The Will of God

Vol 8 Issue 28 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
July 11, 2015 ~ Our Lady on Saturday

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (24)
2. Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
3. St. John Gualbert
4. Marriage and Parenthood (28)
5. Articles and notices

 

Dear Reader:

As the dominoes fall, those of Faith find themselves further and further cornered away from the public square.  Even within one’s family the children seem more and more segregated from the parents. Pop culture has made parents embarrassing and ridiculous, especially if they are upholding traditional values, to the children—not someone they are to be proud of. That was the whole argument over the Confederate flag: Traditional values has no place in society today. Take it down and put it in the shelves of history past!  What, then, are the present values? Freedom from God and Family and the ability to express that freedom by the most obscene and blasphemous acts (Miley Cyrus, Madonna Ciccone, “Pride” parades, etc.) Marriage between two men or two women isn’t about family, its about mocking the family. The leaders of this nation are the Herods and Neros of yesterday and they will blame the Christians for the burning rioters and social unrest as they clear the way for a new world order. Tomorrow will see another domino of the traditional values topple till there are none left.

The major opinions broadcasted and editorials produced this week were by Sodomites attempting weakly to convince their Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey audience that Christians are just hysterical in their reaction to the Kangaroo Court decision of June 26, because the Federal government isn’t going to yet attack churches. They are right, the Court has basically said what is done in a church is outside federal law at the present, that is, you can worship however you want in a church. What they don’t say is that the moment you step outside that church you are then subject to federal and state laws that now consider opposition to this insane insanity as harassment, a hate crime and criminal. And because the business license imposes on the employer non-discrimination and the worker’s contract imposes on the employee non-discrimination, you must bake the cake and wed the Teds with flour and flower. It has already been mentioned that the Rainbow House has defined freedom of religion as “freedom to worship (in the church of your choice)” not in public—unless you are a Mohammedan sect (always the “exception clause” when it comes to non-Christians). Therefore expressing your faith outside the church means that you are worshipping outside your church which means that you are breaking the law and Uncle Sodom will be there to promptly prosecute you to the fullest extent (of course letting the murderer go free to make room for Granny who just had to keep those ashes on her forehead on Ash Wednesday.)

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

____________________ 

Baptism

Means of Salvation

Preparation for Grace

Introduction (c)

Church Documents Concerning Faith (2)

 

The Church holds faith in the same sense as the Act of Faith Catholics have universally prayed:

 

O my God, I firmly believe that Thou art one God in three Divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost; I believe that Thy Divine Son became man, and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, Who canst neither deceive nor be deceived.

 

In the Bull “Cantate Domino,” February 4, 1442, which was the formula for the Union of the Copts (Egyptians) and Ethiopians, the Church introduces the doctrines to be believed with the words: [She]. . . firmly believes, professes, and preaches. . . . (cf. D 1330, 1333, 1337, 1338, etc.)

 

The Council of Trent therefore condemns any other interpretation of faith in the following Canons:

 

Canon 12. If anyone shall say that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ’s sake, or that it is this confidence alone by which we are justified: let him be anathema [cf. D 798, 802].

Canon 13. If anyone shall say that it is necessary for every man in order to obtain the remission of sins to believe for certain and without any hesitation due to his own weakness and indisposition that his sins are forgiven him: let him be anathema [cf. D 802].

Canon 14. If anyone shall say that man is absolved from his sins and justified, because he believes for certain that he is absolved and justified, or that no one is truly justified but he who believes himself justified, and that by this faith alone absolution and justification are perfected: let him be anathema [cf. D 802].

Canon 15. If anyone shall say that a man who is born again and justified is bound by faith to believe that he is assuredly in the number of the predestined: let him be anathema [cf. D 805].

