“The day of Christ” 

Vol 8 Issue 43 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
October 24, 2015 ~ St Raphael, opn!

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (39)
2. Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost
3. Feast of Christ the King
4. Christ in the Home (14)
5. Articles and notices

Dear Reader:

The Feast of Christ the King, which Holy Mother Church celebrates tomorrow to honor her Divine Head, reminds Catholics that the First Commandment—I am the Lord thy God, Thou shalt not have strange gods before me (cf. Exod. 20:2ff)—supersedes all other allegiances. As St. Peter would say with the other Apostles: We ought to obey God, rather than men (Acts 5:29). In today’s political and religious climate the declaration, It is the law (man’s) and one must follow the law (man’s), is an apostasy from God. It is a rejection of Christ who stood before Pilate and was crucified because He said: Thou sayest that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice. (John 18:37). The Church must follow Christ in teaching all nations the Truth since she must follow her Head (King). She must follow Him even to the crucifixion and those who are the members of the Church, joined to Him, follow Him also: Let us also go, that we may die with him. (John 11:16). It was His people that laid down palm branches to announce Kingship on the first Palm Sunday; but it was they also that called for His Crucifixion on Good Friday. Catholics today proclaim Him King while convenient, but call for His Crucifixion when the leaders deny His divine right to rule in all things: Marriage, family, society, education, courts, etc. [H]e that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven (Matt. 10:33). May faithful Catholics defend the rights of Christ and His Church in the public square even while apostate Catholics deny the rights of Christ and His Church. Viva Cristo Rey!

I have no comment on the charades happening at the “Synod on the Family” as Catholic Church teaching has been made very clear on Marriage and the Family and can only be reiterated not re-defined. The devil works in confusion, never in Truth.

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

____________________

Baptism

Means of Salvation

Sacrament of Baptism

An Early Controversy Concerning Baptism

Saint Cyprian of Carthage and Pope Saint Stephen I

 

 

Saint Cyprian (c. 200 – September 14, 258), Bishop of Carthage from 249 until his martyrdom, was first a lawyer and afterwards a prolific writer in the few years he was Bishop. Just baptized in 246, one cannot say he had a solid Catholic education previous to his elevation, but he was rich and was able to be acquainted with the greatest Catholic minds of his age through his extensive correspondence and position. Most of this correspondence deals with defending his election as Bishop of Carthage and later that of his opposition to accepting the baptism of heretics and schismatics. Already, when chosen to succeed Donatus I, there were several priests who opposed him and after his consecration they continued to seek his deposition, whereupon Cyprian had to defend himself to the Pope (Fabian). When persecution broke out under the Emperor Decius (249-251), many Christians renounced their faith rather than face martyrdom. The reign of Decius was short-lived and therefore many “lapsed” Catholics asked for forgiveness—which was granted by Cornelius, who succeeded the martyred Fabian (20 January 250) in 251. Cyprian, though he himself fled Carthage to avoid martyrdom and though he had accepted Cornelius as Pope and not the anti-pope Novatian, complained that Cornelius too easily gave absolution for the “lapsed” and even to the priests whom he had excommunicated. Taking such a strenuous attitude seemed to find few supporters as the absolution had been easily granted after previous persecutions; rather it brought his opponents to cast additional attention to Cyprian’s absence from Carthage (though he remained in contact with his priests and wrote about the martyrs). He turned his letters next to the defense of Cornelius against the anti-pope Novatian, writing to Cornelius and to the Catholics of Carthage the following:

 

If any one consider and examine these things, there is no need for lengthened discussion and arguments. There is easy proof for faith in a short summary of the truth. The Lord speaks to Peter, saying, I say unto you, that you are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And again to the same He says, after His resurrection, Feed my sheep. And although to all the apostles, after His resurrection, He gives an equal power, and says, As the Father has sent me, even so send I you: Receive the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins you remit, they shall be remitted unto him; and whose soever sins you retain, they shall be retained; John 20:21 yet, that He might set forth unity, He arranged by His authority the origin of that unity, as beginning from one. Assuredly the rest of the apostles were also the same as was Peter, endowed with a like partnership both of honour and power; but the beginning proceeds from unity. Which one Church, also, the Holy Spirit in the Song of Songs designated in the person of our Lord, and says, My dove, my spotless one, is but one. She is the only one of her mother, elect of her that bare her. Cant. 6:9 Does he who does not hold this unity of the Church think that he holds the faith? Does he who strives against and resists the Church trust that he is in the Church, when moreover the blessed Apostle Paul teaches the same thing, and sets forth the sacrament of unity, saying, There is one body and one spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God? Ephesians 4:4 (On the Unity of the Church, 4)

