Vol 8 Issue 26 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
June 27, 2015 ~ Our Mother of Perpetual Help1
1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (22)
2. Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
3. St. Irenaeus
4. Marriage and Parenthood (26)
5. Articles and notices
Dear Reader:
Tragically in the United Sodomites of Antichrist, the enemies of Christ have succeeded, with the help of Uncle Sodom in the Rainbow House and its Kangaroo court, to destroy any sense of humanity within this country. June 26, 2015, will be a day that will go down in infamy as it bows in worship of Baal not just with the child sacrifices it has publicly offered since January 22, 1973, but now with the orgies of sodomization publicly enjoined this day to that worship. This nation is guilty of all the sins that cry for justice: Homicide (abortion), sodomy, oppression of widows and orphans (destruction of family with no support of the mother and depriving children of a family) and cheating laborers of their due (redistribution of wealth, unjust taxes, etc.) As we lament and weep, the world is rejoicing; as we are made sorrowful, we must remember that even when persecution is at its worst, our sorrow shall be turned into joy. (John 16:20).
There are a couple of links. One is of Bergoglio slapping Roman Catholics in the face for being Roman Catholic and defending their faith against heretics and another of Bergoglio celebrating with the synagogue of Satan the destruction of the Catholic Church’s faith when the New Conciliar Church rejected the Catholic Faith fifty years ago.
Excuse the cynicism, but the events of June 26, 2015, certainly prelude the beginning of the end and brings only further loss of souls.
The article on Faith is rather lengthy, but it is a presentation to help understand what Catholic Faith truly is as opposed to profane and erroneous concepts.
As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit.—The Editor
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Baptism
Means of Salvation
Preparation for Grace
Introduction (b)
Faith (continued)
Having considered Faith in its relationship with the One True God, one may now ask how it is that one comes to Faith. There are over seven billion people on the face of the earth. There is only a small minority who have faith. Can one say that God has predestined some to have faith and the others to be without faith? This question has been discussed thoroughly as questions arose through the centuries.
Saint Augustine writes of Faith in his work, On the Predestination of Saints, to combat the Pelagians: And from whom, then, is that very beginning of our faith if not from Him? For this is not excepted when other things are spoken of as of Him; but of Him, and through Him, and in Him, are all things. (I, 4) Saint Thomas, in his Summa Theologica and Summa Contra Gentiles addresses the question of reception of faith:
Unbelievers are in ignorance of things that are of faith, for neither do they see or know them in themselves, nor do they know them to be credible. The faithful, on the other hand, know them, not as by demonstration, but by the light of faith which makes them see that they ought to believe them. (S. Th., IIa-IIae, q. I, a. 5.)
Now, although the truth of the Christian faith which we have discussed surpasses the capacity of the reason, nevertheless that truth that the human reason is naturally endowed to know cannot be opposed to the truth of the Christian faith.
For that with which the human reason is naturally endowed is clearly most true; so much so, that it is impossible for us to think of such truths as false. Nor is it permissible to believe as false that which we hold by faith, since this is confirmed in a way that is so clearly divine. Since, therefore, only the false is opposed to the true, as is clearly evident from an examination of their definitions, it is impossible that the truth of faith should be opposed to those principles that the human reason knows naturally. (S. Con. Gen. Lib. I, cap. 7.)
Matthias Scheeben, a revered theologian of the nineteenth century and present at the Vatican Council wrote:
. . . [R]eason does not shrink from such truths; it even feels itself drawn to them and feels an inclination to presume their reality. Though but dimly grasped, the coherence of these truths with objects known and valued by reason, and therefore with reason itself, engenders a certain kinship between them and reason. On this kinship depends the attractive force whereby they charm our reason and sway it in their favor. This disposing of reason in favor of a truth rests not so much upon the intelligibility of the truth as upon the goodness and beauty of its content. It has an analogy with the pius credulitatis affectus, the pious disposition to believe, which is the starting point of positive, supernatural faith. Indeed, it is the natural stock on which the grace leading to theological faith is grafted, to elevate and sublimate it. Hence it is in itself a certain natural faith, a certain surrender of the will to the supernatural object. It inclines reason to accept the latter, although it can impart no definite certitude. Although it cannot of itself banish doubt, it sets up a bias in favor of the truth, and so makes impossible an absolute indifference on the part of reason toward that truth. However, this indifference is not completely eliminated except by positive belief in divine revelation, which undeniably vouches for the objective truth that had previously been presumed. Thus, too, the presumptive disposition itself acquires true vitality and efficacy only through supernatural grace, which exhibits the supernatural objects to us in a favorable light and causes our will to experience the power of attraction they exert. But even grace conduces to certitude only by inclining us to a willing surrender to divine revelation (The Mysteries of Christianity, 764-765)
God has given man the light of reason to come to the knowledge of Him. This is a pre-requisite, that man may know. But it is not sufficient, for though man may reason that God exists:
