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Show TRIUMPH OfCHRISMNITY The Apostles Lonely, but Full of Hope-Mary Hope-Mary Her Presence a Comfort The Holy Ghost Apostles Before and After Peter Enters Rome Paganism and Its Hold Persecutions Catacombs and Coliseum Spread of Christianity Peter Pe-ter in Rome. At I he high mass in St. Mary's Cathedral, Rev. T. Hivnuan preached on the Triumph of Christianity, taking for his text, "I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world." St. Paul, Cor. Jt is Jerusalem and in a room there the disciples of the Master are assembled, and Mary is with them. I'd!' the most part these men are poor and lowly, endowed en-dowed not with the wisdom of the schools, carrying the riches of the world. On their faces you can sec the lines of sorrow and anxiety, for the Master is gone, he Avho in the old days was their stay and comforter. Ah, how we poor human beings cling and follow and die for an individual who has the genius to rule and lead. Men always had and will ever have their human idols, and him they will follow through his night of defeat as well as through his day of victory. In war, polities, science and in every other branch it was ever so it will be always al-ways so. " The apostles had their leader, a leader whose birth was the lowliness of Bethlehem, whose death was the ignominy of Calvary. ' In Jesus of Nazareth there was nothing great as far as the world was concerned. Had not the world in the person of Herod put the fool's. cloak upon Him? Had not the world in the person of Pilate condemned con-demned Him to die on a cross. between, two robbers? The world always is hasty to condemn. The world alwavs is slow to pardon. The apostles were not of the world; they were of the Christ. . Now He is gone from them and sorrow tills their hearts; but yet in this day of desolation sweet hope never leaves them. There in that little room they watch and pray and wait and ponder over the Master's Mas-ter's last words: "I go, but I will not leave you orphans. I will send the Holy Ghost, the comforter, comfort-er, and He will teach you all truth." We can well imagine, too, what a stay, a strength Mary was to these poor, weak, hoping men.' Peaceful and calm he waits there. She is the Mother of the Master; she is the Mother of the desired, of the everlasting hills, the comfort of the House of Israel.. The apostles apos-tles gaze upon her and their hope gains new strength. They speak not, but from the silence of their minds we can write their thoughts. She is His mother; she knows more about Her Son than ?ver can be written in books. Was not she that first kiscd His baby's lips in Bethlehem? Was it not upon her breast His head rested beneath the palms A Egypt f Was it not she Avho took His silent dead form" to her heart when Calvary's day was over? Ah, yes! calm and patient, Mary can wait, for she knows Her Son knows the infinite goodness of His life, the infinite strength of His promises, and the apostles gaze upon Mary, and the hours and davs go b and 4 hey faint not they fail not. JViitacost comes the crowning stroke of Christianity: Christian-ity: the Holy Ghost descends and fills the minds there with a light and a strength which" is of God; and Mary is calm still, and the apostles rise with a world before them to conquer, a heaven before them to win for themselves and their brethren. Ah, we can we 11 imagine Peter filled with the Holy Ghost; we can well imagine him, how eagerly he grasped lii- cloak around him as he left the room;. we can well imagin with what fire and light his soul was filled as no nd only now he understood the words of the Mr 'l 'Go and teach all nations." He is do loiigei cf ivak Peter of Pilate's Court; as he Ftn.nd be. " i': uultitude on the streets of Jeru-Mil.'in Jeru-Mil.'in and '''' n-oclaims the doctrines of Jesus ti e Nazarea . id as it was with Peter, so it was iviih the oci.e- i. -ostles. Quickened and strength-r:-cd by the il -Jy Ghost, they go forth, and the ut-teni.ost ut-teni.ost boun ' of the earth hear the truth and jus-liee jus-liee of God. Let us go bak in spirit, dearly beloved, over the ct ratifies to that day in which the Holy Ghost fired h- apostles to dare "and do all things for the Christ, ri.id let us take our stand upon the Capitol. Rome --pagan Rome is beneath us. Mistress of the old er world she lay there, conscious of her strength, boatful of her wisdom. In the distance we see the palaces of the proud Caesar, the Coliseum where mew are butchered to make a Roman holiday; the .roves where Cato and Pato and Seneca taught, their l.liilfwophv '.he temples where Jupiter and Baecilius : :i 1 Nevi'us and the rest have their shrine. Above us floats the Eagle Banner. The schoolboy will tell that Roman hands have carried it triumphant 'from the velluw Tiber to the blue Danube. Asia, too saw its victorious flutter, and Africa, as far as Mauritania., bowed down its head to the slavery of ;he Caesars. Yes, Rome sleeps there. Secure in he treng(li, wise in her philosophy, trustful in her l:oK Down the Appian way an old man comes. lovn that way before him have trod Hannibal, Poiiipev and Caesar, glorious with the conquests of man;- land-;. Before. them was Rome glad, jubilant, victorious Rome. Behind them lay slavery, blood and tears. Down the Appian way an old man comes. X" shout of welcome hails him; no gorgeous pomp surrounds him, and yet no conqueror ever trod the Appian way, as great as lie was. The old man en-i en-i is Rome