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Show 3e$H$ gbrist'-fiumanity's Benefactor Sublime Dignity of Alan Upon Whom God Has Imprinted His Own Divine Image. Rev. Father Keenan of the cathedral parish, Salt Lake, delivered the following follow-ing eloquent sermon at the High Mass on last Sunday: The church on every Sunday and holy day gathers" her children around the altars of God, and in unity of faith, concord of will and harmony of voice renders to the great King, whose reign is from ages to ages, the homage hom-age of their faith, the tribute of their love. But on this day, the .Sunday within the octave of the feast of the Nativity, we are assembled In the temple tem-ple of God for the purpose of honoring and worshiping the central figure in the annals of human history; One, who lived in type and prophecy from the foundation of the world; One for Whom, for thousands of years, the people waited, the priests prayed, the prophets longed Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Child of Mary, the Benefactor Bene-factor of humanity, who lived as a workman and died as a criminal in Palestine 2,000 years ago. True it is that before His coming there have not been wanting men who had sought to lay claim to the title of enlighteners and benefactors of mankind; true it is that before Him sages appeared who rendered their names famous by the ingenuity of their talents and the extent of their learning; learn-ing; teachers, indeed, have arisen, brilliant bril-liant in the natural truths which they have conveyed to their disciples. Powerful men, mighty in political science, have assimilated into one form of government the people of diverse nations. Masters in the military art have had their brows crowned with laurels of innumerable victories; but before Jesus Christ humanity had no real benefactor. Not one had appeared among-the millions of our race wise enough to conceive, powerful enough to effect, and merciful enough to apply ap-ply an efficacious remedy to many ills of a mental, moral and material nature na-ture under which labored the whole of humanity's children. Before Him, wise teachings were confounded with foolish errors, natural virtues with unnatural vices. The very manhood of our nature was lost in the chattel of the state. A zeal 'more pretended pre-tended than real was , manifested s for the reform of evil, and not alone in the barbarous nations do we find such, but even in the most polished and enlightened enlight-ened of antiquity. To attempt to describe the state of the heathen world before the advent of its great benefactor, would be to present a picture of human nature in its most depraved and degraded state. With the exception of Judea the knowledge knowl-edge of the one and only God was lost to mankind. Intellectual darkness, profound ignorance, abject misery, were found everywhere. Our first parents, par-ents, leaving the gates of Paradise, inside in-side of which they had been illuminated illuminat-ed by a supernatural light, and of which they had been deprived by their fin, groped their way on their journey through life in mental darkness, which became more dense for their descendants, descend-ants, and the .manacles of slavery which sin had placed around them grew more heavy as ages advanced, until humanity, tottering in its chains and weakened by its crimes, groaned aloud for its Liberator and Benefactor Benefac-tor He, who would cure,' enlighten and deliver it, and who "hearing the groans of those that were in fetters, would release the children of the slain." Once the knowledge of the true. God was lost, into what a night of darkness did men enter! The whole . world became be-came lost in Idolatry and converted itself into a temnle of idols. And in this pagan state, blasphemy, obscenity, drunkenness and impiety constituted the essential parts of public worship. Led astray by his senses, man rose to nothing higher than their gratification, j He debased himself by their degradation, degrada-tion, and having forgotten that he was , made by God, he himself began to make his God. Yes! Not content with worshiping the sun, the moon and the stars, he bowed down before the animals ani-mals that crawl upon the earth. And in this regard he confined not his worship wor-ship to the noblest of the species, but transferred it to the most vile and the most repugnant to the crocodile, the serpent and the Apis. He saw his deities dei-ties not alone in the mighty trees of the forest but even in the insignificant leeks and onions of the earth. Nay in his blindness and his folly he takes a chisel and a mallet in his hand and, with repeated blows, fashions some hideous representation, sets it up for his god. then trembles and falls down before it. The like follies were indulged in by refined and cultured nations as well as by ignorant peoples. Egypt, with its learning and its laws; Greece, with its philosophy and its arts; Rome, with its power and its wealth, were