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Show TdE NATURAL ARID THE SUPERNATURAL Christian faith Necessarily Supernatural-Its Supernatural-Its Traths Cannot be Comprehended by the Natural Reason The Doctrine of the Resurrection. (Written fur ihc Intermouulain Catholic.) Faith and morals are the object of all -religion. The former applies to God. the latter to the ethical eth-ical code which should direct and guide the principles prin-ciples nf nun's actions. . -Faith is essential for salvation, because "without it it is impossible to please God :" therefore, Avith- ut it. man cannot attain hh true end or destiny. V.ut fitith. i. c. the faith to which Si. Iuil refers. iiHi:-t be true or in harmony with ihe divine will. J .lith does not mean a mere profession of believing and. at the same time, entertaining doubt, ll must mean certainly. Therefore it excludes doubt. To I ' 1"' certain, it must rest on God, Who is the fountain ) X ' 1 m"h '--ui Who could reveal only the truth. Assuming the Christian religion to be divine in it orinin. and that the name of Jesus is the only name "given under lieaven among men whereby wc Jiiii-T be saved." it follows that the Gospel of our Lord is the only law of life, and therefore necessary neces-sary for salvation. To leny this broad principle is 10 become entirely inditFerent to the leaching of the j Gospel. Then, it may be asked, if-not necessary, vhy was the Christian revelation made, and the command to believe and obey its teaching given? I Kvcn the agnostic, the sceptic, and the rationalist, - will admit that, if the Supreme Being exists and ' ' Sil'e eternal is an object of faith, all are hound to i worship Him. and to do so in the May which He I commands. Therefore there can be but on true re- I ligion. Those claiming to be Christian must hold 1 lie Christian religion to be this one true religion, ; and that belief in it is necessary for salvation. "He iliat belicveth not shall be condemned.'" J To be a Christian means to believe. He who I doubts, by inverse reasoning, is not Christian. He v, ho is not a follower of Christ cannot consistently appropriate. His name, and in any true sense be. ;i!Kd a Christian. The true Christian must be a j I'ciiever, and even- one who believes must believe in I s-iijiething definite. "He that belicveth in the Son i Ihi'th eternal life; but he that believeth notfihe Son shall not see life; but the wrath uf God abideth en him."' I this something to be believed, which the Gospel I ' 'xacts. must be truth, not error; because God is J Truth, and it would be repugnant to reason to sup- j pose that a God of truth, Who commands faith I under so severe a penalty, would have error, or any- j iliing but truth, as an object of faith. The somc- thing which all must believe, then, must be the ? Christian truths as taught by Christ, who was a I 1 i.-lier of nothing but truth, and who ordained and ct -mi-sinned His Apostles to teach all nations, i. c., j to teach them truth, and teach all mankind to ob- ! serve all things whatsoever He commanded them. I 1 he Christian truths, which are the object of ; i.;ith. and which must be believed, belong, for the I iii".-t pari. !o the supernatural order. The natural I lis in ihc order of creation; because all creatures, t jt'.ia t)lf. blade of grass up to angels, come from ( 1 y and are sustained naturally by His provi- !-!i--e. The supernatural is above the natural. 1 j vu-i- belongs to tiie supernatural order, because it I I i- a supernal ural gift bestOAvcd by God and abso- j In!"lv necessary for faith, which bfings man wiinily within the supernatural order. "The law," vrii(- St. John, "was given by Moses, but grace and innh by .Jesus Christ." Therefore, to believe in il' 1 nit lis which Christ 1 aught is to believe in : tn;ih- which belong to the supernatural order; be- -c.-uim' ihcse truths, being the revelation of God, bo- l"iig to ihe supernatural order. In the supernatur-V supernatur-V ; l "id( r we believe, in the natural order we know. ; i lio Apostles' Creed demands belief in the resur- f r't-tio, of body; but what faith demands as to j ii ie,-uriect ion of the body cannot be demonstrated t " as to make it known in the natural order. It iiiniot refer 10 the soul, which is immortal. Then I means that the same body which is placed in the Strave and molders into dust Mill be resurrected, or l .i-rd again. If not the same body it could not be Tine.), Mb the Creed demands, re-surreetion. This ( iiiistian truth cannot be known by the light of rca-.