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Christianity established—As before the coming of the Messias, all the designs of God tended to realise the work of the redemption, so in the same manner after the coming of the Messias, all the designs of God tend only to maintain and extend this work. Thus, the restoration of all things in Jesus Christ is the pivot around which all the events of the world revolve, and is the final end of all the designs of God ; a sublime end, to which concur, whether knowingly or unknowingly, willingly or unwillingly, both kings and peoples.
W e have shown the accomplishment of this great law during the four thousand years which preceded the coming of the Redeemer. If we were to stop there, our task would be incomplete. Religion would not be known in its magnificent entirety, and our teaching being deficient, would not meet the views of the Great Master whom we follow.1 The exposition of religion, from the time of Pentecost down to our own days, is then as necessary as its anterior history; it is even much more interesting, whether because it is less known or because it touches us more closely.
If it is admirable to assist at the first appearance and gradual developments of this Divine tree, whose roots are hidden in the night of ages, how much more admirable is it to see it extending its protecting branches over the whole world, sheltering- beneath its generous foliage, and nourishing with its vivifying fruit, the generations who pass it by on their way to eternity; to see it beaten by the storms, and yet as immovable as the rocks; ever attacked by the consuming worms of heresy, scandal, and impiety, and yet always preserving its vigour, youth, and inexhaustible fertility! a continual miracle] before which man, enlightened by faith, falls on his knees, and, in a transport of admiration, exclaims : 0 Work ofGod, in explicable to reason./'
Such is the picture which we unfold before the eyes of youthful Christians during the third year of the Catechism.
Before ascending to heaven, the Divine Word had created the body of the Church, observing in the formation of regenerate man the same order which He had followed in the formation of fallen man. The consecrated Apostles, the disciples attached to the Apostles, the various orders of the established hierarchy, the laws and regulations promulgated, formed, so to speak, the body of the Church. Yet a little while, and the Spirit from on high shall come to give life to this immortal body.
The ever memorable day of Pentecost breaks upon the world; the Holy Ghost descends to the cenacle, and rests upon every one of the assembled company.
The soul is joined to the body; the Church is animated.
With the Apostles, we depart from the upper chamber; we follow them in their evangelical journeys. We speak of the
persecutions, and other gigantic efforts of hell, to stifle the work of Redemption. ' W e sketch the history of the most illustrious martyrs. To make young Christians acquainted with the manners of their forefathers in the faith, we relate in detail the customs of the early Christians; w e trace their footprints at Jerusalem, at Antioch, at Corinth, at Rome ; w e descend into the catacombs.
With the torch of science and of history in our hand, we seek our way along the galleries and through the oratories of this subterranean city. Every monument that we meet with bears witness to the angelic virtues, the patient sufferings, and the lively faith of our glorious ancestors. We see them, in this dark abode, raising their innocent hands to heaven ; reciting, with extended arms, their fervent prayers; celebrating their fraternal agape, and offer ing the holy mysteries, either to prepare themselves for martyrdom, or to obtain the salvation of their haughty persecutors, whose golden chariots roll with fury above their heads.
These ever interesting places are hallowed with such sweet reminiscences, that we cannot too frequently conduct thither or too long retain there the Christians of the present day.
Herein we imitate the Church herself, who, in an age of coldness and indifference, returns again to the forgotten paths of the Catacombs, and opening on all sides these ancient tombs, reanimates the piety and faith of her children by presenting to them the traditions and monuments of her infancy.
Faithful imitators of the Saviour, our forefathers were obliged to bury themselves in the bowels of the earth for three long centuries, as He Himself had lain buried in the tomb for three days. The Catacombs were the tomb from which, full of life, the chaste Spouse of the Man-God should arise victorious to ascend the throne of the Caesars, as He had arisen from his tomb, the Conqueror of death and hell, to reign eternally over the world.
The divinity of Christianity being rendered as evident as the existence of the sun by the mere fact of its establishment,‘ despite the efforts of all human antagonism, we show its admirable effects upon the world. For this purpose we compare man under paganism with man under Christianity.
