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Show J THE SUPERNATURAL A PART j Of TRUE RELIGION I The Effect of Its Deprivation The Natural 1 Man Manifestation of the Supernatural, I Manifested in the Life of Christ, Con- j tinned in the ApostlesIts Denial j Leads to Unbelief. 1 (Written for The Intcmiountain Catholic.) ! The question of the supernatural, to which at- . ! tuition lias boon directed in our last two issues, is u f vital importance to every lover of truth. j Truth is the food of the soul. To attain truth 1 lie I intellect directs, all its energy, and in the moral j order. whilst the reasoning power of the intellect I maybe subservient to the will which is, in a great i nit iiMire. controlled by the .senses. Man does not. a matter of fact, live up to what reason points "in as just, right and moral. Man has intelligence, I but he is free at the same time. Admitting that j I4 tii'" natural object of man's intelligence is truth, and that it desires exact knowledge in moral, scien-t scien-t li-1 and philosophic truths, yet man. with free will ; at traded by. the cravings and influence of the j senses, cannot, in the natural order, reach that perfection, or moral standard which the intellect ; joints out. We must take man in his reality, i. .. a we find him everywhere and at all times. His ii.it ure craves for the supernatural, and according m Christian revelation his end is supernatural. The fulfillment of this end is not attainable in the r.at.urnl order of things, because man living only in N t the natural order, though comjilying with the nat-f nat-f ural law, seeks only natural happiness. It is a fact as undeniable as it is intimately and universal- Ily interwoven with the history of the human race, , r'at man always had conceptions of the s-uper- i. antral. They who deny as well as those who assert bear testimony to this fact. We have the same testimony tes-timony that, thre are wants and aspirations of the -oul which nature is unable to satisfy. Where do . we inrn for their realization; To the possession i of God by the supernatural light of faith. Those j ho strayed farthest from the synagogue in the j mazes of errors, including ihe grossest forms of fetichism, as. well as the Israelites and all Chris-.' Chris-.' nan nations, bear testimony to the fact of these I want- ami aspiration. Whence their origin I Xa-i Xa-i 1 ii ! or human instinct is incapable of originating ih'in. Man, impelled by Ftopian illusions, may form an idea or conceive of something that does I nor ever yet existed, but that something has j i'- prototype in what really exists or existed in the ! past. Rut the aspirations of ihe soul for the invisi- l ie and supernatural beatitude could not originate, ; mu. li less be conceived by pure reason or man left 1 to him-elf in hi- natural slate, any more than man cnld conceive the idea of making a spurrious coin ;- before the genuine was made. The former must, in t fine, be subsequent to the latter; error must be i subsequent t o truth, denial to affirmation, the uni-j uni-j v-r-nl belief in the supernatural to its denial, or the I -iii'stitutioii of the natural for the supernatural. ' he very fact. then, that this belief has comedown fo:n the cradl? of the human race is proof suffi-' suffi-' eient that the idea of the supernatural, from which i spring the aspirations of the soul for something ! ' 1. idler ami above nature, had its origin in God rc-, rc-, y aling hinwlf to maTi. ' I lie preservation of the law by the Israelites, mi.-iianged and unsullied by persecution, or the di- " of errors that present oil themselves from the .-tier-ion of ihe human race down to the advent 'he Savior, cannot be explained on natural ; - roiii'.L. Then fore, there must be a supernatural ;: : rentio!i. Those, who separated from the syna-i syna-i i-' ii ri tamed only fragmentary portions of the aw. Imt in its plentifude as revealed by God to our l 'a rents lhat revelation was handed down oral- ' j.isd aiterwards in writing for four thousand I.'''-"!'s unchanged and unsullied by those chosen i i'' of God who were guided, directed and il- : i 'iieti by ihe supernatural. ; We come io ihe connecting link between the old i new disjxnsation, i. e., the fulfillment of J ' aneif iit prophecies in the advent of the Mes-i Mes-i '. What, do we learn? The supernatural pre- f v '."s it-elf at every step from the moment of the t ' ' ' "'"aat ion down to the morning of the Kesurrec-. Kesurrec-. and for forty days subsequent to the Kesur-! Kesur-! !' 