, is unhappy: and their hope is vain, and their labours without fruit, and their works unprofitable(Wisd. 3:11). May we have the commandments always before our eyes (cf. Deut. 11:18) by posting them in our homes so our children see them and us observing them.

As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit. —The Editor

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Baptism

Means of Salvation

Before Original Sin 

Adam and Eve in Paradise: God’s Gifts to Mankind

And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth. And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth. And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat: And to all beasts of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to all that move upon the earth, and wherein there is life, that they may have to feed upon. And it was so done. (Genesis 1:26-30)

And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning: wherein he placed man whom he had formed. And the Lord God brought forth of the ground all manner of trees, fair to behold, and pleasant to eat of: the tree of life also in the midst of paradise: and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:7-9)

And the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it. And he commanded him, saying: Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat: But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death. And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself. And the Lord God having formed out of the ground all the beasts of the earth, and all the fowls of the air, brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: for whatsoever Adam called any living creature the same is its name. And Adam called all the beasts by their names, and all the fowls of the air, and all the cattle of the field: but for Adam there was not found a helper like himself. Then the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon Adam: and when he was fast asleep, he took one of his ribs, and filled up flesh for it. And the Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman: and brought her to Adam. And Adam said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh. And they were both naked: to wit, Adam and his wife: and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:15-25)

What was the Original State of Man? In nature he was perfect; he possessed full integrity. This integrity included freedom from concupiscence, freedom from death and freedom from suffering with endowed gifts of knowledge and strength.

The Catechism of the Council of Trent [see following note] gives this explanation:

Lastly, he formed man from the slime of the earth, immortal and impassable, not, however, by the strength of nature, but by the bounty of God. His soul he created to his own image and likeness; gifted him with free will, and tempered all his motions and appetites, so as to subject them, at all times, to the dictate of reason. He then added the invaluable gift of original righteousness, and next gave him dominion over all other animals.

Adam and Eve had freedom from concupiscence or uncontrollable desires, what is now described as an inclination to sin. Adam and Eve, before their sin, were not affected by sensuality that was not directed by reason. One reads in Genesis 2:25: They were both naked, to wit, Adam and his wife; and were not ashamed. Although not a sin of itself, concupiscence is that which the Apostle sometimes calls sin (cf. Rom. vi. 12 et seq.), . .  . because there is, in the regenerated, sin in the true and proper sense but only because it is from sin and inclines to sin. (Council of Trent; D792).  The words, Adam and his wife, preceded by the special creation of Eve and the words: Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh. (Gen. 2:25, 24) opposes any relationship between the Original Sin and a sin of sensuality.

The first man and woman and their descendants were not destined to die, but to be transferred to heaven. The very command of God, Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat: But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat, is followed by the consequence of breaking this command: For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death. Though it is understood the spiritual death, loss of the life of God; it is also taken in the literal physical sense of the death of the body. The Council of Trent affirms this:

If anyone does not profess that the first man Adam immediately lost the justice and holiness in which he was constituted when he disobeyed the command of God in the Garden of Paradise; and that, through the offense of this sin, he incurred the death with which God had previously threatened him and, together with death, bondage in the power of him who from that time had the empire of death (cf. Heb. ii. 14), that is, of the devil; “and that it was for the worse through the offense of this sin” (Indiculus of St. Prosper of Aquitaine; D130): let him be anathema. (D788)

In the book of Wisdom, the divine Author tells us:  God made not death  (1:13) but it was by the envy of the devil death came into the world. (2:24). St. Paul instructs the Romans in the same faith: By one man (Adam) sin entered into the world and by sin death. (5:12) There were those who would say man, by nature, would have died even if Adam had not sinned, causing the Council of Carthage, with the approval of Pope Zosimus (417-18), to condemn them:

All the bishops who were gathered in the holy Council of the Church of Carthage agreed on this: whoever says that Adam, the first man, was created mortal so that, whether he sinned or not, he would have died a bodily death, that is he would have departed from the body, not as a punishment for sin but by the necessity of his nature: let him be anathema (D101).

As the name implies, the Tree of Life was the source of that gift of immortality as supported by the fact that after the Fall, God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden with the words, lest perhaps he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. (Gen. 3:22) Pius V, therefore, condemned the works of Michael de Bay, which claimed the immortality of the first man was not a gift of grace, but his natural condition(D1078). Saint Augustine describes it as follows:

(De Gen. ad Litt. VI 25, 36), to be conceived as posse non mori (= the possibility of not dying) not as non posse mori (= impossibility of dying). (De Gen. ad Litt. VI 25, 36), to be conceived as posse non mori (= the possibility of not dying) not as non posse mori (= impossibility of dying).