 

Faith is not what one wants it to be, that is, for example: One wants to be saved and is therefore saved because he now believes he is saved; rather, one is saved because one believes in what God has revealed, that is, in the words of Christ:Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned. (Mark 16:15, 16) Also, Faith must be united to Hope and Charity to bring about justification: [I]f I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. (1 Cor. 13:2)

 

As the Council of Trent was in session condemning the heresies of the Innovators, there were in attendance the greatest Catholic minds. Among them were the University Chancellor and Professor of Theology from Louvain. Michel Bay took advantage of their absence to introduce his own version of theology at the University. Returning to Louvain, the Chancellor, Tapper, realized Baius was teaching exactly what had been condemned by the Council and the errors the Council continued to oppose. Even the Franciscans from the Paris University recognized the dominant Pelagianism in Baius’ teachings. Baius excused himself in saying he was attempting to reconcile the Protestant concept of faith (Luther and Calvin) with the Catholic to bring the Protestants back to the Church. Actually, Baius first took the stance of denying the Catholic Faith, that is, the Church teaching on the original state of man. Baius claimed that Adam possessed only what was natural to his nature and rejected that he had any supernatural gifts (cf. D 1001 f). Scannell gives this summary of the Church’s Faith on the integrity of the first man:

 

. . .When God created man, He was not content with bestowing upon him the essential endowments required by man’s nature. He raised him to a higher state, adding certain gifts to which his nature had no claim. They comprise qualities and perfections, forces and energies, dignities and rights, destination to final objects, of which the essential constitution of man is not the principle; which are not required for the attainment of the final perfection of the natural order of man; and which can only be communicated by the free operation of God’s goodness and power. Some of these are absolutely supernatural, i.e. beyond the reach of all created nature (even of the angels), and elevate the creature to a dignity and perfection natural to God alone; others are only relatively supernatural (preternatural), i.e. above human nature only and elevate human nature to that state of higher perfection which is natural to the angels. The original state of man comprised both of these, and when he fell he lost both. Christ has restored to us the absolutely supernatural gifts, but the preternatural gifts He has not restored.

The absolutely supernatural gifts, which alone are the supernatural properly so called, are summed up in the divine adoption of man to be the son and heir of God. . . . (Scannell, Supernatural Gift)

 

Baius argued that man was made for heaven, therefore his nature must naturally be made for heaven. It seems a truism; but the Church teaches that there can be no natural right, for if it were part of man’s nature, what was the consequence of Adam’s fall? Having accepted naturalism, the second stance Baius took was to take away free will and accept a determinism for Baius’ reply is that original sin is a natural corruption of nature as a consequence of an internal evil that is passed from parents (starting with Adam) to children in which concupiscence increases or decreases according to what one would now considered laws of genetics and this concupiscence develops in each along with their physical and psychical growth—this corruption of nature is a moral evil that is neither willed nor able to be resisted by the will. This last is the position of John Calvin and Luther. As these innovators, Baius also held that:  From so tainted a source, Redemption apart, only tainted actions can flow. They may sometimes appear virtuous, but it is only an appearance (vitia virtutes imitantia). In truth all human actions, not purified by Redemption, are vices pure and simple and damning vices at that (vitia sunt et damnant). It contradicts the Catholic faith, which teaches original sin is the forfeiture of the supernatural life and the preternatural gifts that leaves nature to itself but does not take away freewill, whereby man can still choose a natural good, but not a supernatural good, and is thereby not totally corrupt.

Finally, to answer the question of Christ’s Redemptive act, Baius does not see it as a restoration of man’s final end through the adoption of sonship as the Catholic Church teaches, but a restoration of the gifts of primitive innocence, a grace only because of man’s unworthiness, which now makes his acts virtuous (whereas before they were vicious). There is no needed sanctifying grace or inner renewal, just a keeping the law which justifies man, and the man who keeps the law is justified. One will see the closeness of Puritanism and Jansenism; Puritanism stemming from Calvinism and Jansenism stemming from Baianism, for both base God’s blessing on the work they do according to the “law” and a sign of their predestination.

Pope St Pius V condemned these propositions of Michel de Bay Condemned in the Bull “Ex omnibus afflictionibus,” Oct. 1, 1567:

 

23. Absurd is the opinion of those who say that man from the beginning, by a certain supernatural and gratuitous gift, was raised above the condition of his nature, so that by faith, hope, and charity he cherished God supernaturally.(D 1023)
24. Justice, by which an impious person is justified by faith, consists formally in the obedience of mandates, which is the justice of works; not however in any grace [habitual] infused into the soul, by which man is adopted into the sonship of God and renewed according to the interior man and made a sharer of the divine nature, so that, thus renewed through the Holy Spirit, he can in turn live well and obey the mandates of God. (D 1042)