 

This treatise was intended more to strengthen Cyprian’s authority by rejecting any schism, i.e., disagreement with Cyprian, than it was actually to acknowledge the Roman primacy. It became especially apparent when, with persecutions rising once more the questions arose concerning the reception of the lapsed and heretics into the Church. Pope Stephen (254-257), who succeeded the martyred Pope Lucius (253-254) who had been elected after Cornelius died in exile, wrote to Cyprian to admonish him for his rigorism and refusal to admit into the Church those who followed Novatian and other heretics or required that they be re-baptized:

 

If any one, therefore, come to you from any heresy whatever, let nothing be innovated (or done) which has not been handed down, to wit, that hands be imposed on him for repentance; since the heretics themselves, in their own proper character, do not baptize such as come to them from one another, but only admit them to communion. (Letter 73 from Cyprian to Pompey, 1; D 46)

 

Cyprian refused to accept the admonishment, but rather began a campaign of letters renouncing Pope Stephen by claiming Stephen included all, even the Gnostics and non-Christians who were baptized in some manner:

 

But, moreover, you have well answered that part where Stephen said in his letter that heretics themselves also are of one mind in respect of baptism; and that they do not baptize such as come to them from one another, but only communicate with them; as if we also ought to do this. In which place, although you have already proved that it is sufficiently ridiculous for any one to follow those that are in error, yet we add this moreover, over and above, that it is not wonderful for heretics to act thus, who, although in some lesser matters they differ, yet in that which is greatest they hold one and the same agreement to blaspheme the Creator, figuring for themselves certain dreams and phantasms of an unknown God. Assuredly it is but natural that these should agree in having a baptism which is unreal, in the same way as they agree in repudiating the truth of the divinity. Of whom, since it is tedious to reply to their several statements, either wicked or foolish, it is sufficient shortly to say in sum, that they who do not hold the true Lord the Father cannot hold the truth either of the Son or of the Holy Spirit; according to which also they who are called Cataphrygians, and endeavour to claim to themselves new prophecies, can have neither the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Spirit, of whom, if we ask what Christ they announce, they will reply that they preach Him who sent the Spirit that speaks by Montanus and Prisca. And in these, when we observe that there has been not the spirit of truth, but of error, we know that they who maintain their false prophesying against the faith of Christ cannot have Christ. Moreover, all other heretics, if they have separated themselves from the Church of God, can have nothing of power or of grace, since all power and grace are established in the Church where the elders preside, who possess the power both of baptizing, and of imposition of hands, and of ordaining. For as a heretic may not lawfully ordain nor lay on hands, so neither may he baptize, nor do any thing holily or spiritually, since he is an alien from spiritual and deifying sanctity. All which we some time back confirmed in Iconium, which is a place in Phrygia, when we were assembled together with those who had gathered from Galatia and Cilicia, and other neighbouring countries, as to be held and firmly vindicated against heretics, when there was some doubt in certain minds concerning that matter.(Letter (74) of Firmilianus to Cyprian, 7)

 

Even though Pope Stephen made it clear that he was speaking of baptism properly administered, not in another’s name but as Christ commanded. Firmilianus quotes Stephen I as writing: . . . the name of Christ is of great advantage to faith and the sanctification of baptism; so that whosoever is anywhere so-ever baptized in the name of Christ, immediately obtains the grace of Christ (ibid., 18; D 47).

 

Cyprian attempted to claim Pope Stephen I allowed two baptisms, one of Catholics and one not of Catholics on the basis that one who does not have the Holy Ghost cannot give the Holy Ghost. It will be a position the Donatists will take: One must be in the state of grace to administer the Sacraments. But who absolutely knows if the minister is in the state of grace? Pope Stephen, inspired by the Holy Ghost, resolves this doubt by teaching that baptism administered with proper form (I Baptize you in the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Ghost) and matter (water) with the proper intention (as Christ commanded) is valid no matter who baptizes. Cyprian would die a martyr a few years later, and as such is honored as a saint—otherwise he may have gone down in history akin to Origen or Tertullian. There is much in his writings that show the customs and beliefs of the Church in his time, but there is also much that shows forth his fiery and opinionated character.