-"ii. Therefore, in ihe natural order it is not know-Rut know-Rut the Scriptures certainly teach it, and T-;i'-h. 100. that the body will be raised in a super-'" super-'" Mnal condition, because 'it is sown a natural l"iy. it is raised a spiritual body," or becomes like ill" glorified body of Christ. What faith exacts, 1li n. namely, that our natural bodies "are like to H. e ly nf s jrloj-y" belongs to the supernatural I, ;,!,.,. i llie same would apply 1o the last article of the red: -j believe in life everlasting." What faith i 'inands ertains to the supernatural order, be- j I , it has- been revealed that the elect shall be partakeiv of the divine nature in a supernatural seiw. .-c &Tp j,. tne sons 0f God, and it hath 'i"! ye t appeared M'hat we shall be. We knoM- that v''lien Ho shall appear we shall be like Him, bell be-ll "Hc m-; shall see Him as He is." Here St. John I M:"'s that ihe elect shall be the sons of God in a Ingher sense than they were in this life. Yet, ! 1ji"iigh sons' of God. all we know of the future is j v l j liiat ihe elect shall be His sons in a different sense, j r-, not as they -were in the natural order, but in II a supernatural sense. "Xomt m-c see through a II .glass, darkly, but then face to face; now I know in fj 'Part, but then I shall know even as I am known." s'- Paul here refers to ihe Beatific Vision; yet, I ''"'Ugh inspired, of the happiness in store for the jj ' '" t all he eould say Mas that "neither eye hath s, ' ii. uur ear heard, neither hath it entered into the jj h -art of man, what things God hath prepared for j that love Him." TJenee, to see or know God I (,r realize the state of the future, exceds man's nat- rf inllligence and cannot be demonstrated by . natural reason. It pertains to the supernatural or- ; J der. Then it follows that the Christian who be- I lioves must W'lieve something: must believe in I Continued on Page 4. . I " ' !" ' ' THE NATURAL AND THE SUPERNATURAL. SUPER-NATURAL. Continued from Page 1. truths supernaturally revealed and pertaining to the supernatural order. Faith being a supernatural virtue, whereby onu believes without doubt whatever God has revealed to man because He reveals it, must rest on the authority author-ity and veracity of God, Who has the right to command, com-mand, and Who can propose onlv tho truth as the object of faith. It differs from the knowledge of the exact sciences, which is demon- strable, because it demands assent, not by evidence, ! but by the authority of the speaker. Hence, St. Paul says, "Faith is the substance of thin-s hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not;" and St. Augustine testifies to the same effect, saying that "Faith is to believe what you see not." When our Lord demanded faith in tho truths which U -reyealed, He did so on the authority of God, and this was sufficient: "My doctrine is not Muie. bus His Who sent Me." As faith is belief on the authority of God speaking, speak-ing, it presupposes the existence of God, also the infallibility of His word, together with the fact tha i He has revealed Himself. Assuming that man is reasonably satisfied that these 'three conditions are present, before he can elicit an act of faith, h; must be certain that the supernatural truths proposed pro-posed for his belief are actually contained in the revealed word; because, if there is a mistake in in terpreting the revealed word, then he believe not whaMarod has revealed, but something different. j Faith demands that one, believing in the re-vealed re-vealed word, must believe in it in the genuine sense. If one's faith does not grasp the revealed words in their genuine sense, then he does not believe God's word, but something cl.-e. But to be sure that one has the genuine sense, there must be some authority that is extrinsic and competent to judge as to what the genuine sense is. Faith in supernatural truths which are incomprehensible to natural reason demands de-mands such a witness to judge not only competently, compe-tently, but infallibly what that genuine sense is. and without, such a witness it is impossible for ono I to be certain that the act of faith which he elicits f is the faith which God demands, and which will ' I merit, life eternal. "He who believes not, shall bo l condemned" applies to all, pagan, Jew and Chris- I j tiai?- J. D. f |