The same Holy Mother Church holds and teaches that God, the beginning and end of all things, can be known with certitude by the natural light of human reason from created things; “for the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made”[Rom 1:20] (Vat. Council Sess. III, 2, D1785)
And that man may know a natural purpose for his existence and may perform natural acts conducive to a natural life, man cannot know that He was made for a supernatural purpose and that he is to live a supernatural life. This is only made known to him through Divine Revelation:
Indeed, it must be attributed to this divine revelation that those things, which in divine things are not impenetrable to human reason by itself, can, even in this present condition of the human race, be known readily by all with firm certitude and with no admixture of error. Nevertheless, it is not for this reason that revelation is said to be absolutely necessary, but because God in His infinite goodness has ordained man for a supernatural end, to participation, namely, in the divine goods which altogether surpass the understanding of the human mind, since “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him” [1 Cor. 2:9; can. 2 and 3]. (ibid, D 1786)
Since theological Faith, as was demonstrated in the last presentation (5a), is the same for all men, then the invitation to faith must also be the same [For those who have reached the age of understanding, for it was already shown that children were justified in the faith of their parents (4d)]. Saint Paul, writing to the Romans about justification through faith, places the foundation in the Christ Jesus: For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. (10:13) Then Paul continues with how that invitation to Faith comes:
How then shall they call on him, in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear, without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be sent, as it is written: How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, of them that bring glad tidings of good things! But all do not obey the gospel. For Isaias saith: Lord, who hath believed our report? Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say: Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the whole world. (Rom. 10:14-18)
This may be seen also in Saint Paul’s introduction of Faith to the Hebrews:God, who, at sundry times and in divers manners, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all, in these days hath spoken to us by his Son. . . . (Heb. 1:1-2)
Charles J. Callan, O.P., develops the process of Faith in his work, What is Faith and Other Essays. As the Vatican Council had once more to proclaim the undeniable reality that God existed and though the Council spoke of what Faith consisted, it was still necessary to convince the world that was falling into an ever-deepening loss of faith that Faith was not something that could be rationalized, but was a grace, a gift given by God to those who were open to His Love which He revealed through His Son, Jesus Christ. Callan first distinguishes faith and to believe:
. . . [F]aith can be correctly considered under two distinct aspects, namely, it may be regarded as a habit or permanent quality of the soul, or as an act [to believe] by which this habit or quality is reduced to action. Faith, considered as a habit of the soul, is a supernatural and theological virtue which disposes the mind firmly to assent on divine authority to all things that have been revealed by God. That is to say, the habit of faith is a gift or quality or power infused into the soul by God which disposes the soul, both intellect and will, to give unhesitating assent because of divine authority to all that God has made known to the world through the Scriptures and authentic tradition. As an act it is nothing more than the exercise of this infused gift or power. Faith means, then, first the power to believe, and secondly, the act of believing. (Callan, 15)
He then reminds us that it not a pure act of the will, a type of forcing the mind to accept something it cannot otherwise accept. Rather it is the mind accepting that which it could not reasonably reject.
As faith, then, according to the definitions just given, is an assent of the mind to the truths of revelation on account of the authority of God revealing them, it follows that it is an intellectual and not a volitional act. It proceeds formally from the intellect, even though it be elicited at the command of the will. (Callan, 16)
Matthias Scheeben, perhaps elaborating on Saint Anselm’s maxim I believe that I may understand, formulates it in these words:
With all my inspection of supernatural objects, I cannot form a positive judgment as to their objective possibility and actual existence except by belief in divine revelation, which simultaneously proposes them for my conception and vouches for their objective truth. Hence, even though I may arrive at a concept as connected with another and as evidently proposed therein, I cannot judge of the objective truth of the former except through the faith whereby I assent to the objective truth of the latter; for I can never deduce one supernatural truth except from another that is likewise supernatural. And although in virtue of my understanding of revealed objects I may perceive the dependence of an object on its ontological grounds, I can acquire a sure knowledge of its objective truth only so far as I am apprised of the existence and the character of these grounds by faith. (The Mysteries of Christianity, 762-3)
Faith, that which is believed, includes everything God has revealed, even though it may be know through natural knowledge (intellectual or sensive):
Faith embraces as its material, or complete and adequate object, all the truths which constitute the sum total of revelation. Among these various truths the chief, or formal object of divine faith is the essence of God considered in itself, and as the source and basis of all other revealed truths; and the motive or reason which induces the mind to give assent, is the authority of God, implying infallibility in knowledge, and truth in utterance. (Callan, 26)
Callan then goes further in explaining the steps: (1) The person must be presented with an object faith, such as the Blessed Trinity.
