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Show "CATHOLIC TRUTH" LASTS j Different Ways God Speaks to Men Commissioned Apostles to Preach Truth r Infallibility Depends Not on Intellectual Intellec-tual Gifts of Pope Church Not a ! School of Science Fought Ever for I Freedom Fears Not the Light Come and Study Her. f j At JSt. Mary's Cathedral last buuday Rev. Xini- (.jwi jjiviiuaii i . uea a iracucai sermon on Caui-j Caui-j uin- num. i 'A iur ins text: "Heaven and I c;iria snail i: ' i uiy words bhall not pass." w j.uiirw xxxv. -.). said m part: .Jesus Clirisi -a' ' a jaouut Olivet and the dis-fili-s were aro u. i t l m. .Beneath him lay Jerusa-! Jerusa-! i' in .Jerusalem, ocia ted lorever with the glory j ..i jlii.- eld Jewish race, Jerusalem oi patriarch and I jiTc'i'ii t, high priest and king. There it lay, quietly I -h jiing, unconseious 0t its eorning doom that de- ! vataUuii and destruction which would not leave a 1 .-i"i.e d' the cit,y upon a stone. Christ saw that old- s en city no more; saw its people scattered broad- eu-t over the world, without a land, without a home, siil all tliis because "it had not known the day of its vi-itauun." But before the dread day of the de-i de-i st ruction of Jerusalem came, Christ saw the sacri fice of himself to his Eternal Father for the sins of men; saw the agony of his death; saw the tri- j? unij ii ot his resurrection, and the glory of his as cension, and. yes, he saw, too, the church which he hath founded rising with God-given strength and j truth and brightness above the darkness of a pagan ; world. The men who were to go forth and preach hi death and resurrection, preach his gospel of justice, jus-tice, right and mercy to men were now around him -u! Olivet. He gazes upon them and he lovingly opens his lips in speech to them. The world will hate you; the world will persecute you and put you to death. Kings and emperors will endeavor by strength of sword, by horror of dungeon, to impede your advancing my kingdom in the hearts of men; fiil-e teachers, proud philosophers, learned scientists, scient-ists, will scorn, will scoff at your teaching. Persecution Perse-cution and death will stare you in the face at your every step. I tell you these things now that when they come you may remember I told you of them. But despite fire and sword, the scaffold and dungeon, dun-geon, you will go on and preach my gospel of truth and justice, mercy and love to men. Fear nought: von shall conquer; I will be with you. My words are to be your gospel; my life is to be your imitation. imita-tion. Go 'forth and fear not, for this earth on which Ave stand shall reurn to nothing; that heaven above shall be dissolved and totter to annihilation ere the words .which I have spoken to you shall pass away. Go forth and fear not. "He that heareth you benreth me, and he that heareth me heareth him that sent me." Ever since God created man lie has never ceaed to remind him of his presence and his supreme dominion do-minion over him. In the vast creation which stretches out before our eyes like an open book we mav read the infinte power, goodness and wisdom nf the great Creator. "By the greatness of the beauty of the creature, the Creator of them may l.e seen, so as to be known thereby." St. Paul, writing' to the Romans, lays down the same doctrine: doc-trine: "The invisible things of God, from the creation cre-ation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood under-stood by the things that are made, his eternal power pow-er and divinity. When men grew deaf to the voice of nature and failed to recognize God in the glory hi; creation, then he sent his prophats to preach to the people their duty to him. These heavenly me.-sengers. filled with the spirit of God. the truth i f God, denounced the blindness, the obduracy, the iniquities of kings and peoples; warned, threatened .in.l exhorted in turn that they might lead man-kin,! man-kin,! from the evil of their ways and turn them to thoir God .the source of all truth, comfort and tir-ace. And when Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah and the re-t bad passed away, Jesus Christ himself, in human hu-man form, came to the dwellings of men and taught hnn his heavenly doctrines truth, justice and mercy with his own divine lips. He gathered 1 armuid him apostles and disciples, and explained in- sublime doctrines of the Christian faith, unfolded unfold-ed to ihem man's duties to his God and to his fel-l"w fel-l"w beings. In the glory of the resurrection morn-!.lt morn-!.lt uioii recognized his divinity, recognized that his nreaehing and his doctrines were the words of ''eriial life. To the church which he had founded '.e.v turned their eyes with love and reverence; to 'l'- wnrds which that church spoke they gave the e.n ,,f 1 1 n 1 1- minds, and gladly sang their credo. . yos. ever in their minds, ever in their hearts, ;hr y treasured up Christ's last message to men: "Who heard h you heareth me. and who despiseth ; ou ijejdsr-th me.'' "I am with you all days, even ' ihe consummation of the world." "Heaven and '- 'h shall pass away, but my words shall not pass Ihe Catholic church is the depositary of hri-t's 1 nil h and speaks his mind to men. In St. I'eu-r and his successors. Catholics acknowledge authority of Jesus Christ, and they recognize tin vmVo of one who neither could deceive nor be '!"'