 

Many accepted Michel de Bay simply as attempting, though confusedly, to reconcile Catholic and Protestant theology and propagated his errors, as usual, by first denying the true Catholic Faith, but excusing themselves also that it was necessary in order to show the Protestants the error of their concepts. Baius had a far reaching influence as a Professor in the University among his students and then among their students in the French-speaking countries—not just because of his Pelagianism, but an attitude that allowed a rejection of Faith in the name of academics, a beginning of Modernism, where Faith and Reason become separated: Faith can tell me one truth while reason another. The extension of his teachings would arise again come from an unlikely source and receive another name from one who did not publish his own writings, but would have them published after his death: Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of Ypres.

Cornelius Jansen attended the Louvain University 1602-1604, after which he continued his theological studies with a well-known follower of the ideas of Baius, Jaques Janson, at the College du Pape Adrien VI. Refused admission later to enter as a Jesuit, Cornelius Jansen—left with a young well-to-do Frenchman, Jean du Verger de Hauranne. These two took to each other and spent years researching the Fathers of the Church, especially Augustine, until Jean de Verger was appointed Abbot of St-Cyran in 1617. Cornelius Jansen received his doctorate of theology in 1619, and obtained a chair (teaching position) for Biblical exegesis. He was very orthodox in his explanations and as such was eventually made Bishop of Ypres in 1636, where he soon died in an epidemic in 1638. No one would have perhaps paid much more attention and he would have been considered an excellent Catholic teacher and bishop except for his letters to his friend, the Abbot of St Cyran, and the posthumousAugustinus.  This work put the ideas of Baius, which were an eclectic confusing set of ideas attempting to explain the fall and redemption outside approved Catholic teaching into a systematic theology. Voluminous, it still only revisited the points Baius had stressed: Man received nothing supernatural in his original integrity; man is completely corrupt after the fall and is deprived of free will; and his actions are either all good through grace (redemption) or all evil through concupiscence.

Paschasius Quesnel continued the teachings of Baius and Jansen. These errors were allowed to flourish because of Gallicanism, an erroneous opinion that placed the French bishops above the Pope and gave them the right to judge the teachings of the Pope and thereby accept or reject his authoritative teachings. Because of their influence, the Jansenists were able to prevent any French hierarchical council to enforce the papal decisions, though the Popes sequentially attempted in their reigns.  Pasquier Quesnel’s writings were condemned in the dogmatic Constitution, “Unigenitus Dei Filius,” on Sept. 8, 1713 by Pope Clement XI. The following statements of Quesnel show his adherence to Baius and were condemned:

 

26. No graces are granted except through faith.
27. Faith is the first grace and the source of all others.
28. The first grace which God grants to the sinner is the remission of sin.
29. Outside of the Church, no grace is granted.
30. All whom God wishes to save through Christ, are infallibly saved.

 

These propositions express the Protestant notion of fiduciary faith and deny the cooperation of freewill by expressing a Calvinistic predestination. It is God’s grace that brings us to faith, not faith that brings us grace. It is not faith in the since of what was mentioned before (what one wants) that obtains forgiveness of sins, as said above, but through Christ Who bestows it through the Sacraments (e. g., Baptism and Penance).

 

Still, with the majority of French clergy adopting the Gallican heresy, there would be the calling of a Council to judge the Pope. The Synod of Pistoia was one such attempt that also seemed controlled by Jansenistic adherents. Pius VI condemned the proceedings in the Constitution, “Auctorem fidei,” on August 28, 1794. Among the errors of faith this synod propagated are the following, which are condemned:

1. The proposition, which asserts “that in these later times there has been spread a general obscuring of the more important truths pertaining to religion, which are the basis of faith and of the moral teachings of Jesus Christ,”—heretical.

and

 

22. The proposition which declares that faith, “from which begins the series of graces, and through which, as the first voice, we are called to salvation and to the Church”: is the very excellent virtue itself of faith by which men are called and are the faithful; just as if that grace were not prior, which “as it precedes the will, so it precedes faith also” (from St. August.,De dono persev., c.16, n. 41),—suspected of heresy, and savoring of it, elsewhere condemned in Quesnel [see n. 1377], erroneous.

