| OCR Text |
Show P-c-V; ;7 " " ' " V -- - v - . . . ; - . n-. 'v '. . . : , : . ... -.- t . . '. . ,- - :iV . - i - -t fc? - , - . . - i ' - " ' - S ' 1 ' r V - it f l, S I I : , - v pr f.fji . -? tilt ,vT , - I ni 1 'Aw'-U-lfM it' - - Cathedral of the ImmaUjlate Conceptioiv, to "be erected at Colfax and Logan Lo-gan Avenues, Denver. TRIBUTE 70 CORRIQAN. , 1 Archbishop Ryan of Philadelphia Pays the Following Nice Tribute to Archbishop Corrigan. "Your Eminence,' Venerable Fathers of the Episcopate and Clergy, and Dear Brethren of the Laity: How impressive impres-sive in its eloquence of silence is this scene, and how salutary in its .lessons. Behold before you today a great priest, w-ho, in his day. pleased God and Was found just. Behold him, clothed in the vestments of his order, as he stood at the altar to offer sacrifice and prayer for you and yours. He preaches his last sermon from the funeral pulpit. But, yesterday, I may say, he proclaimed the great conservative Christian truths, which alone can preserve society from socialism and anarchy. 'Being dead, he yet speaketh' in the eloquence of highest example. For two purposes, then, are we here this morning to honor hon-or the dead and pray for the dead. As the public journals have already given In detail the biography of the late archbishop, it is not necessary that I should repeat it. But the external actions ac-tions of men are not adequite evidences of their real worth. It is the inner life of motive and purity of intention and disinterested sacrifice that constitute the 'greatness of goodness.' Great deeds inspired by ambition and tinted with vanity count as nothing before God, and very soon sink into insignificance, insignifi-cance, and are forgotten by men. "The world knows its weakness and honors the magnanimity that despises its ephemeral praise. The deceased prelate shrank from it; hisone great motive of action was to please God and benefit, not merely please, his fellow-man. fellow-man. Here you find the secret of his love of solitude and communion with God. We daily hear of men who 'know not, or knowing ignore, the true philosophy philos-ophy of sanctity, stating that pious bishops and priests did well in the middle ages, but that in this twentieth century we need not ascetics, but sturdy public men. The truth is, we need the combination of both, but if they are not found united, the ascetic is preferable. "The man who acts' and prays as the ascetic at home will be the most sue- j cessful churchman in public. The puri- J j ty of motive of our beloved and holy j 1 deceased friend was" also the key to his most laborious life. He worked I for God and in his presence, and never thought he could do enough. I know from personal observation how extraordinary extra-ordinary were his labors. He performed per-formed them not onlv with patience, but almost with boyish enthusiasm. Some one has sad that enthusiasm is 'out of place in advanced age. and that it beloners to youth alone. No: it be-"ong- to motive alone. The voting, fired by the enthusiacm nf ambition, or love, are atl aflame until their ends are accomplished. ac-complished. When ambition and love I are satisfied or dead from disannoint- j ment. wlr-n philanthropy i chi'led by the baseness and ingratitude of those befriended, enthusiasm dies: but, as God can never change, and the ambition ambi-tion to serve and love him and aid our brothers in distress for his sake must be permanent as himself, the enthusiasm enthusi-asm of the true Christian becomes perennfal. Hence, Tortullian in the second sec-ond century called the old Christian i men boys senes pueri. "Hence also the fortitude of the de-I de-I ceased when circumstances called for i its exercise. The- three archbishops of this great see were types of different j characteristic virtues. The most Rev. John Hughes stands out -as the mo3t '' striking examplification of courage, I when courage was much needed. Car-j Car-j dinal McCIoskey was distinguished for his marvelous prudence, by which he conquered without fighting. Archbishop Corrigan seemed to belong rather to the Cardinal McCIoskey class of men, but when principle was involved he w-as as immovable as Archbishop Hughes. His motto. 'Dominus petra mea' ('the Lord is my rock), was first that of the meek but brave patriarch, Moses. The archbishop himself was ! as a rock mossy and yielding on the i surface, but beneath, firm and immovable. immov-able. He was brave with the courage of God, for whom alone he acted and I suffered. His humility seemed to make j him timid. I know, on the test'mony j of Cardinal McCIoskey, that he did all j I in his power to prevent his name being ' sent to Rome for 'he dignity of arch- I j bishop of New York. He feared th. j awful responsibility. So did some of ' the greatest bishops that ev.?r lived; but when they had to accept the office j they became the bravest. St did St. Ambrose, who afterwards resisted the Roman emperor Theodosius, and St. ; Thomas of Becket, who braved th: an-, an-, ger of the English king, Handy II. In i the combination of gentle mod'"srv and ; fearless fortitude, the Christian bishop ! should follow his great model, the I shepherd and bishop of our souls, Jesus CChrist. I "What, after s 11. is death to such a I man as this? What, but a liberation, I an illumination, a union. A liberation j from most pressing duties and respon- sibilities; an illumination when the : light of God's face shall shine upon him, and he will hold the solutions of the great problems of life, and the length and breadth and height and depth of God's love; and a union with the divine original, after whom he was, formed. 'My spouse, when wilt thou take me to thyself? was the cry of St. Peter of Alcantara. ' Oh. eternal and most sacred God. who hath given to this servant, Michael, such plenitudes of graces and such correspondence with them, grant to us. who remain but a little longer after him. that we may benefit by his example and be united to him in thee. Tor all eternity, through Christ our Lord. Amen." |