( -ived. The Catholic church is not a school of !'h"lo-ophy or science. Her words, her decisions, not the fruit of human learning and research. truth of her decisions depends not upon the n !'i -ih-etual gifts of the Supreme Pontiff or hi9 bi-crs. a many outside us seem to imagine. St. j ' r. the first Pope, was not a university man; he I'oaMed no degrees and was not versed in human visdoin and human philosophy. He was but a poor .leniian. hotter acquainted with the depths and -i"as ,,f Cidilees sea than with the subtle dis-'Jiietioiis dis-'Jiietioiis of the schools, and yet upon him was I'litc,.. the obligation by Christ to teach mankind truth and justice of God. "Feed my sheep and j';v lamb-." was Christ's mandate to St. Peter and Miei-essors. Yes. yes, dearly beloved, St. Peter fci)u each of his successors, all along that great un- l broken line, have received the divine commission to teach. To teach whom? The king and the peasant; peas-ant; the university man and the unlearned. It is the same doctrine, the same road to heaven for the profoundest philosopher, the eminent scientist, the cultured historian and the peasant who cannot write his name. Feed my flock; dispense to them the bread of life; teach men justice, virtue and the right; and armed with this mandate of the Savior, 1 the Catholic church stands up before the whole world; before those who love and venerate her, and before those who hate her, always conscious of her divine power, her divine mission. Out there in the w-orld, dearly beloved, men prudently follow those versed in the affairs of the world. In earthly matters, mat-ters, such as science, medicine, law, or any such kindred subject, we embrace the opinion, the teaching teach-ing of the eminent, the learned men in these respective re-spective branches. It is right. These things are but temporal, and God leaves them to the disputations disputa-tions of fallible men, but the eternal things, the spiritual affairs of men, God does not leave to the mercy of the fallible judgment of human reason. No, no, in these things he himself, the source of all truth, all justice, all life, becomes the teacher. He speaks through his church. "He that heareth you heareth me, and it matters not whether the Pope is a diplomat, a man of science, a great scholar or endowed in a less degree with intellectual gifts; it matters not, all the Popes from Peter to Pius X are equally infallible. Infallibility has nothing whatsoever to do with intellectual attainments or personal ability. It depends solely on the veracity of God, who promises to be ever with his church, to preserve her from all taint of error. "I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." In the days of our Jjord, the world hated the truth as it fell from his divine lips, and today this wicked age hates the same truths as preached and taught by the Catholic church. The world hates the only thing that can heal the diseases that eat into its very vitals. Catholic truth, not that truth that lies unoffensive in the pages of a book, not that truth flying as a shadow in the air, but truth held in the very heart of a living society and taught to mankind by that living society under the shadow sha-dow of divine authorization. This the world hates because such truths pander not to the base appetites appe-tites of a fallen race or to intellectual pride. Yes, go out there in the world and count her foes. You have the university man; you have the man of science sci-ence (he knows very little when put to the test; you have the unthinking peasant, who shouts without with-out knowing why; you have the intelligent parsons, who know nothing about the doctrines of the Catholic Cath-olic church ; you have the politician, who would sacrifice sac-rifice country and all her bright hopes for paltry dollars; you have the roue and the gay damsel, who will never know restraint until death chills the blood; you have the blatant anarchist, who creeps from his den at night to hiss his poison at all legally le-gally constituted authority, against moral and social so-cial order. You hear all these shout out their "Away with the Catholic church," as of old the Jews cried out "Away with Christ," and this because be-cause Christ and the Catholic church are one in nroclaimincr truth and nustiee In men. "The Catholic