 

As one may notice, it is sometimes difficult to see why these statements are heretical or untenable and why many, therefore, are deceived—even amongst theologians.

The French Church was to endure the French Revolution (1789) and a greater influx of rationalism and atheism which would deplete her of her power.

(To be continued)

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Week of Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Benedict Baur, O.S.B. 

Servants and children of God

 

1. The Church admonishes us: “Come, children, hearken to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Come ye to Him and be enlightened; and your faces shall not be confounded” (Gradual). These words are, as it were, the answer of our Holy Mother the Church to the words of the Epistle: “Being made free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end life everlasting.”
2. Having “become servants to God,” and therefore His entire and exclusive property, our whole being, thinking, willing, and doing can belong only to Him. In baptism we have declared: “I believe in God”; I believe that I am God’s, with all that I am and possess. We are servants of God. Therefore only one thing matters: the will of our heavenly Father. Our life is Christian only in so far as it has been made to serve God’s will. We must therefore renounce our own will and the desires of our heart, and overcome our inordinate passions and our self-love. We must do solely whatever God desires, accept what He sends, suffer what He permits, and submit to His commands. Neither may we refuse to accept the humiliations He sends us or the troubles, inconveniences, disappointments, and sufferings we encounter. “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39). As the drop of water which the priest pours into the chalice at the Offertory becomes one with the wine, so the will of the Christian likewise must become one with the will of God in all things and under all conditions. “Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (john 12:24 f.). Unless our entire seeking and striving has become one with the divine will, it cannot bring forth much fruit. Easter and Pentecost seek to lift us up to these heights. “Come, children, hearken to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Come ye to Him and be enlightened; and your faces shall not be confounded” (Gradual). We are taught how to strive after a life of unspeakable happiness and holy peace in union with God.

“God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father. Therefore now he is not a servant, but a son” (Gal. 4:6 f.). So we are sons of God, not servants or slaves. A slave serves out of fear of being punished. He obeys his master, but not out of love; he obeys because he is forced to do so, but reluctantly and without interest for his master’s cause. The son, however, serves the father because he loves him, because it pleases him to make his father happy. He is sincerely interested in everything that might be his father’s business, knowing only one fear: that he may fail to do everything to his father’s satisfaction. We serve God as His children out of love for Him, not because we fear the terrible threat of eternal punishment. Fear is wholesome and necessary in order to keep alive within us the spirit of penance and mortification. Fear is necessary since we too often are exposed to dangerous occasions and temptations; but holy love must be the predominant motive in all our actions. Our Lord and Father deserves to be obeyed out of nobler and more sublime motives than fear. We have been baptized in the love of God; and we are commanded to “love the Lord Thy God” (Matt. 22:37). Fear restrains us from doing evil; but love prompts us to do only what is pleasing to the Father, what may best serve His interests and honor. It is never satisfied with the thought of having done enough; it urges us to render an even greater service of love and greater sacrifices.

God, on His part, answers with even greater proofs of His love. He draws the soul towards Himself; the fear which until now plagued the soul, hindering its loving conversation with God, gives way to an unspeakably blissful intimacy with Him and an unshakable confidence in His love. Even the fear of not loving Him enough, of not pleasing Him, is no longer a torturing fear; but it incites the soul to watch more carefully, to fight more courageously, and to break with everything that is not of God. If it fears that it has offended the Father, it hurries to Him full of humility, repentance, and confidence, knowing that He will not refuse the kiss of peace. The longing to give Him everything continues to live in the soul. “Perfect charity casteth out fear” (I John 4:18).

3. How well the Father has arranged everything for us!

Whereas once we yielded our members “to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity” (Epistle), God through His love and mercy has delivered us from sin. From “servants of sin” we have “become servants to God,” having received the vocation and the power “to yield [our] members to serve justice unto sanctification.” The fruit of our transformation: “life everlasting.” Are we not to be thankful from the depths of our heart? Let us thank Him with words, with the offering of our sacrifice, which is Christ our Lord; but above all, let us thank Him with our life.