Saint Augustine writes this in regards to Saint Cyprian:

 

There are great proofs of this existing on the part of the blessed martyr Cyprian, in his letters—to come at last to him of whose authority they carnally flatter themselves they are possessed, while by his love they are spiritually overthrown. For at that time, before the consent of the whole Church had declared authoritatively, by the decree of a plenary Council, what practice should be followed in this matter, it seemed to him, in common with about eighty of his fellow bishops of the African churches, that every man who had been baptized outside the communion of the Catholic Church should, on joining the Church, be baptized anew. And I take it, that the reason why the Lord did not reveal the error in this to a man of such eminence, was, that his pious humility and charity in guarding the peace and health of the Church might be made manifest, and might be noticed, so as to serve as an example of healing power, so to speak, not only to Christians of that age, but also to those who should come after. For when a bishop of so important a Church, himself a man of so great merit and virtue, endowed with such excellence of heart and power of eloquence, entertained an opinion about baptism different from that which was to be confirmed by a more diligent searching into the truth; though many of his colleagues held what was not yet made manifest by authority, but was sanctioned by the past custom of the Church, and afterwards embraced by the whole Catholic world; yet under these circumstances he did not sever himself, by refusal of communion, from the others who thought differently, and indeed never ceased to urge on the others that they should “forbear one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:2-3 For so, while the framework of the body remained whole, if any infirmity occurred in certain of its members, it might rather regain its health from their general soundness, than be deprived of the chance of any healing care by their death in severance from the body. And if he had severed himself, how many were there to follow! What a name was he likely to make for himself among men! How much more widely would the name of Cyprianist have spread than that of Donatist! But he was not a son of perdition, one of those of whom it is said, “You cast them down while they were elevated;” but he was the son of the peace of the Church, who in the clear illumination of his mind failed to see one thing, only that through him another thing might be more excellently seen. “And yet,” says the apostle, “show I unto you a more excellent way: though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I have become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” He had therefore imperfect insight into the hidden mystery of the sacrament. But if he had known the mysteries of all sacraments, without having charity, it would have been nothing. But as he, with imperfect insight into the mystery, was careful to preserve charity with all courage and humility and faith, he deserved to come to the crown of martyrdom; so that, if any cloud had crept over the clearness of his intellect from his infirmity as man, it might be dispelled by the glorious brightness of his blood. For it was not in vain that our Lord Jesus Christ, when He declared Himself to be the vine, and His disciples, as it were, the branches in the vine, gave command that those which bare no fruit should be cut off, and removed from the vine as useless branches. John 15:1-2 But what is really fruit, save that new offspring, of which He further says, “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another?” John 13:34 This is that very charity, without which the rest profits nothing. The apostle also says: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance;” Galatians 5:22-23 which all begin with charity, and with the rest of the combination forms one unity in a kind of wondrous cluster. Nor is it again in vain that our Lord added, “And every branch that bears fruit, my Father purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit,” John 15:2 but because those who are strong in the fruit of charity may yet have something which requires purging, which the Husbandman will not leave untended. Whilst then, that holy man entertained on the subject of baptism an opinion at variance with the true view, which was afterwards thoroughly examined and confirmed after most diligent consideration, his error was compensated by his remaining in catholic unity, and by the abundance of his charity; and finally it was cleared away by the pruning-hook of martyrdom. (On Baptism, 18, 28)

 

The Church celebrates not only the Feast of Pope Cornelius and Cyprian of Carthage on September 16 but both are mentioned together in the Canon of the Mass for their striving for unity of the Church.

 

In regards to the various Gnostic sects and their rites, which Cyprian raises, the Church had and has continued to reject their baptisms. In the Catholic Encyclopedia J. P. Arendzen points out:

 

All Gnostic sects possessed this rite in some way; in Mandaeism daily baptism is one of the great practices of the system. The formulae used by Christian Gnostics seem to have varied widely from that enjoyed by Christ. The Marcosians said: “In the name of the unknown Father of all, in the Truth, the Mother of all, in him, who came down on Jesus”. The Elcesaites said: “In the name of the great and highest God and in the name of his Son, the great King”. In Irenaeus (I.21.3) we find the formula: “In the name that was hidden from every divinity and lordship and truth, which [name] Jesus the Nazarene has put on in the regions of light” and several other formulae, which were sometimes pronounced in Hebrew or Aramaic. The Mandaeans said: “The name of the Life and the name of the Manda d’Haye is named over thee”. . . .(C.E., Gnosticism)

(To be continued)

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Week of Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost

Benedict Baur, O.S.B. 