The first humans were in a paradise; everything was a revelation of God’s goodness towards man to express that God desired only happiness for mankind. He is the Father from whom every best gift, and every perfect gift (cf. James 1:17) is bestowed on mankind. Health and freedom from suffering are essential to happiness and immortality. The Church holds that Adam and Eve had the possibility of remaining freeing from suffering and only in this context can the consequences of their sin be a punishment:

To the woman also he said: I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband’ s power, and he shall have dominion over thee. And to Adam he said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work; with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return. (Gen. 3:16-19)

This is not to be interpreted that mankind would not have to labor, only that their labor would bring happiness. Adam was commanded to dress the paradise given him and to keep it (cf. Gen. 2:15). He would be “creating” good works and thereby cooperating with God, just as Eve would in child bearing, and both enjoying the fruits of their labors.

God created Adam and Eve as mature adults, not dependent on any other. They would, according to common sense and God’s providence, have been infused with the knowledge needed to live a happy life, as also the knowledge of their supernatural end. That knowledge is expressed in the words of Scripture:

And the Lord God having formed out of the ground all the beasts of the earth, and all the fowls of the air, brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: for whatsoever Adam called any living creature the same is its name. And Adam called all the beasts by their names, and all the fowls of the air, and all the cattle of the field. (Gen. 2:19-20)

He is to dress and keep the garden, which involves a deep understanding of the natural world and he begins by naming the creatures God has created. Again, when God presented Adam with the woman, Adam is able to express the perfect understanding of her relationship with him: And Adam said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh. (ibid. 2:23-24) The words of Ecclesiasticus apply here:

He created of him a helpmate like to himself: he gave them counsel, and a tongue, and eyes, and ears, and a heart to devise: and he filled them with the knowledge of understanding. He created in them the science of the spirit, he filled their heart with wisdom, and shewed them both good and evil. He set his eye upon their hearts to shew them the greatness of his works: That they might praise the name which he hath sanctified: and glory in his wondrous acts, that they might declare the glorious things of his works. Moreover he gave them instructions, and the law of life for an inheritance. (17:5-9)

According to St. Cyril of Alexandria, “Adam, the head of the race, was perfect in knowledge immediately from the first moment of his emergence” (In loan. 1, 9). St. Thomas, in his dialectical method states:

Now no one can instruct others unless he has knowledge, and so the first man was established by God in such a manner as to have knowledge of all those things for which man has a natural aptitude. And such are whatever are virtually contained in the first self-evident principles, that is, whatever truths man is naturally able to know. Moreover, in order to direct his own life and that of others, man needs to know not only those things which can be naturally known, but also things surpassing natural knowledge; because the life of man is directed to a supernatural end: just as it is necessary for us to know the truths of faith in order to direct our own lives. Wherefore the first man was endowed with such a knowledge of these supernatural truths as was necessary for the direction of human life in that state. But those things which cannot be known by merely human effort, and which are not necessary for the direction of human life, were not known by the first man; such as the thoughts of men, future contingent events, and some individual facts, as for instance the number of pebbles in a stream; and the like. (S. th. I 94, 3.)

If one were to have a picture (which has been presented over and over in books, in art, and films), as man and woman, as Adam and his wife (Eve), they had a perfect life where there was no fear—for even the animals instinctively recognized the superiority of man and were submissive toward him as seen in the relationship between wild animals and their trainers—and the earth produced bountifully such that Adam and Eve would never want, and knowing that it is this idyllic paradise that their children and the children of their children, when born, would inherit also this Paradise, the garden of Eden and all the earth.