immersed in this profound idolatory; and the noblest efforts which the genius ge-nius of these nations have put forth, as well as the monuments of their ruins, serve but to bear witness to the wanderings of the human mind and the depth of human folly when left to itself without the light of divine grace. But not alone in the vainness of their idols, but in the stupidity of their worship wor-ship does their depravity reach its bounds. The vilest of women are consecrated con-secrated in its service, while hatred, envy, lust and murder constitute its public acts. Such was the fearful condition of human society when Jesus'Christ came into the world. , Could the mind be more darkened, the will more enslaved or the actions more immoral? How de-pldrable de-pldrable the state of humanity In the midst of this universal corruption! How greatly in need it stood of its Redeemer, Re-deemer, to come to bind its wounds, free it from its bonds, re-light the extinguished ex-tinguished torch of truth and transfer it from temporal misery to eternal happiness! After centuries of weary waiting this expected Redeemer, this new Teacher and Benefactor appeared among men. His advent into the world was effected in a way well calculated to fill angels with admiration and men with gratitude. His life was a combination com-bination of all that is sublime and everything ev-erything that is simple. For thirty years His days were passed in poverty, pover-ty, hardship and obscurity. He then I comes into public view, and for three years He is engaged in His divine min- istry of teaching, preaching and healing. heal-ing. He passes through life doing good to all. Charity, mercy, kindness, beneficence distinguish His actions. People are in admiration of His doctrine; doc-trine; they are charmed with His elo- I quence. In His company they deprive I their bodies of food, that they might feed their minds with truth. He confirms con-firms His teaching with wondrous miracles. mir-acles. At His command nature's laws suspend their operations; the elements ; hear His voice; inanimate creatures-yield creatures-yield Him obedience. He proves Himself Him-self truly to be the Lord of all things. Yet, finally. He dies a dreadful death: for in poverty, suffering and disgrace, He is crucified on a gibbet of ignominy; with thieves on either side of Him, in the midst of His jeering enemies, - in the chief city of His country and His people. Yet not in vain had the world waited for Him; for "ere He departed from it He supplied the means by which the individual mighlbe sanctified and so-r ciety might besaved." Such teachings as His men had never heard before. No sage or seer of old had ever spoken with such confidence and authority. He lifted up that mighty" voice, that could still the tempest's storm and call the dead from the sepulchre's darkened vaults, and thundered in the ears of all, "I am the Way, the Truth, the Life!" What words! What testimony to render to oneself! The greatest teachers of old might claim to point out the way to arrive at truth, and direct the life of man; but Jesus Christ alone, without folly or falsehood, could render of Himself this unique panegyric, pane-gyric, that He, their Teacher, was Himself the Way, the Truth and the is the object of his Creator's love. And this creation of which he is the central cen-tral figure is a mysterious and ineffable ineffa-ble outpouring of God's infinite and exuberant ex-uberant love. God has even impressed upon him His own divine image. Ah. sublime dignity! Oh! ravishing beauty of the soul of man. It is truly the image im-age of its Creator, inasmuch as it is spiritual, and having an essence, an understanding and a will (St. Thomas). There is glittering within it a magnificent magnifi-cent flash from God's eternal light. God is, God knows Himself, God loves; the soul is, the soul knows itself, the I soul loves. Like to the Father it has being, like to the Son it has intelli-I intelli-I gence, like to the Holy Ghost it has ' love. Resembling the adorable Trinity, Trin-ity, it has in its being, its intelligence and its love one common happiness of life. (Bossuet) But this is not all. Jesus Je-sus tells, us that God is not only our Creator and Conservator, but He is our Father. In His incomprehensible love God has so dignified our humanity, as almost to have deified it. He has united our souls to Himself by the bestowal of a beautiful gift called grace. th;tt may be said to enter into His divine life and being. The soul is not merely the creature of God as having received from Him being, not merely the servant ser-vant as being endowed with intelligence, intelli-gence, but by this wonderful grace, it is raised infinitely higher; it becomes even His child, and God becomes its Father, by a particular generation which is cai'ed adoption. "Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed be-stowed noon us that we should be called and be the sons of God." St. John, 1, 3.) If