It is evident from what has already been said that intellectual knowledge of whatever kind implies in a general way that the object known is in some manner brought home to the subject or faculty capable of knowing and understanding it; the evidence, or knowableness of the objective reality is in somewise made manifest to the mind apprehending it. So much is necessary. A thing may be ever so real in itself, it may possess the highest degree of intrinsic evidence, and be, consequently, of the utmost intelligibility; and yet unless it become evident to the mind either by reason of its own light or through an adequate medium, the mind will never be in a position to understand it, the mind will have no knowledge of it. This can be clearly exemplified in sensible perception; the sun, for instance, is an object having in itself a plenitude of light and self-evidence, and still to one deprived of the use of sight, this object of extreme perceptibility can never /27/ be realized, at least in a sensible way; one of the necessary elements of sensible perception is wanting, and therefore the object, although so perceivable in itself, cannot be apprehended. (27-28)
(2) The object of faith, i.e., the Blessed Trinity, must be intelligible to the person: One God in Three Persons.
Given then the chief elements which enter into the formation of knowledge, namely, the object capable of being known, and the subject capable of knowing, we can see that the modes of acquiring knowledge may be classified according to the different ways in which these elements become united. It is already clear that the medium or means of connecting the intelligible object with the mind or faculty of understanding, is evidence. To be evident is to be intelligible. Evidence is, as it were, the light of intelligibility shining out from an object and imparting to the mind a notion of its reality. It is a manifestation of a thing as appearing to a knowing faculty and according as this manifestation is direct or indirect, intrinsic or extrinsic, we have various kinds of knowledge. (28)
(3) But it is not simply a self-evident principle that is not physical or immediately perceived but can be demonstrated: 1+1=2; one cannot demonstrate the Blessed Trinity though one can show it is not contrary to reason.
Thus a truth may be in itself so evident as to be clearly intelligible to all who have the use of reason, as soon as it is put into words. Such truths, called self-evident, cannot fail to be understood by anybody; they need neither demonstration nor explanation; to know the signification of their proper terms, is to comprehend their real meaning. For example, that the whole is greater than its part, that two and two equal four, that everything is itself and not something else—all these are self-evident truths, truths which no one can misunderstand or fail to grasp, provided the terms which express them be understood. Truths of this kind are also called first principles, and from them is drawn another class of truths, which, though they have intrinsic evidence or intelligibility, are not so by and through themselves. They are conclusions deduced from self-evident principles, and as such, enjoy an evidence not proper to themselves, but borrowed, so to say, from their principles. Hence St. Thomas observes that only then is the truth of conclusions perceived as certain when they are resolved into their principles. The principles, self-evident and self-attesting, are the source and fountain whence flow the light and intelligibility of the conclusions inferred from them. (28)
(4) They are truths that are not self-evident yet are attested by an authority who communicates them. Christ attests to the Blessed Trinity (Matt. 28:19: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.)
There is another class of truths neither self-evident, nor having, in fact, so far as appears to us, any kind of intrinsic evidence. They do not proceed from any principles which we know, and yet they justly claim the mind’s assent, and we are prevailed upon to admit them as true in order to save some other evident truth with which they are necessarily connected. We do not see them; they are inevident to our understanding, but the authority witnessing to them, with which they have a most intimate connection, has of itself intrinsic evidence which necessitates our recognition and belief. It is the strength and weight of authority communicating to the mind a knowledge of these truths unseen, which makes the appeal to us and elicits the mind’s assent. Thus our acceptance of these truths is not of vision, not of reason deducing conclusions from known premises, but of faith; and the authority on which we rely in assenting to these invisible truths as being the motive of faith, determines and specifies our faith. (28-29)
(5) If the authority is human, one has human faith. If the authority is Divine, one has divine faith. Christ is Divine, therefore, to believe Him is to have Divine Faith: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 16:17) This passage uncovers that both the Father reveals Jesus to be the Son of God and it is the Father who reveals it to Peter.
If the authority be human, our faith is human, and therefore defectible; if the authority be divine, then is our faith also divine and infallible. (29)
(6) The intelligibility and acceptance is not blind, but based on the reasonableness to accept as true on the Authority. Christ lives a life, preaches the truth and performs miracles which only God can perform (cf. John 3:2), therefore it is reasonable to believe what He reveals, such as the mystery of the Blessed Trinity.