(To be continued)

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Addendum

Concerning the Roman Catechism

Some would discredit the Catechism of the Council of Trent as not being an infallible document. Granted this may be true, yet the preface and the promulgation of Popes does not allow a faithful Catholic to dismiss the Catechism as something heretical or capable of being rejected. Those who do not find what they want to believe in the Catechism want a religion that is not Catholic. Those who claim the Catechism as heretical would deny the Catholic Church as infallible since she has believed in these teachings, drawn from Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, and her Popes and Councils, from Apostolic times. Let us see how the Catechism is to be accepted as outlined in the preface to the Catechism:

As this preaching of the divine word should never be interrupted in the Church of God, so in these our days it becomes necessary to labour with more than ordinary zeal and piety to nurture and strengthen the faithful with sound and wholesome doctrine, as with the food of life: for “false prophets have gone forth into the world” (I John 4:1) “with various and strange doctrines” (Heb. 13:9) to corrupt the minds of the faithful; of whom the Lord hath said “I sent them not, and they ran; I spoke not to them, yet they prophesied.” (Jerem. 23:21) In this unholy work, to such extremes has their impiety, practised in all the arts of Satan, been carried, that it would seem almost impossible to confine it within bounds; and did we not rely on the splendid promises of the Saviour, who declared that he had “built his Church on so solid a foundation, that the gates of hell should never prevail against it,” (Matt. 16:18) we should be filled with most alarming apprehension lest, beset on every side by such a host of enemies, assailed by so many and such formidable engines, the Church of God should, in these days, fall beneath their combined efforts. To omit those illustrious states which heretofore professed, in piety and holiness, the Catholic faith transmitted to them by their ancestors, but are now gone astray, wandering from the paths of truth, and openly declaring that their best claims of piety are founded on a total abandonment of the faith of their fathers: there is no region, however remote, no place however securely guarded, no corner of the Christian republic, into which this pestilence has not sought secretly to insinuate itself. Those, who proposed to themselves to corrupt the minds of the faithful, aware that they could not hold immediate personal intercourse with all, and thus pour into their ears their poisoned doctrines, by adopting a different plan, disseminated error and impiety more easily and extensively. Besides those voluminous works, by which they sought the subversion of the Catholic faith; to guard against which, however, containing, as they did, open heresy, required, perhaps, little labour or circumspection; they also composed in numerable smaller books, which, veiling their errors under the semblance of piety, deceived with incredible facility the simple and the incautious.

The Fathers, therefore, of the general Council of Trent, anxious to apply some healing remedy to an evil of such magnitude, were not satisfied with having decided the more important points work of Catholic doctrine against the heresies of our times, but deemed it further necessary to deliver some fixed form of instructing the faithful in the truths of religion from the very rudiments of Christian knowledge; a form to be followed by those to whom are lawfully intrusted the duties of pastor and teacher. In works of this sort many, it is true, have already employed their pens, and earned the reputation of great piety and learning. The Fathers, however, deemed it of the first importance that a work should appear, sanctioned by the authority of the Holy Synod, from which pastors and all others on whom the duty of imparting instruction devolves, may draw with security precepts for the edification of the faithful; that as there is “one Lord, one faith” there may also be one standard and prescribed form of propounding the dogmas of faith, and instructing Christians in all the duties of piety.

Therefore, to reject the Catechism of the Council of Trent is tantamount to reject that universality of faith this Holy Council sanctioned to provide. It is also to reject the principle upon which Catholics have taken up the cause to defend this same universal faith that has been assailed by the reformers of Vatican II.

DECREE OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.

THAT the faithful may approach the Sacraments with greater reverence and devotion, the Holy Synod commands all Bishops not only to explain, in a manner accommodated to the capacity of the receivers, the nature and use of the Sacraments, when they are to be administered by themselves; but also to see that every Pastor piously and prudently do the same, in the vernacular language, should it be necessary and convenient. This exposition is to accord with a form to be prescribed by the Holy Synod for the administration of all the Sacraments, in a Catechism, WHICH BISHOPS WILL TAKE CARE TO HAVE FAITHFULLY TRANSLATED INTO THE VERNACULAR LANGUAGE, AND EXPOUNDED TO THE PEOPLE BY ALL PASTORS.

* Conc. Trid. Sess. 24. de Reform, c. 7

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Septuagesima Sunday

Benedict Baur, O.S.B.