 

PRAYER

May Thy healing work in our souls mercifully free us from our perverse inclinations, 0 Lord, and lead us ever to do that which is right in Thy sight. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

The will of God 

1. “Now being made free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end life everlasting” (Epistle). With these brief words the Apostle represents our entire life. From sin we turn to a life in union with God, to a life of sanctity. This is the law of our life: to do the will of God in all things, to fulfill His commandments as faithful servants. We must therefore learn to see His holy will in all things.
2. We must learn to see God’s will in anything that may happen to us during our life: in difficulties, sufferings, and humiliations, in whatever may occur, be it agreeable or painful; for His providence manifests itself in all things. A deep and living faith is needed for this view of life, an eye that is not deceived by the mere outward appearance of things. A Christian should observe life with an eye that searches into the deeper reasons for everything, finding in all things the hand of God and His infinitely wise and loving providence guiding and providing for all creatures. He sees with the eye of faith; his judgment is not formed by merely natural considerations and principles. Neither does he seek first his own advantage or his own will before the will of God. The care for his own welfare comes second. The preservation of his health, the fulfillment of his desires, the longing to be delivered from disagreeable situations and persons, from difficulties and pains, from trials, temptations, and suffering, are always made dependent on the will of God. Such a man sees God’s will first in all things. Blessed is the soul for whom everything else recedes into nothingness before the splendor and beauty of the divine will.

Not only must we see God’s will in all things, we must love and fulfill it. We shall undoubtedly find that the will of God hedging our life about like a law and regulating it in all its details is uncomfortable and repellent to our nature and its desires and appetites. It is a yoke that often appears hard and oppressing; it will crush him who embraces it reluctantly or unwillingly. But whoever embraces it wholeheartedly, it will lift up to the pure and holy love of God. He who lives according to Christ’s spirit loves the law and yoke of God’s will. He loves his work, his duties, the commands of his parents, and the orders of his superiors; he loves the commandments of God and the Church, the rules and discipline of the order to which he belongs. He loves the will of God, which he seeks and sees in all things, even when his nature recoils from the difficulties, renunciations, humiliations, and trials of life. For this reason he grows strong in fulfilling his duties with devotion and a noble constancy; he regards nothing so insignificant that it may be neglected. To him all his efforts become a blessed and gratifying cooperation with the will of God, a sharing of His life. He accepts God’s will in all his undertakings. Everything, even the seemingly least important of his duties, becomes holy and awe-inspiring. The true Christian is no longer guided by merely human conceptions and motives: his life is imbued with a pure and strong love of the things that please God. He no longer asks: How far am I bound to go? How far am I free to do what I like? How far can I go without committing a serious sin? He simply loves with a love that recognizes no such distinctions and questions. His love is the measure of his fulfillment of the divine will. He obeys cheerfully and unreservedly. Such a man is indeed a good tree that brings forth good fruit.

3. We are here on earth to know God, to see Him in all things, to love and serve Him, and thereby to merit eternal life. God comes first; His glory is to be preferred to our well-being and our happiness.

“Come, children, hearken to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Gradual). “As you have yielded your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, so now yield your members to serve justice unto sanctification”; that is, the fulfillment of the will of God. “He that doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

In fulfilling his duties, the good Christian does not devote a meticulous attention to the outward appearance of things. He does not stand behind a veil, as it were, to look for God from afar off. Knowing that God is very near, he discovers Him in his work and in the fulfillment of his duties. Being fully aware of God’s omnipresence, he realizes that where God’s will is, there also is His grace and His aid. Knowing that he serves God when fulfilling his duties, he tries to fulfill them wholeheartedly in order to find his Maker and become united with Him. Thus he finds God and His kingdom in all things.

 

PRAYER

O God, whose providence in the ordering of all things never fails, we humbly beseech Thee to put away from us all harmful things and to give us those things which are profitable for us. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

____________________________________________ 

JULY 12

St. John Gualbert, Abbot

 

1. John was born of wealthy, noble parents in Florence, about the year 995. His father, a soldier, expecting to make a military man of John, educated him thoroughly in the art of war. It seems that the boy received no comparable preparation for Christian living, for, strongly attracted by the life of the world, he gave little thought to God for many years. Upon reaching the age for military service he was urged by his father to avenge the murder of his brother. It happened very soon that he accidentally encountered the murderer on a narrow mountain road. It was Good Friday, and the murderer, unarmed, begged his enemy to spare him for love of Him who on this day died for sinners. Grace triumphed; John dropped his sword, raised the man from his knees and gave him the kiss of peace. Then John hurried away to a nearby church, where he prayed with deep emotion. Once, raising his eyes to the crucifix, he saw the head of the Savior nod to him.