The mode of cognition which we ascribe to faith—that namely which rests on authority extrinsic, so far as we go, to the things believed, is not, as some might at first be inclined to fancy, a gratuitous mental fabrication excogitated to meet the exigencies of the subject. It is founded on truly reasonable grounds; and its use in human affairs is constant among men, as meriting the highest respect. All the facts of human history which personal investigation has not verified, all the discoveries and conclusions of science, which we ourselves have not made or witnessed, many of the truths incident and necessary to the daily life and conduct of both individuals and society, are made known to us and are received according to the same principle and method of knowledge which is applied to faith. [Cf. Pesch., Prael. Dogm., Vol. VIII., n. 307.] Who would think of regarding history in general as unsound and unreasonable because based on authority? Who would be so stupid as to despise the data of science simply on the grounds that he has not discovered or witnessed them? But if we accept the testimony of men, why should we reject the testimony of God? If human authority is a criterion of truth, why not divine authority? (29-30)
(7) The reason is able, also, to accept the supernatural truth because it is not contrary to reason and cannot reject the Truth when the Authority is such it cannot be doubted without falling into disbelief.
From what has so far been said, it ought to be clear that the assent of faith is not an unreasonable act—it is not a blind motion of the mind, but is, on the contrary; founded on truly rational grounds. For the knowledge which is of faith, even when considered from a point of view entirely objective, is made up of elements, harmonious indeed and mutually supporting, which when taken together, render the assent of the mind at once certain and most reasonable. There is just enough discernible by reason, just enough possible to natural capabilities, to link the mind with the supernatural. (30)
Here one is reminded of the parable of the Sower of the seed. The Evangelist Matthew (13:3-23) records it as follows:
Behold the sower went forth to sow. And whilst he soweth some fell by the way side, and the birds of the air came and ate them up. And other some fell upon stony ground, where they had not much earth: and they sprung up immediately, because they had no deepness of earth.
And when the sun was up they were scorched: and because they had not root, they withered away. And others fell among thorns: and the thorns grew up and choked them. And others fell upon good ground: and they brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples came and said to him: Why speakest thou to them in parables?
Who answered and said to them: Because to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven: but to them it is not given. For he that hath, to him shall be given, and he shall abound: but he that hath not, from him shall be taken away that also which he hath. Therefore do I speak to them in parables: because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And the prophecy of Isaias is fulfilled in them, who saith: By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand: and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive. For the heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut: lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.
But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. For, amen, I say to you, many prophets and just men have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them, and to hear the things that you hear and have not heard them. Hear you therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, there cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart: this is he that received the seed by the way side. And he that received the seed upon stony ground, is he that heareth the word, and immediately receiveth it with joy.
Yet hath he not root in himself, but is only for a time: and when there ariseth tribulation and persecution because of the word, he is presently scandalized. And he that received the seed among thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choketh up the word, and he becometh fruitless. But he that received the seed upon good ground, is he that heareth the word, and understandeth, and beareth fruit, and yieldeth the one an hundredfold, and another sixty, and another thirty. (Cf. Mark 4:3-20 and Luke 8:5-15)
God reveals His Word, the Eternal Truth, to everyone. The disposition of the mind and heart to its reception allows that object of Faith to be planted in bad soil or good soil. St Cyril of Jerusalem provides this commentary on the Gospel passage:
Let us consider the reason why the seed on the way side was seized. A way side is almost always hard and unbroken because it is trodden on by the feet of all who pass, and seed is never sown there. Into whosever therefore that have minds that are hard and unyielding, no divine or sacred word will enter, by whose aid the joyful fruits of virtue might grow. Men of this kind are a highway that is trodden by unclean spirits, and by Satan himself, and they shall never be yielders of the holy fruit, because their hearts are sterile and unfruitful.
Again there are others who carry the faith indifferently within them, a faith that is simply a matter of words. They have a religion that is without root; for entering a church they take a delight in seeing so many assembled there, and they readily take part in the sacred mysteries; but they do so from no serious purpose, and from a certain levity of will. And when they go out of the churches such people straightway consign to forgetfulness the teachings. And as long as Christians are left in peace, they keep the faith; but should persecution arise, they will be of a mind to seek safety in flight [The Aurea Catena has: their heart fails them, for their faith was without root]. (St Cyril, PG 72, 623-627)
(To be continued)
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Week of Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Benedict Baur, O.S.B.
Seeing and loving God in all things
- With the Church we pray to God that He may pour forth His love into our hearts, so that we may love Him in all things and above all things. The Spirit of Pentecost, which we have received, is a spirit of love. But in order to love God in all things, we must, first of all, see Him in all things.