'ii wo see the same supernatural power exer- ; (i. tJierefore verified. In it all we behold the I '!':. atural. We trace the history of Christianity "''. ;hat memorable occasion when its founder ji ':-ioned his apo-tles to continiR' his work ! .'" ' aeh the nations" down to the present, and i ' i a-t centuries are to be seen visible manifes- f the supernatural. In tracing the history ' past to investigate this important, question, I ' ' -'i"-niatural intervention, there is reference ; : 'he Catholic Church which is the legitimate V' "' f the synagogue. Catholic creed is dif-! dif-! ;' ' ' ' I l'om -v"ry other form of belief, because its i io ii rests on divine, or infallible authority. anti,,rity unites all its leaching in one har- !;y ii- whole which originated in the Incarnation, i ' ' I'rolestantism, which is disjointed and pre-1 pre-1 ' ! iy the different sects in fragmentary pieces, ' .-nithority jiresents Christian truths in , ir fullness; and under the light of faith, nat- i r,r; ! n-iisnji is iible to appreheiM the reasonableness I ' , ;' Meeessity of such authority, which guaran-J guaran-J 'eev ,., rtainty. Faith in its plentitude, and resting "a oortii)ty, which natural reason sanctions, can ;! j.orceive not only the equitableness but even necessity of supernatural intervention from an. 1 1 1 ti,)K. Fragmentary faith resting on human ''li.otiy sees the reverse and calls it either super-I'i-.it.s , inconsistent. That may be true from stan.ljioint taken by those who possess only cer-Christian cer-Christian truths (all differing), broken off "'"'" Christian faith in its entirety. i Without entering into the merits of any partie-i partie-i "laiiifestation of the supernatural, we confine j ".u,S lv( I,, t,P reasonableness of such manifesta-f manifesta-f :!"!';hm1 ihe inconsistency of those professing to r'Jnsiians who reject the miraculous intcrven- tion of Providence. The rejection of supernatural intervention, from a Christian standpoint, would militate against the divine mission of our Lord himself, him-self, "who sils at the right hand of his Father." During his time on earth, thirty-three years, he worked many miracles, and all for a purpose. Glorified Glori-fied in heaven we cannot imagine that his interest in weak, erring humanity has ceased, or his power grown less. His visible presence, only as seen by the eyes of faith in the Blessed Sacrament, has been transferred from earth to heaven for nineteen nine-teen hundred years. Has he also withdrawn his power, mercy and love, and left all his children, who in time were to be redeemed, as orphans without any visible manifestation of that omnipotent power so frequently exercised during the thirty-three years he remained on earth ? His life, during -these years on earth, as we learn from the gospel narratives, narra-tives, proclaimed through his miracles his divinity, yet of that divine life, so clearly established, in its continuation and perpetuation he is for twenty centuries cen-turies silent according to those who reject all supernatural su-pernatural intervention. We would reasonably suppose sup-pose the contrary, viz., that the true faith, which he established during the long space of twenty centuries, cen-turies, would be ii possession of the supernatural and its manifestation from time to time. If not needed or exercised, then scoffers of- all religious belief would be justified in their objections that -they set1 no indication of the living God." The lives of the apostles, to whom Christ en- trusted his church, are simply records, as we read in the Acts, of constant and continuous supernatural supernat-ural power. Did all these cease with the death of the last Apostle '. Was there to" be no more intervention inter-vention of the supernatural? Was nature alone to hold universal sway, and man to be forever more deprived of any glimpse of God's power and beneficence? benefi-cence? This does not appear reasonable. It -does not comport with the life or teaching of Jesus. The Catholic Church testifies fo the contrary. That the supernatural"; has been manifested down through the centuries has: been often established. Its denial by those who' separated from the unity of faith denied the necessity of 'divine authority to preserve the faith in its plentitude', has served as a stepping stone from true faith to infidelity, agnosticism agnos-ticism and universal doubt. - , - F. D. |