“The day of Christ” 

1. With renewed earnestness the liturgy reminds us of the approaching “day of Christ” (Epistle). During the present week it is absorbed by the thought of the return of the Lord. It wishes us to perform all our actions on earth keeping in mind the thought of death, eternity, and the life that is to come. “In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin” (Ecclus. 7:40).
2. The day of judgment is approaching. “If Thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” (Introit.) If Thou didst not pour out Thy mercy upon us during our earthly life; if Thou should not defer judgment upon our sins until the last day, who, O Lord, would escape Thy anger? If we were to be judged only by the world with its loose morals and flexible moral standards, if judgment were left to our enemies and those who slander us, if we were to be judged only by our superiors or our confessors, who are usually indulgent and lenient, if we were to be judged only by men, then we might say with St. Paul: “But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you or by man’s day; but neither do I judge my own self . . . . He that judgeth me is the Lord, . . . who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts” (I Cor. 4:3 ft.). “For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ” (Rom. 14: 10), both in the particular judgment and at the Last Judgment. “And the end of a man is the disclosing of his works” (Ecclus. 11:29). “For nothing is covered that shall not be revealed, nor hid that shall not be known” (Matt. 10: 26). “For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil” (II Cor. 5: 10). This much is certain: “He that judgeth me is the Lord,” the all-wise, all-holy, and the most just God. We must all make answer to Him who “searcheth the reins and the hearts” (Apoc. 2:23). “Lord, Thou has proved me and known me; Thou hast known my sitting down and my rising up. Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off” (Ps. 138:1-3). The liturgy reminds us that if we keep the thought of the coming judgment in mind, we shall perform our duties more correctly, form a much more correct appraisal of our trials, sufferings, joys, and successes in life.

He who redeemed us on the cross because of His love for us, is also to be our judge. He has done all that He could do to draw us to His love and to induce us to model our lives after His own holy life. During our life on earth He keeps Himself concealed from us and maintains a continual silence whether men serve Him faithfully or sin against Him. But He cannot and will not remain forever silent. At the moment when our life is at an end, when the union between body and soul is broken, He will assert His complete dominion over the soul. He will appear then as the Lord and Master. Fortunate will we be if we can appear before Him clean and unspotted and say to Him: “Show us Thy face, and we shall be saved” (Ps. 79:4). Woe, then, to all those who have forgotten Him; His appearance will strike terror into their hearts. Woe to those who have transgressed His commandments, to those who have rejected His truth and His grace, who have been unfaithful to His Church, and who have slandered and maligned it. Woe to those who have lived after the fashion of this world. They will tremble with fear when He takes into His royal hand the scepter and passes judgment upon them.

3. The Lord will come also as the rewarder. Then the just will receive the reward of their faith and of their patience, and they shall look upon the gentle face of Christ. Then those who have followed Him and have daily borne His cross, those who have fought for Him, suffered and mortified themselves for Him, will enter into peace. Woe to those who have resisted God and His holy will, and who die in that state. God will have no choice but to punish them. All those who have resisted God will be banished from His presence (Ps. 9:4).

“Be sincere and without offense unto the day of Christ” (Epistle). The Lord Himself has pointed out the way that we are to follow: “Judge not and you shall not be judged” (Luke 6:37). And the Apostle exhorts us: “But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (I Cor. 11: 31). We should pass judgment on ourselves in our examination of conscience, in our daily meditation, and in the confessional. Woe to us for our unrepented sins, for our failures in fraternal charity and the false judgments we have made, for our sinful speech, for our dishonest dealing, for our neglect of meditation and self-examination. If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.”

 

PRAYER

 

O God, our refuge and strength, the very Author of godliness, hear the devout prayers of Thy Church and grant that what we confidently ask we may efficaciously obtain. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Growth in love

1. “And this I pray, that your charity may more and more abound in knowledge and in all understanding; that you may approve the better things; that you may be sincere and without offense unto the day of Christ” (Epistle). The “day of Christ,” the day of our death and of the Last Judgment, is near at hand. Not a minute should be lost. It is imperative that we grow in the love of Christ Jesus.
2. God desires from us perfect love. “He, answering, said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself” (Luke 10:27). God has commanded us to love Him. Indeed, the commandment to love God is the first and most important of all the commandments. This commandment knows no limits. Love is an insatiable good; it has no measure, it never rests satisfied. Man, of course, can never love God as He deserves to be loved, he will never be able to fulfill perfectly the command to love. He must always strive to increase in love, to “love with [his] whole soul, and with all [his] strength.” That love must steadily increase until our death. We are making a pilgrimage to heaven, a pilgrimage that involves a continual wandering. As long as we have not reached our goal in eternity, continual progress in virtue is a sacred duty. Woe to us should we ever reach the point where we say I shall love God just so much and no more! With such an attitude we could not fulfill the first and greatest of commandments; and if we neglect this first of the commandments, how shall we fulfill the others? That is why the liturgy is so insistent on our continual growth in charity.