- We should see God in all things. Being engaged in many works and duties, we have to deal with many different kinds of people; some of these are kind to us, some are indifferent, and some are even hostile toward us. We are subjected to various sufferings, weaknesses, inconveniences, ailments, trials, and temptations. Wherever we are, we encounter puzzling problems and disasters that spell tragedy in our own life or in that of others. We enjoy health, nature, culture, the gifts of the spirit, of the heart, of the body, and prosperity and grace; we mourn the loss of those who are dear to us and of things that we treasure. We torture ourselves with the fear of evils that may befall us, of inconveniences that may come upon us, of insults that may be inflicted upon us, of work that may be too hard for us. We are anxious about our well-being, our health, the development of our business, our relationship with other people, our reputation, and our standing with those in high positions. We wish to enjoy the pleasures of life, those that are noble and those that are less so, devoting much of our time and energy to them. But we do not see the most important element, both in men and occurrences; we do not see God who operates in all things. We overlook God’s plan, His all-wise, all-loving, and all-powerful providence; we fail to perceive His nearness, His hand working in all things. That we see God in all things is the first and most important step to an interior life. Our very purpose on earth is to know God, to see Him in everything, in all happenings and experiences, be they small or great. We should see the hand of God in all our trials, whether they come directly from God or by means of men. Nothing can happen to us without God’s permission. If we wish to reach God, we must learn to see Him working in every creature. We must see in Him a Father who loves us, and then the way to the love of God will be open to us.
We should love God in all things. If we live only according to the suggestions of our fallen nature, then we love only ourselves in things about us. If we seek only our own pleasures, our own honor, our own interests and enjoyments, we make ourselves the center of life and accommodate ourselves to things and men that we may get the most with the least effort. That spirit is our own depravity and egotism expressing itself, that spirit is the result of a deeply ingrained pride. The grace of the Holy Spirit will destroy this depravity in us and teach us to pursue a higher aim, the love of almighty God. To love God in everything is to accept everything that life may have in store for us as coming from the holy, all-wise, benevolent hand of God. It is to submit our will to the dispensations of divine Providence with humility and a loving devotion, and to surrender unconditionally to the will and commands of God, as expressed in the sufferings, losses, inconveniences, and disturbances which befall us. Thus we acquire an honest desire never to follow our own will, our own whims, our own wishes, but to accept and do whatever pleases God and. whatever corresponds to His holy will. We must embrace our sufferings and difficulties, first of all, because such an acceptance of suffering is pleasing to Him. We accept them because they come from His hand, knowing that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. When we attain this spirit, we can truly say that we love God in all things, that we embrace His will in all things, that we will only what He wills. In this manner we shall truly live for the honor and glory of God.
- The feast of Pentecost teaches us that we must see and love God in all things. God wishes to lift us above all that is purely human, above all human desires and ambitions, and to establish us in the realm of the spirit. When once the soul has been stripped of its blindness and egotism, it is impervious to restlessness, worry and excitement. It is then no longer conscious of anything but the love, honor, and interests of God. It finds peace and rest and protection in God, and prays: “Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful. Teach us to see and love God in all things.”
Let us, therefore, try to see and love God in all things and to surrender to His will in all things. Only in this way can we achieve freedom of soul and shake off our dependence on the joys and pleasures of this life. Only in this way can we acquire a holy indifference to the sufferings, difficulties, and trials of this life. We must seek to acquire fortitude for the sufferings, sacrifices, and difficulties that may befall us. We must achieve complete domination over all our natural inclinations, over our impatience, our sensuality, our pride, our ambition, and our lack of charity.
PRAYER
O God, who hast prepared invisible goods for those who love Thee, pour forth Thy love into our hearts, that loving Thee in all things and above all things, we may be worthy to receive Thy promises, which exceed all our desires. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The love of God
- The Collect expresses the great desire of the Church: “Pour forth Thy love into our hearts” that we may love Thee “in all things and above all things.” The Spirit of Christ living and working within our souls urges us to this love. So we, too, making the intention of the community our own personal intention, beseech God that He may give us the grace to truly love Him above all things.
- May we love Thee “in all things and above all things.” We aspire to love. It is our only sentiment worthy of God, who made it the great commandment. It is the only sentiment that can truly change our heart by directing it towards God and disengaging it from creatures, by enlarging and strengthening it to do and suffer everything for God. When we truly love God, we are determined to sacrifice and lose everything rather than offend or displease Him; we desire nothing more than what He wills and as He wills it. Placing our one happiness above all earthly values, pleasures, and riches, we are willing to leave father and mother, to renounce earthly love, to postpone everything agreeable life might offer us, in order to live for Him, to promote His honor, to please Him. We say with the Apostle: “The things that were gain to me, the same I have counted loss for Christ. Furthermore I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, . . . and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:7 f.). We understand what Christ meant when He said: “He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:37). God must be preferred in all things and above all things. His holy will must be sought always. God and His holy will should be our only thought, our only desire, the world around which everything centers. If we place Him and His will and honor above everything else, we forget ourselves, embracing pain as well as joy, poverty as well as abundance, sickness as well as health.