the matter of this doctrine is beautiful beyond measure, equally charming is the manner of its acquisition. acquisi-tion. These truths so sublime and incomprehensible in-comprehensible have been revealed to man through Jesus Christ. Man of his own power and recourse could never have obtained their knowledge. We have seen into what an intellectual and moral chaos society was brought when men were left without God. and abandoned aban-doned to their reason and their passions. pas-sions. And if the truths taught, bv Jesus Je-sus had not been acouircd by faith infused in-fused by God, but by the acquirement ! - '-?V' A . . . -. ' h. .. -. f?1 Life. Nor does He alone render testimony, testi-mony, but His Father renders it of Him. On Thabor's mount He declares in a voice from heaven ceasing to speak by the law and the prophets, for these have passed away that now men have a Teacher direct from God, none other than God's own Son. "This is My Beloved Son, hear ye Him." (Matt, xvii.) And what a beautiful doctrine is this of Jesus Christ. It contains those saving sav-ing truths which the world could never have learned if Jesus had not taught them. He reveals the mysteries of God and His attributes. The great Creator is one in essence, three in persons. per-sons. He is perfect in every attribute. He is goodness itself. From Him have come all things that are. He has created cre-ated man for Himself. He has destined des-tined for him eternal happiness. From. His mighty throne in heaven He 'looks down upon the children cf men, and by a dispensation of His tender Providence, Prov-idence, He provides for the tiniest of His creatures. He is everywhere present: pres-ent: it is He who upholds and feeds the birds of the air who give to Him the sweet music of their song. His wisdom has designed and His power produced the flowers of the field that render Him their fragrance and their beauty. He has prepared a home bf surpassing splendor and never ending; felicity for tho?e who keep His law; and as His judgments are justend perfect, the wicked and profanp hl)' receive the recompense of their action."?, for He wil I.oward every one according accord-ing to his deeds. Here, then, is the solution to the problem of life. It does not terminate at the dissolution of body and soul. Man is not a mere figure, placed on the stage of human existence, then to be displaced and seen no more. No, he starts at birth in an existence which' is to know no end, and every moment of that existence here is of unspeakable unspeak-able importance as being able to affect his eternal existence in the other world; which must irrevocably be one of . eternal happiness or misery. The dignity of. his end is ennobled by the meang placed at - his disposal in order to secure it. God has given to him a law of love, and he himself of learning, or by the art of reasoning, how few would ever attain possession of their saving knowledge! Of the majority of men, how small is the number num-ber who by study and industry acquire a knowledge of scientific truth? Thus it was that the philosophers of old had but small numbers of disciples acquainted with the useful truths they had discovered and taught. But Jesus Christ In teaching men by faith, tears aside the barriers of rank and wealth, 1 talent and power. He distinguishes not between : Greek and barbarian, master and slave. The truths He teaches are ! as accessible to the ignorant as well as to the learned, to the poor as to the rich, to the weak as to the strong, to the despised as to the honored; in short, He sees in all men. brothers, and in the establishment of His church He foresaw the wants of future ages, and in constituting it and instructing it to i teach, and commanding men to hear, He provided for all time a means, easy, universally and certain by which men may arrive at a knowledge of those truths of divine faith without which no man can be saved. (Mark xvi, 16). Happy, then, and thrice happy the people to whom such dectrines were revealed! They surpass all others by thority of their Teacher, the simplicity the sublimity of their nature, the au-of au-of their forms and the excellence of thtin'-effects. They recall the human : Ihterreft frqm its wanderings, and con-btitut con-btitut ajliht dissipating the darkness which for centuries had enveloped it. If the doctrinal truths of Jesus Christ were of such immense benefit to the human race, the moral virtues which He inculcated were of no less admirable admira-ble advantage. These, likewise, have their foundation in love. Men are now brothers who were formerly strangers to each other. The human race is but one family of which God is the Father. In this family love must reign supreme, all offenses must be pardoned, all injuries in-juries forgiven; malice, deceit, hypocrisy, hypocri-sy, must be banished from its midst. Good must be returned for evil. Those who would pursue in hatred must be pursued in return by