God’s call

1. “The kingdom of heaven is like to an householder, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard” (Gospel). At the third, the sixth, and the ninth hour he returns to the market place in search of laborers. At the eleventh hour, that is, at the time of the New Covenant, he called us. “Why stand you here all the day idle? . . . Go you also into my vineyard,” we are told in the Gospel on Septuagesima Sunday.
2. The first call. The householder, the heavenly Father, calls us to labor in His vineyard early in the morning, that is, in our youth. At the time of our baptism He said to us, “Go you also into My vineyard.” He enclosed us in His holy vineyard, the Church, and set us to work. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind and thy whole strength” (Mark 12:30). “I am the Lord thy God, . . . thou shalt not have strange gods before Me” (Exod. 20:2 f.). We have declared ourselves ready to serve Him. We have entered into a solemn agreement to obey God, to observe His commandments, to promote His honor and glory, and to extend His kingdom. We are obliged to deny ourselves, to labor for Him, to pray to Him, to suffer for Him, and to fight for Him. We should use our hands only to execute His will, our tongue only to speak what He wills. Our feet must carry us only to those places where He would have us be. Our hearts should love Him alone. All our strength, our powers, our talents, should be consecrated to His service. He will allow us no other gods. We have the duty to give up our own will and to live for Him alone. We must forsake our own desires and plans and preferences. He must be our whole life. We are on earth for only one reason—to know God, to love Him, and to serve Him. That is our calling.

The second call. With Septuagesima Sunday we enter the Easter cycle. The center of this division of the Church year is the resurrection of Christ on Easter morning and our resurrection from sin through baptism. Our preparation for Easter is the renewal of our baptism, which should bring us a new and more perfect realization of the importance of the call we have received and of the value of the precious gifts that came to us at baptism. It should renew and deepen our consciousness also of the obligations we have undertaken. It should make us ask ourselves seriously whether we have been faithful to these obligations. “I am the Lord Thy God, . . . thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.” Have we accomplished the task for which we were called into the vineyard? Could God still not say to us with truth: “Why stand you here all the day idle?” Why are you occupied with so many vain and useless things? Why do you serve so many false gods? Why are you so covetous of gold, solicitous for your body and for its comforts? Why are you chasing so many vain shadows? Why are you so eager to enjoy the esteem of others? Why are you so desirous of honor and of the empty glamour and show of the world? Why are you so careless of sin and so insistent on your own will and your own ambitions? The householder comes out to call us again today. Today we again renew our contract with God. From this day forward we shall serve more faithfully and more zealously Him into whose vineyard we have been called.

3. At the Offertory of the Mass we place on the paten our will and the promise of a more faithful service. “I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer” (Introit). “It is good to give praise to the Lord, and to sing to Thy name, O Most High” (Offertory). But our praise must be not merely a lip service. Our life, our works, and our service must also be worthy of Him. We should seek nothing for ourselves, but everything for Him. With this disposition we begin the Holy Sacrifice today.

The reward, the penny promised us, is given in Holy Communion. “He that eateth my flesh and drinketh My blood, hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:55). We shall be awakened to the perfect life in heaven. This is the reward we seek by our labor in the vineyard of the Lord. “Many are called, but few chosen” (Gospel). Only a few are found worthy of their vocation. I am determined to be among those few, cost what it will.

PRAYER

May Thy faithful people, O God, be strengthened by Thy gifts; that in receiving them, they may seek after them the more, and in seeking them, may receive them forever. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. (Postcommunion.)

Through darkness into light

1. We stand now on the threshold of Easter. Our eyes contemplate the mystery of Christ’s passion and resurrection, of the darkness of Good Friday and the brilliance of Easter morning. In the suffering and the triumph of St. Lawrence we acknowledge with the liturgy the dominion of Christ. We pray in the Introit: “The sorrows of death surrounded me, the sorrows of hell encompassed me; and in my affliction I called upon the Lord, and He heard my voice from His holy temple.”
2. “The sorrows of death surrounded me.” These words apply to Christ in His suffering. We accompany Him on His sorrowful journey to the Mount of Olives. We are to witness the terrible agony that caused Him to break out in a bloody sweat “Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39). We accompany Him also to the hall of judgment and stand with Him before the Sanhedrin. We are present, too, when He is dragged before Pilate, the pagan judge. We contemplate His terrible suffering at the pillar, and see Him crowned with thorns and derided by the Roman soldiers. With heavy hearts we follow His bloody footprints on the way of the cross, and share His agony as He hangs in torture for three hours on the cross. “The sorrows of death surrounded me, the sorrows of hell encompassed me.”

“In my affliction I called upon the Lord, and He heard my voice,” Christ cried out in His struggle. Thou art “a helper in due time, in tribulation; . . . for Thou hast not forsaken them that seek Thee” (Gradual). On Easter morning He will rise in glory. He has won the reward of victory: resurrection and glorification. He has conquered Satan, sin, and death. Now He possesses dominion over our spirits and over our hearts. Since He became obedient unto death, “God also hath exalted Him and hath given Him a name which is above all names: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11). “I called upon the Lord, and He heard my voice.”