Love is above any other motive. The natural man acts from purely natural motives: a noble man from noble motives, an egoistic and wicked one from egoistic, perverted, and sinful motives. But even the Christian, trying to achieve the perfection of a Christian life, finds within himself a frightening tendency to place the consideration of his ego before all his motives. Even he is always tempted to think first of his own advantage, his own satisfaction instead of God, His will, and His honor; the habit of thinking of himself first and of seeking himself first is so deep-rooted even in the good and spiritual minded, that he is hardly aware how much he is moved by reasons other than the love of God. To love God above all things does not mean we must exclude other noble motives.
It means only that other motives, however noble and good, must be subordinated to the motive of the love of God. The first and decisive motive governing all other motives in the true Christian is the love of God. The true Christian accepts whatever befalls him because such a happening is ordained by God and is permitted by Him. But we all have the bad habit of seeking ourselves first. We must oppose to this bad habit, not merely an occasional act or intention, but a good habit of seeking God first. In all things we should look to Christ and to God first, accepting all sacrifices and trials as coming from His hand.
- “Pour forth Thy love into our hearts.” Love makes us forgetful of ourselves and ready to sacrifice everything rather than displease God in the smallest matter. Love values the happiness of pleasing Him above every other good, and renders us more jealous of our friendship with Him than of that with anyone else in this world. Such a love considers His slightest wish as a command. Such a love disregards mere human considerations, despises the threats or enticements of those who would turn it away from the will of God, which it wishes to see accomplished in all things.
Who can lead us to the possession of such a love? Holy Mother the Church teaches us that we must pray and sacrifice with her in order to obtain it. Let us place this petition on the paten which our Lord holds in His hands as He offers Himself with us and for us today. His prayer will make our petition efficacious with the Father, for during Holy Communion the ardor of His divine love for the Father will be ours also.
PRAYER
O God, who hast prepared invisible goods for those who love Thee, pour forth Thy love into our hearts, that loving Thee in all things and above all things. We may be worthy to receive Thy promises, which exceed all our desires. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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28: ST IRENAEUS, BISHOP OF LYONS (c. A.D. 203)
THE writings of St Irenaeus entitle him to a high place amongst the fathers of the Church, for they not only laid the foundations of Christian theology but, by exposing and refuting the errors of the gnostics, they delivered the Catholic faith from the real danger it ran of being leavened by the insidious doctrines of those heretics. Of his parentage nothing is recorded. He was born, probably about the year 125, in one of those maritime provinces of Asia Minor where the memory of the Apostles was still cherished and where Christians were numerous. He received what must have been an exceptionally liberal education, for it gave him a thorough knowledge of the text of Holy Scripture and a good general acquaintance with Greek philosophy and literature. Moreover, he had the inestimable privilege of sitting at the feet of men who had known the Apostles or their immediate disciples. Of these the one who influenced him the most was St Polycarp. So profound indeed was the impression made upon him by the holy bishop of Smyrna that throughout his after life, as he told a friend, he could recall every detail of St Polycarp’s appearance, the sound of his voice, and the very words he used when describing his intercourse with the evangelist St John, and others who had seen the Lord, or when he was expounding the doctrine he had learnt from them. St Gregory of Tours asserts that it was St Polycarp who sent Irenaeus as a missionary to Gaul, but there is no evidence to support this statement.
Commercial relations had existed from early times between the ports of Asia Minor and Marseilles, and in the second century of our era Levantine traders were regularly conveying their wares up the Rhone as far as Lyons, which became in consequence the chief mart of western Europe and the most populous city in Gaul. In the train of the Asiatics, many of whom settled in Lyons, came their priests and missionaries who brought the Gospel to the pagan Gauls and founded a vigorous local church. To this church of Lyons Irenaeus came to serve as a priest under its first bishop, St Pothinus, an oriental like himself; to it he was to remain permanently attached. The high opinion held of him by his brother clergy was evinced in the year 177, when he was dispatched on a somewhat delicate mission to Rome. It was after the outbreak of the terrible persecution, which is dealt with at some length under June 2 in this volume, and already some of the leaders of the church of Lyons were in prison. Their captivity, however, did not prevent them from continuing to take a deep interest in their fellow Christians in Asia Minor. Conscious of the sympathetic hearing to which they were entitled as confessors in imminent peril of death, they sent to Pope St Eleutherius, by the hands of Irenaeus, what is described by Eusebius as “a most religious and most orthodox” letter, in which they appealed to him—in the interest of the peace and unity of the Church—to deal leniently with their Montanist brethren in Phrygia. They commended the bearer of the letter to his notice as a priest “filled with zeal for the testament of Christ”, and as one who was, as his name implied, a lover of peace.