Perfect charity requires the complete conquest of all self-seeking, the destruction of indolence and envy, of all impatience and false judgment. It requires the complete abandonment of all purely natural ways of thinking and acting. It permits no routine or wordly manner of acting. It demands the conquest of pride and of all inordinate desires; it requires the sacrifice of all that is opposed to a godly spirit, or that hinders our progress in the spiritual life and in the perfect love of God. However, perfect love involves not merely the mortification of our senses and of our spirit; it requires also the powerful operation of God in our soul by means of spiritual dryness, temptation, suffering, and humiliation. Once God begins to operate in a soul, that soul undertakes all its works and actions for God. It then attributes nothing to itself, but everything to God. In all things it looks to Him, to His continual presence, and to His love. “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (I Cor. 6: 17). Such a soul knows only love, and its works are the works of a pure and perfect love. The Lord brings it about that such a perfect soul knows everything that it should know, thinks as it should think, forgets what it should forget, loves what it should love, and loves nothing outside of God or apart from God. 0 precious life of love! One act of perfect love is of greater value in the eyes of God and of greater benefit to the Church than all the imperfect works of the entire world. “And this I pray, that your charity may more and more abound” (Epistle).

3. “That your charity may more and more abound.” It is for the accomplishment of this end that the liturgy has been instituted. Our growth in charity is the very purpose of the Mass and of Holy Communion, which nourishes the inner life of man. By this means the measure of our charity is increased, the powers of the soul are invigorated through the infusion of sanctifying grace and the infused virtues, and man is thus given the strength to strive for a holier and more perfect life.

Our growth in the love of God gives unerring direction to our practice of fraternal charity, unites us more closely to the mystical body, and disposes us to live for one another and at peace with one another. For this reason the Epistle and the Gradual of the Mass remind us, “Behold how good and now pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” A truly supernatural love of our neighbor is not only most intimately connected with the love of God, but may be even more properly said to be identical with the love of God. Growth in the love of God means a growth in fraternal charity, a closer union with the body of the Church, and a participation in the sufferings, prayers, and sacrifices of our brethren. Such is the mind of the Church. May we so liv-e “that your charity may more and more abound.” This must be accomplished primarily by Christ. He alone can extinguish in us what is harmful to the spirit of fraternal charity. Only He is strong enough to stifle in us the spirit of self-love. “Unless the Lord the Lord is one spirit” (I Cor. 6: 17). Such a soul knows only love, and its works are the works of a pure and perfect love. The Lord brings it about that such a perfect soul knows everything that it should know, thinks as it should think, forgets what it should forget, loves what it should love, and loves nothing outside of God or apart from God. 0 precious life of love! One act of perfect love is of greater value in the eyes of God and of greater benefit to the Church than all the imperfect works of the entire world. “And this I pray, that your charity may more and more abound” (Epistle).

3. “That your charity may more and more abound.” It is for the accomplishment of this end that the liturgy has been instituted. Our growth in charity is the very purpose of the Mass and of Holy Communion, which nourishes the inner life of man. By this means the measure of our charity is increased, the powers of the soul are invigorated through the infusion of sanctifying grace and the infused virtues, and man is thus given the strength to strive for a holier and more perfect life.

Our growth in the love of God gives unerring direction to our practice of fraternal charity, unites us more closely to the mystical body, and disposes us to live for one another and at peace with one another. For this reason the Epistle and the Gradual of the Mass remind us, “Behold how good and now pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” A truly supernatural love of our neighbor is not only most intimately connected with the love of God, but may be even more properly said to be identical with the love of God. Growth in the love of God means a growth in fraternal charity, a closer union with the body of the Church, and a participation in the sufferings, prayers, and sacrifices of our brethren. Such is the mind of the Church. May we so live “that your charity may more and more abound.” This must be accomplished primarily by Christ. He alone can extinguish in us what is harmful to the spirit of fraternal charity. Only He is strong enough to stifle in us the spirit of self-love. “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it” (Ps. 126: 1).

In all His operations within our soul the Lord has but one object, and that is to destroy self-love in us that He may make room for the love of God. He can and He will accomplish this in us. It is for this purpose that the Church prays that we may grow in charity. We may place our trust in the prayer of the Church, for Christ prays through her.