3. But we have not told the whole story when we contemplate Christ as He is presented to us in the Gospel today. The suffering He underwent two thousand years ago, He experiences again in His members today. It is He they calumniate, slander, ridicule and resist when they do these things to the Church. It is Christ who is persecuted and cast into prison in His members. It is He who is unjustly condemned to slave labor and tortured slowly to death. But it is He also who has predicted that His Church would be persecuted. “They will lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into the prisons, dragging you before kings and governors, for my name’s sake. And it shall happen unto you for a testimony [to the Gospel]. Lay it up therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before how you shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist and gainsay. . . . And you shall be hated by all men for my name’s sake. But a hair of your head shall not perish” (Luke 21:12 ff.). “Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone” (John 12: 24).

And what is true of the Church of Christ is equally true of us who are its members. By reason of our baptism we are bound to Him by the closest relationship in life and death. Because of our baptism it is our vocation to live His life with Him, to share in His struggles, to share in His resurrection, and eventually, in His glorification. Through struggle we achieve victory, through death we are given life! Christ lives in me. He fights and conquers in me and I conquer through His strength!

Today as we attend Mass we witness the renewal of the mystery of His death and resurrection on our altar. We will not allow Him to undertake this renewal alone. We unite ourselves to Him and resolve to make ourselves a holocaust to the Father. We resign our claim to all things: to our will, our earthly possessions, our health, our strength, our body, our soul, and all that we possess. All this we place on the paten with the altar bread, as a pure and holy offering to the Father. We die, but we arise again when He comes to us in Holy Communion to fill us with His life and His strength. Supported by His strength we go forth to meet the tasks of the day, “to fight the good fight of faith” (Tim. 6: 12). We call out to the Lord and He hears us. We shall conquer, and we shall win the crown.

PRAYER

Graciously hear, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the prayers of Thy people, that we who are justly afflicted for our sins, may mercifully be freed for the glory of Thy name. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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FEBRUARY 1

St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr

1. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was aglow with love and enthusiasm for Christ, and he longed to shed his blood to prove it. He was taken to Rome under armed guard. On the way, he wrote his famous letters to the communities at Ephesus, Magnesia, Troas, Rome, and Smyrna. It was a tedious, but nonetheless exceedingly apostolic journey. Ignatius died, torn by the teeth of lions, at Rome, in the year 107.
2. “O the salutary beasts that await me in Rome! When will they come? When will they be let loose on me? I only hope that they will be very hungry, and not afraid to tear my body, as they have sometimes been in the past. I am now beginning to be a disciple of Christ! Let fire, cross, wild beasts, the tearing asunder of members, physical torture—all the torments which diabolical art can devise-come upon me, if I may but win Christ” (Letter of St. Ignatius to the Romans). When he heard the lions roaring, he was filled with a yearning to be united with Christ and exclaimed: “I have become the wheat of Christ. The teeth of the wild beasts must grind me, that I may become a pure bread . . . . If I can but win Christ! . . . The world and its riches mean nothing to me. It is better to die for Christ than to rule over the earth. I am seeking Him who has died for us, Him who has risen for us” (Breviary). “God forbid that I should make a display of anything, except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world stands crucified to me, and I to the world” (Introit). “If I can but win Christ!” This is the ardent desire of St. Ignatius. Let us strive to make it ours, too.

From what source did Ignatius derive such heroism? From the living consciousness of his union with Christ and from his love for God. Christ is the wheat that [by suffering, dying, and being buried] is planted in the earth, dies, and brings forth abundant fruit (cf. Gospel). Ignatius knew that he belonged to this Wheat, that he was himself a grain of it, and that he must therefore submit to humiliation, to suffering, to imprisonment, and, finally, to a bloody death. The wheat of this parable is the whole Christ, head and body and members. Christ must be planted in the soil of humanity and die in His members, that is, in us—in me. Indeed, “In our baptism, we have . . . died like him” (Rom. 6:4), and, therefore, we share suffering and death with Him, the Wheat. Only when the wheat dies, does it bring forth abundant fruit. For this reason, Ignatius went to death joyfully. He understood the mystery of being “in Christ,” of living in union with Christ, and he drew his strength, his heroism, from his faith in that living union with Christ. He knew that Christ’s all-powerful strength was operative in him. If a man lives on in Me, and I in him—like the branch on the vine—then he will yield abundant fruit; separated from Me, you have no power to do anything (cf. John 15:5). Must not this consciousness of our living union with Christ, the Vine, and of His power, impart to us, also, the courage to sacrifice all things for Christ?