A changed man, he went to the abbot of the monastery to which the chapel belonged and begged for admittance to religious life. This step sent John’s father into a rage, but the abbot was able to calm him, and John became a monk. Within a short time he proved himself a model Benedictine; he felt, in fact, that the life was not strict enough for him. According to the ideas of those days, a monk so minded was free to seek his ideal elsewhere; and so John went, first to the hermits of Camaldoli, then to the “Shady Vale” near Florence, where he began to live the life of a hermit. Soon other young men joined him there, and they founded the monastery of Vallombrosa, from which this branch of the Benedictine Order, with St. John as its superior, spread widely. While visiting a newly-organized house near Siena he fell ill and died on July 12, 1073. Pope Celestine III numbered St. John Gualbert among the saints in 1193.

2. “At this time: Jesus said to his disciples. You have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy. But I tell you, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute and insult you, that so you may be true sons of your Father in heaven” (Gospel). Such was the heroic act of the young John. Having grown up with the attitude that one was permitted to avenge by murder, the murder of a relative, he had received and used the grace to forgive a man who appealed to the example of the Crucified. He had said: “What you ask of me for the love of Christ I cannot refuse. I forgive you. Pray that God will forgive my sins, too.” This was the hour of grace for John, the time of victory over human nature. Sending his servant home with his horse, the new man experienced in his heart the entirely new happiness of God’s peace. This joy sent him to the church, to the crucifix and fervent prayer. When he saw the Savior nod to him he understood the words: “Be merciful, then, as your Father is merciful . . . forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be yours; . . . the measure you award to others is the measure that will be awarded to you” (Luke 6:36 ff.).

“Well-loved by God, well-loved among men, a benediction rests upon his memory. . . . He made him great in the sight of kings, entrusted commandments to him” (Lesson). Having learned religious life in the monastery, John sought out a lonely place where he might commune with God, doing penance undisturbed. The Order he later founded was a combination of the eremitical and cenobitical types of life. Although John was abbot of this foundation, he was too humble to ask for even minor orders. The fame of his virtue brought so many young men to his Order that in the following century it claimed eighty abbeys and numerous priories, a rich source of blessings to the Church. St. John trained his monks to renounce earthly things, to be humble, to live a life of silence and recollection in the spirit of sacrifice and, above all, to be perfect in love of God and neighbor. His last words were: “My soul is athirst for God. When shall I be permitted to appear before the face of the Lord?” (cf. Ps. 41:3).

3. St. John’s life and work, which were so fruitful for himself and the Church, really began when he forgave the murderer of his brother, overcame his natural feelings, and spoke the word of reconciliation. Thus does God reward the Christian love of one’s enemies.

“Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” From St. John we can learn to forgive, sincerely and fully, anyone who may have offended or injured us. “Forgive us. . . as we forgive!”

 

Collect: May the intercession of the blessed abbot John gain us Thy favor, we pray Thee, Lord, and may his advocacy win for us that which we do not ourselves deserve. Amen. 

MARRIAGE AND PARENTHOOD

 

The Catholic Ideal

By the Rev. Thomas J. Gerrard

(1911)

CHAPTER XIII

THE CATHOLIC FAMILY 

THE ideal of the Catholic family has been once fully realized. There have been many good examples, all more or less approaching the ideal. But all except one must be regarded as having failed, at least in some respects, to achieve the perfection of family life. That one, of course, is the Holy Family of Nazareth. Since, therefore, God has given us the ideal fully realized in the concrete, it is to that rather than the more remote symbols that we must go for our lessons as to what the Catholic family should be. The Word was made flesh to reveal to us the mind of the Eternal Father. In order, then, to learn the mind of the Eternal Father concerning the nature and end of the Catholic family life we cannot do better than turn our thoughts to the little home at Nazareth.