Examining in detail the various positions in which man may be found, and the various relations under which he may be regarded, we behold the universal influence of Christianity : over the intellectual, moral, and physical man, by enlightening, sanctifying, and consoling him; over society, by restoring the true ideas of right and duty ; over the domestic circle, by leading it back to its primitive perfection, which excludes divorce and polygamy; over the father, by making him no longer a despot, but a venerable and amiable representative of our Father who is in heaven; over the mother ,by declaring her the companion, and not the slave ,of man;
over the child, by presenting it as a sacred deposit to its parents, and abolishing the barbarous privilege of forsaking, killing, or sell ing it; over the slave, by proclaiming him his master’s brother and equal before God; over the poor, by calling them the dear friends of Christ; over the stranger, by considering him as a welcome neighbour; in fine, we show, what ought to be written in letters of gold, Christianity everywhere relieving the weak, by substituting for the brutal dominion of might, the sweet law of love.’
Comparing thus the pagan with the Christian world, we show the new aspect which all things have taken under the influence of the Gospel. Everyone perceives in particular what he bestowed on Christianity, and is obliged to bless that beneficent Religion, and God who is its Author.
Thanks to the priesthood, to the Church, the world is become Christian 1 After so many salutary improvements have been made in manners, laws, and institutions; in a word, after so many human beings, children of the old Adam, have shared in the life of the New Adam; should we not think that the World, now rendered happy and become grateful for so many benefits, should repose in the bosom of a profound peace, and that Christianity should enjoy, uninterruptedly, the fruit of its laborious triumph? Yes, so it would appear; but, in reality, it cannot be so.
The effects of sin in regard to man are weakened, but not destroyed, by Redemption; this work will only be consummated in heaven. Until we arrive there, we shall have warfare : intellectual warfare, there must he heresies ;1 moral warfare, it must needs be that scandals come ;’ physical warfare, through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.8 All these things are necessary, that our temporal life may be what God desires it to be, a trial, a meritorious trial, but a painfult rial. Man is as soldier; he must preserve his union with the New Adam, and advance towards perfection sword in hand.’
Hell and the old enemy have made a thousand efforts to render this warfare most perilous to us, and the work of Redemption unavailing in regardt on nations and individuals. Sometimes they raised up heresies to change the truth, and destroy the intellectual man ; sometimes they raised up scandals to substitute concupiscence for charity, to exchange a sensual for a supernatural life, consequently to destroy the moral man; sometimes the double crime of heresy and scandal, or some other particular crimes, drew on kingdoms a series of pestilences, wars, famines, injustices, and disorders, which tended to destroy the physical man, by reviving the savage sway of the strongest arm, and replunging the world into that state of misery and abjection in which it groaned under paganism.
Thus, to ruin the work ofR edemption in the intellectual, moral, and physical man, will be the continual aim of the devil, and of the evil principle which exists within us.
On every point of attack the Ncw Adam places a sentinel. Here we develop his admirable system of defence and conservation. Happy the man who comprehends it1 for him history has no secrets, he sees the plan, the object, the importance of every event; the more deeply he thinks, the more clearly he perceives that Jesus Christ is the immortal King of Ages, the Alpha and the Omega, the Centre to which all rays converge. Thanks to this luminous knowledge, his reason is enlightened, his judgment formed, his heart inflamed; an admiration of Religion becomes the habitual _ sentiment of his soul, and he renders an account of all things in the world with a superiority and a justness of conception, which in vain may be sought for among philosophers without faith. All
our efforts in this part of the Catechism are directed to lift a little the veil which conceals so many wonders.