it is Peter, prince f the apostles the mouthpiece of Jesus Christ. Yes, to Rome haughty mistress of the olden world Peter comes to plant the temple of the Living God upon the ruins of Xe t ro's Circus, to tear down Jupiter and Baccus and Nenus and the rest of Rome's tremendous gods from their polluted shrines to confute the philosophy of the strength that life gives and ages cherish. Peter, thou art come to Rome for this. If the wise and the great of that day met thee at the gates of Rome and you told them your mission, they would laugh you to scorn and put the fool's cloak upon thee as Herod did upon thy Master. But wait awhile, and while j'ou wait, ponder over-in your minds the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians: "The weak things and the contemptible things and the things that are not. God hath chosen to confound the stroncr and to bring to nought the things that are. The foolishness foolish-ness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." Peter has entered Rome and soon it is whispered that a new sect has arisen who call themselves Christians the cross their password, Christ their belief. The whisper grows stronger and reaches the ears of those in power that these Christians put not trust in Jupiter and Mars, gods of wood and stone. An edict at once goes forth, "Crush them." It is easy to write the word crush, but no human power can put. the word crush into execution where truth is concerned. "Great is truth, and it shall prevail." For it is not eternal? Has it not leaped forth, living liv-ing and victorious, from God's right hand. "Crush, them," wrote the Caesar, and pagan power drew the sword; pagan ower forged the manacle; pagan ower lit the torch. Peter is in Rome persecution has begun how .will it end? Gramaliel, Jewish doctor and teacher of the great St. Paul, uttered the sentence of his life when lie wrote these words: "If this new sect is of man, it shall come to nought ; if it is of God, vain do you combat it." But old Rome and Jerusalem paused not to think upon the wisdom of Gamaliel's words. Old Rome and Jerusalem are like our world today: it pauses not to think Peter is in Rome, the persecution per-secution is begun, how will it end?" . In the struggle between a pagan world and the Christ there are two places one hallowed for all time. We gaze upon the Catacombs . There men and i Continued on Page 5. TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY. ' (Continued from page 1.) ditions that clung to father, mother and son with all men with the philosophy of God; to tear out from the Pagan heart its mrst treasured traditions tra-women tra-women and children were baptized into the newness of eternal life and learned the truth which made them free. We gaze upon the Coloseum there men and women and children gave their lives for the Christ who gave His life for them, and bravely and sweetly and calmly they went home to God with the sign of the cross upon their foreheads. "Crush these Christians they bow not to our gods; they pander not to our passions." And ten persecutions full of fire, cruelty and blood, leaped forth to do the tyrant's bidding. But fire and sword and dungeon dun-geon could not kill the Christ. "These Christians are but of yesterday," Avrote Tertullian, a noted writer of that time, "and yet they fill your camps, your temples, your senates and your cities. And Julian, Ju-lian, the Apostate man of hate, cruelty and blood goes down to his death with these words upon his lips: 'O, Galilean, thou has conquered'." Peter entered Rome to conquer; and to stay standing stand-ing today amidst the ruins of the Capital it is Pagan Rome no more. We see lust soaring high in the heavens, upon more than three hundred churches the cross, and in the midst "Christ's mighty dome above His martyrs' tomb." Centuries have come and gone with their revolutions and changes; great men have arisen only to go down again in a few fleeting fleet-ing years ; philosophies and sects have captivated the heart and mind of many men for the moment, and then the acid of truth corroded them. In a world of change, amid seas of doubt, two things remain Peter and the Catholic Church. Peter entered Rome to conquer and to stay, and there he lives today in the person of Pius X. From the ruins of the Capitol Ave look over the world and we see in every land and amidst every race those millions who proudly, bravely and sweetly sing, "I believe in the one Holy Catholic Apostolic Church." . Yes, that mighty Church which reaches into all lands and from earth to heaven had its beginning on that day' of Pentacost, when the Holy Ghost gave the light and strength of God to the apostles. Looking at the change which these apostles effected in the face of obstacles that no human pen can portraj', the ejaculation forces itself to our lips, "Yerily the finger of God is here," supplemented by this sentence of the great St. Paul: "This is the victory which overeometh the world, our faith." Yes, the Catholic Church is ever the same, always guided by God, always firm and erect amidst the wreck of the past. Mistress of truth, she advances down the road of life, the teacher of the ways of God to men. Tyrants may rage against Iter and bad hearts may vomit; philosophy may enthrown reason in its temples, and revolutionist lips may cry away with God, but the Catholic Church, the mouthpiece of God, is in the world to stay and to preach ever a truth, a justice and a wisdom which are not her own, but of the Holy Ghost |