church is a foe to liberty. She dreads the light." Ah, how often have we heard that cry ring out from Protestant and infidel pulpit pul-pit and press. The Catholic church is a foe to liberty! Stay. No fair-minded, no cultured Protestant Pro-testant or infidel could even say it, and to their everlasting credit they have not. Who was it knocked the shackles off the slave and saved southern south-ern Europe from the Huns? Who was it that curbed the power of king and emperor and bade them rule by justice and love, not by tyrany and the sword. Who was it gave England her priceless charter of freedom and America those just principles prin-ciples that underlie her glorious Declaration of Independence. Aye, aye, it was the Catholic church and "Today men reckon fairer than Foxe and Burnett did And archives yield the records that dust and darkness dark-ness hid. When all is weighed and winnowed, the candid must concur There had been no democracy, no freedom but for her." The Catholic church a foe to freedom? Xo, no! Ever she has stood for freedom, God's birthright to man, and ever her children have fought and died that freedom might crown all lands and light all seas. From Lepanto to Limerick, from Dunkirk t Bunker's Hill her children have carried upon their standards the hallowed word liberty. The Catholic church a foe to freedom? Xo, no! The freedom which springs from justice and the right she champions, cham-pions, and will ever champion. But that freedom which would blot out God and His saving Gospel from men's minds, the freedom that allows man to satiate his base appetites, the freedom that sanctions sanc-tions divorce and free love, the freedom that fires the anarchist's mind to dethrone just authority and reduce social and moral order to chaos this kind of freedom the Catholic church will fight against and fight against to the end. The Catholic church fears the light, self -conceited philosopher and scientist, bigoted divine and hlifnt parson, Godless writer and swaddling preacher give vent to this expression, but to all such the "Ca-tholic "Ca-tholic church gives the lie. She stands in -the God given strength of her truth before the world, and to the world she says: Come and study me; come and see the beauty, the indestructibility 'of my truth. Come and study my doctrines for yourselves, your-selves, and take not the words of a bigoted divine who sets forth my teachings in a false light. Blatant Blat-ant philosopher or biased historian, who set forth my teachings in a false light, come and study me and you will see that for almost twenty centuries I am the light of the world. My children have been foremost in art and science, painting and architecture, ar-chitecture, law and literature. Foremost were they and are they in these things. I have made civilization civiliza-tion what it is. I have uplifted humanity, not on socialistic cr anarchial principles, but on the principles prin-ciples of justice, charity and the right. I have spread my arms over the homes of the nation to bie6s them, to make them strong, pure and good, (Continued on page 5.) i "CATHOLIC TRUTH" LASTS (Continued from page 1.) and I have diffused through those homes the light which is above all light the light of God. Yes, boldly and proudly the Catholic church stands before the world today, conscious of her God-given God-given strength, endowed with her God-given truth; and to those outside she encouragingly and sweetly says : "Come and study me for yourself." And for twenty centuries you will find me unchanged and unchangeable. I am the comfort of the ignorant, the delight of the learned, the consolation of the sorrowing, the joy of the fortunate. Through the fall of empires and the decay of dynasties, through the changes of revolutions and the frenzy of sects, through the improvement of science and all the vagaries of the human mind I alone have stood incapable of alteration or improvement. "Heaven and earth may pass away, but my words shall not pass away." The faithful, loving child nestles close to the good mother, for 'neath that mother's sheltering shel-tering arms the child finds comfort, peace, happiness happi-ness and love. The Catholic church, our mother, spreads her strong, pure' arms around us, her children. chil-dren. She takes us to her bosom with a God-given God-given love. In sorrow and suffering she kisses away the tears and sweetly whispers: Be strong, be brave; God watches; God loves; God rewards. In our doubts and perplexities, our days of trial I and temptation her pure, strong voice brings peace and security to our disturbed hearts. Be still, God is with you, God speaks to you. Our great Catholic mother church we love her, we love her. Today she carries us in her womb, carries us through this vale of tears, carries us, but to give us everlasting birth in the kingdom of God. |