Christianity preserved; the Priest, the Saint, the Religious 0rders.-The universal and constant prcserver of the work of Redemption, namely, the Priest, will bear the same characteristics,
and fulfill the same offices, as Jesus Christ Himself, whose sub stitut he is. Like the Word Incarnate, he must be:
I. An offerer of sacrifice, in order to apply to all generations
the merits of the sacrifice of the Cross, by perpetuating it on the
altar; a living victim, too, he will immolate himself for the sins
of the people. By this uninterrupted expiation, he will preserve
for the world the chief fruit of Redemption, which is the union
of heaven and earth, and draw down continual graces on mankind,
preventing their crimes from ever erecting again the wall of separation, raised by the revolt of the first Adam, and overthrown by the
sacrifice of the Second. Such will be
the permanent characteristic of the priest, such the office prevailing over all others, such the principal duty imposed by the Saviour: Do this for a commemoration of Me.’
In the order of history, as well as of dignity, the mission of
offering sacrifice precedes that of preaching the truth and judging
consciences; what man particularly requires is expiation. Hence,
the Apostle St. Paul, commenting on the words of the Divine
Master, says, in express terms: Every high priest, taken from among
men, is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.a Hence
follows the list of his other duties.
II. A Teacher, in order to prevent, by the continual dissemination of Christian truth, the ruin of the work of Redemption in the human mind: You are the light of the world,- go, teach all nations)
III. A Model, in order to prevent, by the shining example of his virtues, or, in other Words, by the practical love of supernatural goods, concupiscence, or the irregular love of sensible things, from ruining the work of Redemption in man’s will: You are the salt of the earth ; let your works so shine before men, that they may glorify your Father who is in heaven’
IV. A Physician for all Human Miseries, in order to prevent, by an unwearying and universal charity, the ruin of the work of Redemption in the physical man, through a return to pagan degradation, and to the sufferings which were its natural consequences : Cleanse the layers, heal the sick, do good to all.’
Anointed ministers of God! such is your mission. Was there ever a nobler? The several offices of Expiator,Intercessor,Teacher, Model, and Physician, are always to be characterized in him, but with more or less splendour, according to the requirements of times and places; or, in other words, according to the needs of the Divine work.
The Priest, then, is the Preserver of Christianity;
is it possible to conceive a juster or a more exalted idea of him, to remind him more eflicaciously of the obligation he is under of practising all virtues, or to inspire the people more fully with that respect and love which they owe to him?
Now, as the evil principle which fights against Christianity is found wherever there are men, always armed, always seeking to undermine and destroy the Divine work, so the Priest is like wise found everywhere, watching, night and day, as the shepherd over his flock, or as the watchman on the ramparts of a besieged
city. So much for ordinary times. But sometimes the danger increases.
The wolves roaming about the fold become more numerous and more fierce. .The enemy attacks the fortifications more desperately; already his foot is on the battlements.
The isolated pastor becomes too weak to defend his sacred trust. It is then that is heard on all sides the cry of alarm, and that individual pastors have recourse to the Pastor of pastors; or that, assembling from the neighbouring quarters, they themselves employ one united effort as the surest means of banish ing the wolves from the sheepfold and the enemy from the fortress; in other words, of arresting heresies and scandals. The means here referred to are Councils.
We relate, according as we meet them in the course o ftime, the history of these august assemblies. The historical exposition of their occasions, decisions, and results, shows not only the literal accomplishment of the Divine promise,I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world,2 but also the absurdity of the reproach which is sometimes made against the Church of creating new dogmas.
Witnesses of the ancient faith, the pastors are content with rendering testimony to the constant belief of their particular Churches; their only fear is, lest a single word should be added or taken away, lest the slightest innovation should be made in doctrine.
See_what passes at Nice; the same is followed ever afterwards.
Arius attacks the divinity of our Saviour. The Bishop ofAlexandria raises the cry of alarm; the bishops from the four quarters of the world are convoked: they assemble at Nice. Do they say: “ W e have discovered, and now declare, for the first time, that the Son of God is consubstantial with his Father‘9” No; butt hey say: “ W e render testimony to the faith of our Churches, and we depose that they have always believed, and still believe, in the divinity of the Word; the doctrine of Arius is opposed to the ancient doctrine, iti s an innovation; we, the guardians of the ancient faith, condemn both the innovation and the innovator." Thus, it is not a new faith they establish, it is only the ancient faith they profess.