 

PRAYER

O God, our refuge and strength, the very Author of godliness, hear the devout prayers of Thy Church and grant that what we confidently ask we may efficaciously obtain. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

 

CHRIST IN THE HOME

 

BY RAOUL PLUS, S.J.

(1951)

 

MARRIAGE

 

MARRIAGE AND THE BIBLE (2)

 

1. The Law of Procreation.

 

God did not create love and marriage only for the mutual pleasure of husband and wife. The purpose of their union goes beyond union. From the married couple’s intimate union a third person will issue, and if the marriage is fruitful a series of thirds, a progeny which will be the glory of the parents.

Increase and Multiply. God could have multiplied the living without using his creatures as instruments. Adam and Eve were directly created. God needed no one. So true is this, that

in the creation of the soul the Most High uses no intermediary. He reserves to Himself the power to infuse the soul into the child whose body the parents cooperate in producing.

As far as the body is concerned God permits and even desires that there should be an intermediary cause, and that constitutes a great marvel. God imparts to His creatures a share in His creative power. The parents are united in the physical expression of their conjugal love and from this bodily union, provided nothing bars the way, life will be born. For the soul there is to be no human agent. For the body a human agent shall exist. It is through the instrumentality of

the parents that the body of the child will be born. But God reserves to Himself the power to put the soul into that body by a direct act of creation.

That is the basis for the sovereign beauty of fatherhood and motherhood . . . At the birth of her first born son, Eve, transported with joy, exclaimed, “I have gotten a man through God.”

There is a double law in marriage–the law of chastity and the law of fecundity. The law of chastity permits the husband and wife to regulate according to their desire the frequency of intercourse. Should they by mutual consent decide to live for a time as brother and sister, say during Lent or Advent, or at some other times in their life together, for any just and noble reasons, they may do so provided they run no risk of sin.

The principal application of the law of chastity for the married is this: If they decide either by explicit or implicit agreement to perform the marriage act, they may do nothing to prevent conception.

Let them petition God for the desired grace to practice the restraints and continence they recognize as helpful or if it is not advisable for them to abstain from physical union, the grace to do nothing counter to duty.

 

 

CONJUGAL DUTY

 

THE demands of married life emanate above all from the Natural Law; in other words, right reason left to itself would reveal them to conscience. Even if Christ had never come, if Revelation had never been given, these requirements would be what they are. The Church, keeping to the doctrine of Christ merely upholds them with her supreme authority; she does not institute them. She reaffirms the law, explains its application, clarifies the ideal every time someone attempts to obscure it.

To that end we have various encyclicals of the popes as Maximum illud by Leo XIII and Casti Connubii by Pius XI and also pastoral letters issued periodically by bishops as the need arises.

One of the most complete of such letters on conjugal duty is the one written by Cardinal Mercier. Reminding the people of his diocese of the true doctrine on marriage, he explains the Christian concept of the conjugal life:

 

“The original and primary reason for the union of man and woman is the foundation of a family, the beginning of children whom they will have the honor and the obligation to rear in the Faith and in Christian principles.

“It appears, therefore, that the first effect of marriage is a duty which the married may not avoid . . .

“How far from truth are those who present marriage as a union whose sole purpose is physical love.

“The attraction to conjugal intercourse is legitimate, beyond a doubt. But such satisfaction of the sexual appetite is justifiable only in the function for which it was destined and which it was meant to ensure.

“How grave then is the sin of those who circumvent the divine law in this matter. A mortal sin is committed every time that the conception of a child is prevented by a deliberate positive act.”

Deliberately, before, during or after intercourse to take precautions destined to prevent conception constitutes a formal and seriously unlawful act.

The insidious propaganda on birth control that is being spread about through pamphlets, lectures, and advertisements is nothing but an effort to make an attack on life a lawful act. Cardinal Mercier condemns doctors, pharmacists, or mid-wives who betray their social mission.

It is forbidden to attack life, even in the generative act itself, that is to say, at the very point of origin. And those who dare to kill the living one being formed in the womb of its mother, are punished by the Church with censure reserved to the bishop. That means that the priest who absolves them must obtain from the bishop special authorization to do so, although he need not mention their names.

How the thought of all the souls sacrificed through marriage frauds ought to incite me to pray for holiness of family life and general observance of conjugal duty. War is not the scourge which kills the most people. It is lust.

Father Courtney Edward Krier will be in Los Angeles November 3, in San Diego November 4. He will be in Eureka, Nevada, November 10.

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