love. "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, pray for them that persecute you." St. Matt., v. "My little children, love one another." As He sat upon the Mount what words of golden eloquence fell from those sacred lips! "Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are the meek; blessed are the chaste; blessed are they who suffer persecution." What heavenly heav-enly rules for human conduct! What a source of peace to the mind, joy to the heart, tranquility to the soul, is this beautiful moral teaching of the Master. Those passions of ours, the source of so many of the evils that afflict af-flict us, and which so often have blinded our minds to what is true and seduced our hearts from what is good, must be resisted unto death. Unceasing, perpetual per-petual warfare must we wage against them. "But everyone is tempted, being drawn away by his own concupiscence and allured." From whence are wars and contentions among you? Come they not hence from your concupiscence concupis-cence which was in your members?" (St. James, 1, 14, Iii-4). Passions then must not be indulged. Vicious inclinations inclina-tions must be restrained. Self-denial must be practiced, if you wish to attain the heavenly peace of our loving Redeemer Re-deemer and taste the sweetness of the manner of our Divine Benefactor. And these virtues with Jesus Christ were not entirely speculative ones; He reduced re-duced them to practice. He manifested manifest-ed them perfectly during His sojourn, on earth; He sliowed His love for His1 enemies to such an extent that while cursing Him on the cross. He besought His Father on their behalf: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what thev do," which has -caused even the infidel to assert that if He lived as a man, He died as a God. And what happiness, have not these precepts given- to those, who seized' them! Crbwns have been cast aside, scepters have been broken, honors have been contemned, pleasures have been denied, wealth has been rejected in order to be poor, to be meek, to be chaste, to be suffering like Jesus: for, to follow in the footsteps of this Divine Teacher, and to endeavor to imitate His life, is to experience a spiritual happiness of a nature ineffable and indescribable. Tt is to lead an angelic life on earth; it is to enjoy a foretaste of Paradise. Our Divine Lord, then, is the benefactor bene-factor of humanity by removing its errors er-rors through the teaching of His doctrine, doc-trine, and healing the wounds by the unfolding of His morality. So sublime is the one, and so perfect the other, it is incomprehensible that the whole vorld does not, like Mary, sit in rap- ' . I ture at His feet. To a race wrapped in the darkies of dismal night God 1 Himself has sent a teacher. This Di- i vine Master explains the mystery of existence, the nature of God, the exist- I ence of heaven and hell. He shovv3 j the way of peace and love, and directs all to heaven's golden gates. Yet many profit little by His teaching or His practice. Seducing teachers and false prophets may have no lack of pupils; 1 yet the perfect followers of Jesus are few. Not that there is any defect in I the evidence of His doctrine, but there is much depravity in the human heart! t Not that His teaching is hard to under- j stand, for all that is essential can be learned by a child! Not that He im- I poses too heavy a yoke at all. And f thus it is that the "light shons in dark- I ness and the darkness did not compre- hend it." And that "He came unto His own and His own received Him not." He has not flattered the crowd ! by pernicious errors nor seduced the I multitude by seditious doctrines. He did not harangue men on their rights f and keep silence regarding their duties. du-ties. He has given solid principles to ! human society for its government and f the attainment of its end. He has commended that thing3 that are Cea- sar's should be rendered to Caesar, and I to God the things that are God's. He I has elevated the authority of those in ': higher places; He has dignified the submission of those in lower ones; He has rendered authority more sacred by investing it with a divine origin. The f power to command no longer rests on ! mere human foundations, so unsettled ' and uncertain, but is now rendered inviolable in-violable by being traced to a divine source. Submission, on the other hand, is now consecrated not only by His divine di-vine precept, but by His most holy example. ex-ample. To keep power and riches within with-in bounds and the dignity of rank within with-in the limits of moderation. He has recalled re-called to men their common origin, and most forcibly reminded the great ones of the world that one day the purple must be removed, the sceptre taken away, the diadem set aside, and at the dark gate of futurity the rich, the powerful and the great must meet the " great God in judgment, who is no respecter re-specter of persons, and who will give to every man the measure of his deeds. |