In the same manner, when the Bishops assembled at Trent from all parts of Christendom, and condemned the errors of Luther and Calvin, it was not on the Holy Scriptures alone, but also on the decisions of preceding Councils, the constant sentiment of the Fathers, and the immemorial practices of the Church, that they founded their decrees.
Is this an act of absolute despotism on the part of the Bishops ? Far from it; it is, on the contrary, an act of docility to an authority more ancient thant heirs. They received the law before imposing it on others, and if one among them should refuse to bow to its yoke, he would immediately incur an anathema and be deposed. The simple Catholic, then, who submits to their decision, does not merely yield to the personal authority of his pastors, but submits to the entire body of the Church, and the Church herself submits to the authority of Jesus Christ, by obeying the command which He gave her to bear testimony to Him in Jerusalem, and in Samaria, and even to the extremities of the earth, till the con summation of time.1
And now the days have come when the evilprinciple, gathering fresh courage, wages a fiercer war, and spreads the conflict wider. It is then that, from the ever fruitful womb of the Church, the Almighty brings forth a new array of defenders. We speak of those extraordinary Saints, those men powerful in word and work, who appear from time to time in the day of trial. They are always endowed, in the most eminent degree, with the qualities required by the circumstances of the time, so that their mission is evident.
But, as we have seen, hell can only attack man in three ways; in the intellectual man, by error; in the moral man, by scandal; and, in the physical man, by a return to pagana objection and slavery.
So on this account—how admirablel- we behold three kinds of Saints, and only three.
- Apologist Saints (the word apology is occasionally employed throughout this work in its original sense of defines 0r justification); men raised up for the defence and propagation of truth, that is, to prevent the ruin of the work of Redemption in the intellectual man. It has been remarked before our
- time, that they not only appeared at the very places which most needed them, but at the precise moment when truth was in the greatest danger. This fundamental observation, which renders the continual action of Providence over the Church so evident, we are careful constantly to place before the minds of youth.
Another remark, not less interesting, is, that religion’s most illustrious apologists appeared in the firstages. These apologists are not the Tertullians, nor the Athenagorases, nor the Clements of Alexandria, but the men of the people, the poor, the ignorant, and the old; weak women, young virgins, timid children; in a word, the Martyrs; these are the most illustrious witnesses of the truth, the most eloquent apologists, by whose blood its triumph was secured. “How, indeed,”saysPascal,“can we refuse to believe in witnesses who allowed themselves to be strangled for the testimony which they give P” We show that the testimony of blood, the apology of torments, is found by religion as often as it is required. >
II. Contemplative Saints—raised up for the defence of the work of Redemption in the moral man, they trample under foot honours, riches, pleasures, all the passions, and by a supreme contempt of transitory things, recall the human heart to the love of supernatural things.
Certainly if all the evils of the world proceed from an inordi nate love of creatures, how useful to the repose of society and to the happiness of nations are those persons who, by their example, contribute more eflicaciously than all philosophers with their writings, and legislators with their laws, to destroy this guilty love.
History still shows them to us, always appearing at the very moment when human love, being degraded by scandal snd tepidity, and become sensual, steps forward to seize its fallen sceptre.
Thus, by the side of vice, you always observe the contrary virtue! It is a counterpoise, an innocent victim laden with the expiation of guilt. This is one of the most admirable harmonies of the moral world, and a proof of the oracle, the Lord hath disposed all things in number, weight, and measure; a profound saying, of which the spiritual world offers us much more resplendent proofs than the material. We know that the physical creation would be instantaneously overthrown, if the law of gravity by which it is regulated, were for a moment disturbed; a similar fate would await society, if the hand which holds so many opposing forces in spiritual equilibrium, were at any time