3. “With Christ I hang upon the cross, and yet I am alive; or rather, not I; it is Christ that lives in me” (Alleluia verse). “I am Christ’s grain; let me be ground by the teeth of beasts, and so become a pure bread.” Bishop Ignatius had often become, through his longing and willing, one wheat, one bread, one host with Christ, in the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice. Now he wished to become, in fact, he had to become, one sacrifice, one host with Him also in his life: in the trials and sufferings that went with his calling and his daily work. On this day, he desired to be sacrificed with Christ in bloody martyrdom, torn by the teeth of lions. Through participation

in holy Mass) the Christian daily becomes more completely one wheat, one bread, one host with the self-immolating Christ. What he has begun in the liturgical sacrifice, the Christian continues, and brings to completion, through daily trials, sufferings, difficulties, and crosses. In this way does he sacrifice himself with Christ daily and make his participation at holy Mass fruitful for his life. “He who is an enemy to his own life in this world will keep it, so as to live eternally” (Gospel). The hour of everlasting communion draws daily nearer. We who, as members of Christ, suffer here with Him will also rise and be glorified with Him. “So shall my servant too be where I am” (Gospel).

“Lord, remember David, and all his patient endurance” (Introit Ps.). Holy Mother Church today directs a powerful prayer to the Father: Be mindful on this day of the holy bishop and martyr Ignatius and of all his prayers, battles, sacrifices, and sufferings. For the sake of this just man look favorably upon us, Thy holy Church; grant the forgiveness of our infidelities and sins and bestow upon us the grace to die heroically to the world, as did Ignatius, and to seek alone to win Christ.”

Collect: Have regard to our weakness, almighty God, and since the burden of our deeds lies heavy upon us, let the intercession of Thy blessed martyr bishop Ignatius, now in heaven, protect us. Amen.

MARRIAGE AND PARENTHOOD

The Catholic Ideal

By the Rev. Thomas J. Gerrard

(1911)

CHAPTER I

THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

This brings us to the all-important question of divorce. If both the natural and divine laws maintain the unity and perpetuity of the marriage bond, then no power on earth, not even the Church, has power to grant a divorce. “What, therefore, God hath joined together let no man put asunder.” Here, on the threshold of the question it is necessary to make a clear distinction of terms.

When it is said that no power on earth can grant a divorce, divorce must be understood in a particular and strict sense of the word. Let us distinguish then between three kinds of separation. First, there is a separation which implies that the husband and wife are allowed to live apart. It is called in juridical language a judicial separation. It is called in theological language separatio a mensa et thoro, or separation from bed and board. /24/ Its meaning is that, although the parties are separated from each other, yet they are not free to marry again. If they were allowed to marry again the separation would be said to be a vinculo, or separation from the bond. The actual contract or tie would be broken. Now the first kind of separation is allowed by the Church whenever there is a grave reason, such, for instance, as the misconduct of one of the parties. But the second kind the Church allows never. The bond which has been made by God may not be broken by man. One of the parties may forfeit certain rights of marriage through infidelity to the partner, but can never thereby acquire the freedom to marry again.

And further, the Church makes no distinction in this respect between the innocent party and the guilty. A bond is a bond, the contract is a two-sided one, and, therefore, as long as the bond or contract remains it must bind both the parties. However unfair it may seem to the innocent party, yet it is God’s law and God will see to it that those who observe His law, will, in the final balancing, receive their just reward.

Then there is another kind of separation which is frequently believed to be a divorce and which is a source of much perplexity to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. It is called a declaration of /25/ nullity. It means that that which has appeared to be a marriage is declared never to have been a marriage from the beginning. The parties have gone through the ceremony, but there has been some obstruction in the way which has prevented the knot from being tied and so the supposed marriage must be declared null and void.