This mission, entailing as it did absence from Lyons, explains how it was that Irenaeus was not called upon to share the martyrdom of St Pothinus and his fellow-sufferers, and does not seem to have witnessed it. How long he remained in Rome we do not know, but when he returned to Lyons it was to occupy its vacant bishopric. By that time the persecution was over and the twenty or more years of his episcopate were years of relative peace. Information about his activities is scanty, but it is clear that in addition to his purely pastoral duties he did much to evangelize the neighbouring lands. He is said to have sent SS. Felix, Fortunatus and Achilleus as missionaries to Valence, and SS. Ferrutius and Ferreolus to Besancon. A small indication of the extent to which he identified himself with his flock is supplied by the fact that he habitually spoke the Celtic language instead of his native Greek. It was the spread of Gnosticism in Gaul, and the ravages it was making amongst the Christians of his diocese, that inspired him to undertake the task of exposing its errors. He began by mastering its tenets—no easy matter, since each gnostic master was inclined to introduce variations of his own. Fortunately for Irenaeus he was, Tertullian tells us, “a curious explorer of all kinds of learning”, and he found the work not uncongenial. He then produced a treatise in five books in which he sets forth fully the inner doctrines of the various sects, and afterwards contrasts them with the teaching of the Apostles and the text of Holy Scripture.
A good example of his method is provided by his treatment of the gnostic doctrine that the visible world has been created, preserved and governed by angelic beings and not by God, who remains unconnected with it, aloof, indifferent, and incapable of activity in the Pleroma (the invisible spiritual world). Irenaeus states the theory, develops it to its logical conclusion, and by an effective reductio ad absurdum proceeds to demonstrate its fallacy. The true Christian doctrine of the close relationship between God and the world He has created Irenaeus sets forth in the following terms: “The Father is above all, and He is the head of Christ, but the Word is through all things and He is Himself the head of the Church, whilst the Spirit is in us all; and His is the living water which the Lord gave to those who believe in Him and love Him and know that there is one Father above all things and through all things and in all things.” Concerned as he is to convert rather than to confound, Irenaeus writes with studied moderation and courtesy, but now and then humorous comments escape him. Referring, for instance, to the attitude of the newly” initiated” he says: “As soon as a man has been won over to their way of salvation he becomes so puffed up with conceit and self-importance that he imagines himself to be no longer in Heaven or on earth, but to have already passed into the Pleroma, and with the majestic air of a cock he goes strutting about-as if he had already embraced his angel.” Irenaeus was firmly convinced that a great part of the attractiveness of Gnosticism lay in the veil of secrecy with which it surrounded itself, and he was determined to “strip the fox”, as he expressed it. The event proved him to have been right. His work, written in Greek but quickly translated into Latin, was widely circulated and succeeded in dealing to second-century Gnosticism what appears to have been its death-blow. At any rate, from that time onwards, it ceased to offer a serious menace to the Catholic faith.
Thirteen or fourteen years after his mission to Pope Eleutherius, Irenaeus again acted as mediator between a pope and a body of Christians in Asia Minor. Because the Quartodecimans refused to keep Easter in accordance with the Western use they had been excommunicated by Victor III, and there was in consequence a real danger of schism. Irenaeus intervened on their behalf. In a singularly beautiful letter addressed to the pope he pleaded with him to raise the ban, pointing out that they were only following their old tradition, and that a difference of opinion on that very point had not prevented Pope Anicetus and St Polycarp from remaining in communion. The outcome of his representations was the restoration of good relations between the two parties and a peace which proved permanent. After the Council of Nicaea in 325, the Quartodecimans voluntarily conformed to the Roman usage without any pressure from the Holy See.
The date of the death of St Irenaeus is not known: it is usually assigned approximately to the year 202. According to a later tradition he suffered martyrdom, but this is highly improbable. The treatise against the gnostics has come down to us, entire in its Latin version; and an Armenian translation of an exposition of apostolic preaching has comparatively lately been discovered. Though the rest of his writings have perished, in these two works alone may be found all the elements of a complete system of Christian theology.
The bodily remains of St Irenaeus, as we learn from Gregory of Tours, were buried in a crypt under the altar of what was then called the church of St John, but what was later known by the name of St Irenaeus himself. This tomb or shrine was destroyed by the Calvinists in 1562, and all trace of his relics seems to have perished. It is remarkable that though the feast of St Irenaeus has long been observed in the East (on August 23), it has been general in the Western church only since 1922.
(Butler’s Lives of the Saints)
MARRIAGE AND PARENTHOOD
The Catholic Ideal
By the Rev. Thomas J. Gerrard
(1911)
CHAPTER XII
CATHOLIC EDUCATION
Again, the Catholic religion is the religion of the highest morality. It is the religion which is marked out above all others by its fruitfulness in moral goodness, its production of saints. It must, therefore, appeal to that faculty which has goodness for its object. It must appeal to the will as affording it the widest arena for its exercise and satisfaction, nothing less than the striving for the perfect imitation of Jesus Christ. It must appeal to the will also, as affording it the strength to arrive at moral perfection, the strength which comes through the grace of the seven Sacraments.