The school of the Apostles was formed by Our Lord during the years of His public ministry. Then, having been organized by Him during His lifetime, it was fully promulgated and endowed with its special gifts after His death, by the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. The purpose of the Incarnation was the salvation of souls. The purpose of the Church was the salvation of souls. The purpose of the first Catholic Family was the salvation of souls. The first and foremost purpose, then, of every Catholic family is to obtain for its members the possession of everlasting life. The family does not exist merely for the sake of the love of husband and wife; nor for the love of parent and children; nor for the acquisition of worldly fortunes; nor for the promotion of the children in business; nor for the material prosperity of nations. All these are lawful and subordinate aims, subordinate to the final aim which is to help immortal souls to get to heaven. This is the first and, in a sense, the only lesson to be learned from the Holy Family of Nazareth; the purpose of the Catholic family is the undoing of sin, the hindrance of sin, the propagation of those truths and virtues which lead to life eternal.

The child Jesus grew in wisdom and age and grace in the eyes of God and of men. Although possessing the Beatific Vision, and consequently all wisdom, knowledge, and grace, yet Jesus deemed it expedient to acquire an experimental knowledge of things, to learn from Joseph and Mary the great truths about religion, and how to apply them to the development of the spiritual life. Jesus was the foundation of all grace. He was knowledge itself; He was wisdom itself; but He chose that His wisdom and knowledge and grace should be manifested gradually. He chose to undergo that laborious education to set the example to all Christian families, to show them that it was only by constant teaching and learning that Christian character could be formed. The Christian mother, then, assiduously watches for the first dawn of conscience in her child. She knows, or ought to know, that first impressions are the most effective and most lasting. She delights to take her child on her knees and teach it to pray. Her pride is to show her friends how her little one can say the “Our Father” and the “Hail Mary.” The time at length comes when the child must be sent to school. There must be no question about the character of the school, it must be Catholic.

The Catholic school will undoubtedly possess a Catholic atmosphere. The constant or frequent presence of priests or religious, the Catholic prayers, the statues and the fixtures, all tend to keep before the mind of the child the fact that he is a Catholic.

Now the Catholic home ought to be at least as Catholic as the Catholic school. There ought to be prominent signs about the house that it is the abode of a Catholic family. There is a feeling in some families, having pretensions to be up-to-date and fashionable, to regard a religious picture in the drawing-room as out of place. This feeling is generally the fruit of worldliness. It is also, in a measure, due to the large number of inferior pictures which flood the market, those cheap lithographs of the Pope or the bishop, which are a compliment to neither. A zealous father of a Catholic family will make an endeavor to hang up one or two good and really artistic religious pictures. They give a tone to the house, impressing the faith on the minds of the members of the family, and expressing the faith of the family to visitors.

More important even than Catholic art is Catholic literature. These are days when everybody reads or, at least, is supposed to read. And it is notorious that Catholics do not buy books as they should. Our Holy Father has warned us that unless we support a good Catholic press it will be useless for us to build schools and churches. Now, the Catholic Church is not wanting either in excellent writers or excellent publishers. Our book stores are rich in devotional, scientific, and recreative literature. The crying shame is that so little of this finds its way into the Catholic family. Heads of Catholic families, therefore, ought to see to it at once that there is a shelf for religious literature, that there is a regular subscription to some monthly or quarterly Catholic journal, and, especially among the working classes, a subscription to some Catholic weekly newspaper. It is chiefly through the press that the members of the family learn their relationship to other institutions in the world. The secular press keeps them provided with political news and so constantly reminds them of their civic duties. But the secular press is not an ideal medium for showing the Catholic his duty to the State.

Especially in the matter of education does the Catholic need to know the bearings between the mind of the Church and the mind of the State. And he ought to know this not only on general principles, but also in the application of those principles to the particular circumstances of his country. He must know what the bishops have said, what the government has done to this or that particular school or college, and what the government proposes to do with schools and colleges in the future. In a word, he must be alive to his duties as a Catholic citizen. The family life is the foundation of true citizenship. Since, therefore, the Catholic press is the means by which the Catholic learns the bearings between the family, the Church, the State, the Catholic press ought to be an institution in every Catholic household.

(To be continued)

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Father Courtney Edward will be in Eureka July 16. He will also be in San Diego August 5.

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