Let us take an instance. A Jew married to a baptized Christian wife seeks for a divorce in the law courts. He is successful in his suit. Then he becomes a Catholic, falls in love with a Catholic girl, and wishes to be married to her in the Catholic Church. There is no difficulty, the Church approves of the marriage. What has happened? The undiscerning public think that the Church has approved of divorce and of the remarriage of a divorced person. And if the man happens to have been a wealthy Jew the undiscerning public is not slow to attribute unworthy motives to the Church. But again, what has really happened? The Jew’s first marriage was really no marriage at all in the sight of the Church. Baptism is the first Sacrament and the door of the other Sacrament. The Jew had not received the Sacrament of baptism and so was incapable of receiving the Sacrament of marriage. And being unbaptized he was furthermore incapable of making the contract of /26/ marriage, for the Sacrament is the contract. Therefore, the marriage which, by the law of the land, was declared to be dissolved was by the law of the Church declared never to have existed, to have been null and void from the beginning. Consequently, when the Jew became a Catholic and received the Sacrament of baptism he was quite free and capable of uniting himself with the partner of his choice.

There are three exceptions to the law of indissolubility. The first two concern marriages ratified but not consummated. Such may be dissolved either by papal dispensation for some grave reason, or by the solemn, religious profession of one of the parties. The third is known as the Pauline privilege. It may happen only in a marriage between unbelievers, and this even when consummated. If one of the parties is converted to the Christian faith, and the other refuses to live peaceably, or shows contempt for God and religion, or tries to pervert the faithful partner, then the faithful one has a right to a real divorce (I Cor. vii, 15).

Within these limitations the Church is absolutely inexorable against any attempt at separation from the bond. She has suffered the loss of whole nations from the faith rather than sacrifice /27/

one jot or tittle of her principle. The care of the Sacrament has been committed to her keeping, and to have condoned a denial of the sacramental nature of the matrimonial bond, even in one case, would have been to renounce the divine charge given to her. For the English-speaking world the Pope’s firmness, in refusing to grant a divorce to Henry VIII, must ever be a monument of the fidelity of the Church to the sanctity of the marriage state. And the famous Encyclical of the late Sovereign Pontiff, Leo XIII, must ever remain the character of woman’s dignity and safety as to her marriage right. “The great evils,” wrote the Pontiff, “of which divorce is the spring can hardly be enumerated. When the conjugal bond loses its immutability we may expect to see benevolence and affection destroyed between husband and wife; an encouragement given to infidelity; the protection and education of children rendered more difficult; the germs of discord sown between families; woman’s dignity disowned; the danger for her of seeing herself forsaken, after having served as the instrument of man’s passions. And as nothing ruins families and destroys the most powerful kingdoms like the corruption of manners, it is easy to see that divorce, which is only begotten of the depraved manners of a /28/ people, is the worst enemy of families and of States, and that it opens the door, as experience attests, to the most vicious habits, both in private and in public life.”

Views subversive of the Catholic ideal are now very prevalent, and are becoming day by day more prevalent. In the matter of the sanctity of marriage, as in many other things, it is the Catholics who are the salt of the earth. Whilst other religious bodies are prepared to give way under any specious pretext which may arise, the See of Peter proclaims the principle of no compromise. And when the Churches which ought to guard the sanctity of marriage show themselves weak and accommodating to the lower pleasures of man, we must not be surprised if non-religious bodies speak openly in favor of divorce and, all unashamed, make profession of free love. This, indeed, has come to pass.

High time is it, then, for Catholics to make their voice heard in protest. Nay, absolutely imperative is it that Catholics should rally themselves anew with even greater loyalty around the Holy Father who watches the marriage Sacrament so anxiously and sees its dangers so clearly. Legislation is made which may be irksome; but the irksomeness thereby suffered is trifling compared with /29/the irksomeness thereby avoided. Let us admit boldly that the marriage state is fraught with difficulties, that love is liable to grow cold, that child bearing is a burden, that the education of many children is a tax on the family’s resources, that a drunken husband is an almost intolerable nuisance, that a gossiping wife is a plague of a life; let us admit all this, but at the same time insist that the Sacrament of marriage has power either to prevent or mitigate the evils. It restrains the passions. But let the idea of divorce once get established and there is an end of restraint. The passions are let loose and fall victim to every little counter-attraction to family life. The half-hearted partner who realizes that there is an easy escape from the burden of married life makes no serious attempt to bear it. Then comes the sad spectacle of a mother left alone with a house full of children and no father to provide for them; or what is perhaps even more sad, a father with a house full of children and no mother to take care of them. The Church’s laws may be hard to bear at times. They are, however, as the yoke of Christ, sweet and easy to bear, if only we spread them out over the short run of life.

(To be continued)

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