The stronger, then, a man’s will is, the more perfectly it is exercised in the natural virtues, so much the more fitted is it to avail itself of the helps to supernatural action. Once more, the Catholic religion is a beautiful religion. It must, therefore, appeal to the faculty which has beauty for its object, the esthetic sense. All sound training in the fine arts, therefore, whether in music, painting, or literature, may be used for the development of the finest and most difficult of all arts, the art of saintliness, the art which absorbs at once all the power of intellect, will, and feeling, the art which expresses the greatest inspirations of truth, goodness, and beauty.
Much too often do we hear people talk as if piety and intellectual proficiency were incompatible accomplishments. Ability in the arts and sciences is supposed to be an occasion of intellectual pride. So it is. The piety, however, which affects to despise these gifts of God is the occasion of a worse sin, the sin of spiritual pride. The natural as well as the supernatural is the creation of Almighty God. And if the Catholic school is to fulfill its mission it must aim at proficiency in the natural as well as the supernatural, in the natural for the sake of the supernatural.
The high aim and nature of Catholic education postulates some important principles in its administration. We come now to consider, then, the relationships between the school and the family, the school and the Church, the school and the State. The schoolmaster, the parent, the bishop, and the statesman, all have something to say in the matter of the conduct of the Catholic school. The question is complicated, admits of different opinions as to details, and, therefore, cannot be solved off-hand or dogmatically. There are, however, certain leading principles about which the Catholic can have no doubt, and which he must keep clearly before his mind in his efforts to adjust the various claims.
The first and most important principle is that the children belong to the parent under God. They do not belong to the State. Certain States, or rather certain statesmen, claim this right of possession. The Catholic can never admit it. The parents are the authors of the child’s body and the parents’ wills are the occasion of the creation of the child’s soul. The parents, therefore, have confided to their care the nourishment and the education of their children. The mother is fitted by nature for the bearing, the nursing, and the education of children in their earliest years. The father is fitted by nature for providing for the maintenance of all during these years, and providing for the continuance of the education in after years. The State has nothing whatever to do with the possession of the children.
The State exists for the welfare of the temporal interests of the nation. If, therefore, the temporal interests of the nation demand a certain standard of education in the youth of the nation, the State has the right to require such an education from the parents. And in default of the parents fulfilling this obligation, the State has a right to administer such education itself. In doing so, however, it must respect the higher interests of religion.
The children belong to the parents under God. The parents, therefore, have the right to dictate to the State as to the religion in which the children are to be brought up. The parents, moreover, if they are Catholics, have the duty of submitting to the guidance of the Church in the adjusting of the religious and secular claims.
The conditions of present-day society make it generally convenient that the State should provide at least the elementary, and, for the most part, the secondary and higher education of the country. The fact of the government being democratic or monarchical makes no difference to the Catholic principle. Both are compatible with it. Whether as a representative body carrying out the will of the people, or as an absolute monarch carrying out his own will, the ruling body has only the right to administer secular education in so far as it is compatible with the religious education of the children. So long as this principle is saved, there may be much give and take on both sides. The parents must reserve to themselves the right to say what religion shall be taught to the children.
The parents, however, are not absolute masters of their own children. The Power who created all men has the possession of all men. The parents, therefore, must educate their children according to the will of God. To the Catholic this means that he must be guided by the Church. Governments, however, do not treat with individuals, but with representatives of all. Individual members of Parliament or Congress treat with individual Catholics at election time. That is the opportunity for the Catholic’s action, but even then it must be according to the advice of the bishop. But when it comes to a conference between the State as a body and the Church as a body, then the bishops assume their right to say what are the Church’s requirements. Catholic statesmen have no right whatever to make terms with governments, except with the consent and under the direction of the episcopate.
Owing to diversity of religions and diversity of races, nearly every country in the world holds a different arrangement between the Church and the State. So the Catholic teacher often finds it difficult to adjust the claims of the various parties which in different degrees he represents. He may be engaged directly by the parent, as in the case of a private tutor or governess; or by the State, as in the State schools of the United States; or by the Church, as in the parochial schools and colleges of higher education in this country; or by both State and Church combined, as in the denominational schools in England. And when he enters into his engagement he is bound in honor to keep to the terms of his engagement.
(To be continued)
These links are for those interested in the un-Catholic actions of the Conciliar Church.—The Editor.
http://news.yahoo.com/pope-visits-once-persecuted-evangelicals-during-turin-visit-071222328.html
http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-receives-members-of-bnai-brith-international
The following is about a not too infrequent attack on the Family.—The Editor
http://www.mercatornet.com/conjugality/view/is-teaching-christian-morals-child-abuse/16401
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