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Show Thoughts Suggested by Last Sunday's Gospel. The Gospel narrative,- read in last Sunday's - mass. (Luke v:l-U.) shows our Savior going into Simon Peter's ship on the Lake of Genezareth, and teaching the multitudes. . According Accord-ing to tradition, and the teachings of the early fathers, thlg ship symbolizes the church, and the selection of Peter's Pet-er's ship y the Good Master has a very important bearing on the church itself and its teaching. This church as history proves, is none other than the Catholic church, for only in her does Peter continue to live in his successors, suc-cessors, the bishops of Rome, throughout through-out all centuries from Pentecost to the "consummation of the world." The bishop of Rome, or the pope for the time being, Is the true Peter, not in person, but in power and dignity, for he possesses the same prerogatives with which Christ invested Peter as the chief pastor of his church, and by a special grace he is infallible in matters mat-ters of faith and morals, as Peter was: "I will give to thee the Keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever thou shalt bind upon earth it shall be bound also In heaven; and whatever thou 6halt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven." The bark therefore, which the pope steers and governs, is the bark of Peter; and the bark of Peter is the bark from which Christ teaches the multitudes. "And Je-sus, going up into one of the ships which was Peter's, taught the multitudes." If Jesus entered the bark of Peter, It was not by chance He did so. The Gospel tells us there were two ships, and in choosing that of Peter he had one object in view. What was this object? He wished to teach us that if we would find his bark, we must seek it in the church which Peter and, after him, his successros conduct and govern. "The ship into which the Savior Sav-ior went," says St. Gregory, "is a type of the church, which He founded on earth. A-3 this ship belonged to Peter, so the Lord would commit to Peter, too, the guidance of His church, and entrust her to him, so to speak, as hi property; and as Christ taught His doctrine out to Peter's ship, so the pure, unadulterated doctrine of Christ is found only in the ,-hurch which ha3 Peter for its head." This church, this ship, of which Peter is the head, is the only one that carries Christ; the others oth-ers are not with Ilirri. nor is he with them. They do not carry His doctrine to the different parts of the earth; they carry only the sad inventions of men. If we look around the world, we find many religious societies or churches at variance with one another, of which each claims to be the true, church established by Christ. But as truth is but one and a3 Christ established estab-lished but one church, so there can be but one true church. Thirj true church Is and must be the church built upon and guided by Peter: "Thou art Peter i and upon this rock (Peter) I will build rrv church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against . it." Thus, then the Lutherans, the Calvanites, the Greeks and the Anglicans are not the church of Christ, because they are not in or with the bark of Peter. The true ; church is one in its doctrine, in its worship, and in its hieraschy, while the ! others change their-moral code, their i creed and their worship as change the climate, the caprice and 'the passions of men. This endless changing cannot be" of God, whose essence. is immutable. immuta-ble. In their eternal variations and in their multiplied creeds, they openlj and flatly contradict Christ, who, in praying for His church, said to his Father: "Keep them, O Father, that th jy may be one as you and I are one." On the other hand, how different it is with the Catholic church, the true bark of Peter and our mother, from whose unfailing bosom we have drawn our Christian life! She possesses unity of doctrine in a marked degree, and ai-i ai-i though she has countless children scattered scat-tered over all the countries of the world, she everywhere teaches to all the same faith amng the savages of the tropical and frigid regions as well as. among the civilized peoples of the temperate zone. Call forth from the grave a Catholic of eyery age of Christianity, Chris-tianity, of every nation, clime and rate, place them in a circle around you, ask them what they believe, and, taught by this abiding teacher, each will pro claim the same croession of faith, proclaimed pro-claimed to you from her sanctuary today to-day the same in the first, the fifth, the tenth, the sixteenth, the twentieth twen-tieth century; nothing new, nothing changed; "Jesus Christ yesterday, today to-day and forever." Now, whence this admirable unity of faith? The Catholic church owes this- unity f belief to her hierarchy divinely instituted. The sovereign pontiff has received In the person of the "Prince oft he Apostles" the commission com-mission to "confirm his brethren in the faith;" and as a vigilant sentinel he watches over the integrity of that faith and repudiates every change in it. Think for an Instant on this phenomenon phenom-enon of the unity of faith ir the multiplicity mul-tiplicity of men and mind. Two men cannot be in accord for a quarter of an hour, and yet millions of men with as many minds during nineteen centuries cen-turies believe the same truths and without discussion submit their intelligence intel-ligence to the same faith. How can this wonder be explained? Represent to yourselves a man seated on a rock in the midst of the ocean, and insisting insist-ing that the waves should observe a Uniformity of motion. You would exclaim: ex-claim: "This is truly a wonder." Well, I there is a man who, from his seat on the rock on which Christ has built His j church', commands cisturbed and fluctuating fluc-tuating minda, and insists on, a uniform uni-form method of thinking, and this man is the pope. .At. his feet he beholds be-holds the ebb and flow of human opinions, opin-ions, which disturb and overthrow everything ev-erything In the world, while he does not change and by his authority maintains main-tains unity in the church. Is it possible pos-sible not to see the finger of God In all this? Must we not recognize In it the fidelity of the Immutable God, who promised: "I will be with you all days even to the consummation of the world," which promise He confirmed with an oath: "Amen, I say to you: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass." Another noteworthy incident in the Gospel of the day ia that Christ confirmed con-firmed his teachings to the multitudes from Peter's bark by a miracle the miraculous draught of fishes. And the miracle has been the property of the Catholic church in all ages and in all countries. This is the divine characteristic char-acteristic mark by which we recognize the bark of Peter. The flleht of de mons, the resurrection of the dead, the gift of prophecy, and the healing of those who were hopelessly sick these are what you shall find on even' page of the Church's history. While the apostolic men proclaimed God's truths, he confirmed their preachings by miracles. The miracle is a palpable, pal-pable, invincible proof it is the seal of God placed on the divine word sent from heaven to earth. By the gift of miracle's God tells us: It is I who have sent these men, and the proof of it is that I have clothed them with my power; and if they had not been sent by me, .would nature obey them? A certain doctor of the church says:. "God has the right to make himself believed, and also the means to make himself heard. As soon as an affirmation affirm-ation is signed by these words: ,'I. the Lord,' and as soon as that signature is legalized by his inimitable sea.1, viz., the miracle, it is he who speaks, it is he who commands, and we have only to believe and obey." (Bossuet.) Jesus commanded Peter to launch his Bark out into the deep. What does this signify? He Indicates the exalted life, wholly supernatural and heavenly, heaven-ly, to which the church, by her doctrine, doc-trine, by her morals, and by the omnipotent om-nipotent power of her sacraments, leads us. In her fold, and there alone, we behold the divine virtues brightly shining, and men rising to the highest degree of sanctity and perfection. Is this character of sanctity found among the members of dissenting sects? No, in this regard God has struck them with an eternal sterility, and you shall never find among them a single man who, by his heroic virtues, has won the admiration of the world, as has been won by a Francis de Sales, a Vincent de Paul, a Charles Borroweo and many others. The deep waters to which Peter was commanded to go, represent the regions of the world which are most distant. The Savior seemed to say to Peter: I shall place under your shepherd's staff all the nations of the earth. Y'ou shall preach the gospel to every creature: crea-ture: you shall guide sinners back to the fold; you shall convert the pagans, and of all the people you shall make but one sheep fold, one flock, of which you shall be the one shepherd. And so Catholic Rome extends her activity over the whole world in the islands of America and Oceanica, among the most barbarous peoples oSAfrica, as well as among the polished cities of Europe everywhere Peter baptizes prrh,. j converts and, sanctifies souls; -,', f f whatever may be thf obstacles. h' sh!,'it ' " f always continue in h!.- work ,f ph,,'. f ing and watering, until shall h;ive :; if landed the last soul thut shall ever live on earthin the haven of safety. It is further recorded that the bark of Peter was almost sutv.nerge-I. There ' have been times wh-n tho church. t,,0, was almost submerged. She itils t,,.' exposed, from tim.- to time, to tem. pests so formidable that her enemi-s have said: "It is all over with tie- ; church," and her friends trembled whiL: excepting to see her engulfed by th.-. fiood of human passions. But they wh hoped and they who feared for the ruin of the church did not know and reali.-the reali.-the extent of the promise Jesus niad to his church, when he said; "The gales of hell shall not prevail ag'ninst h"t" Relying on this proniisf. tni Catholi, i entertain no fears for th church: th-.-know that Jesus is with her. that h- conducts and prays for her, and that sooner or later she shall eom froth triumphant from all hfr trials. Th? past gives assurance for the future, v cruel and barbarous persecution passed, 9 over the church for 300 years, and th church triumphed in the conversion of her would-be executioners. Ileresi,.s then followed, but they were reduce ; to helplessness, while she remains fait of life and prosperous: and tiv branches which separate from her lan. guish ami ultimately die. The war .-C ; passion, pride, pleasure and impiety j arises in every aste. and their attach , fare so violent that the bark of Peter rudely shaken, but she is never submerged. sub-merged. Her enemies die penitent impenitent, and the pall of silen.-promptly silen.-promptly falls about their tombs. br. the church stands erect on the rui'.s and ashes of her oppressors. This per- petuity of the church, in the midst :' the instability of human things, is o- of the most striking proofs of the divinity di-vinity of her origin. In the beginning the power of mighty W Rome was summoned up for the destruction de-struction of the infant church of Chri.-t. For 300 years the blighting storm rap- l above the opening bud, but she braved it all and shot forth, a glorious (lower. In the sixteenth century her own children chil-dren revolted against her. joined the ranks of her enemies, and turned renegades rene-gades and traitors and persecutors of that cause for which their forefathers died and received the martyr's crown. Through these years of persecution and intolerance she suffered much. Indeed, in her head and members; but she suffered suf-fered no hurt in her faith or doctrine; no. never. She gathered strength from persecution: the martyr's blood was the mustard seed that increased and multiplied; multi-plied; the good grain was sifted from the bad, the wheat from the cockle, the gold from the dross; she still subsists ' unimpaired and untained by error, and will so continue to subsist as. long as the world shall last; the infallible word of God warrants her duration to the end of time. , The heavens and the earth shall pass away, says Jesus Christ, but my words shall never pass away: nor shall so much as a single iota be retrenched from the law that I have established. It comes not within the reach of any earthly power whatever what-ever to alter or abolish any one ordi- ; nance which we find instituted by Christ' our Lord for the sanctifieation of his people. We have seen the chun h assailed by the most violent storms of persecution; we have seen a deluge o evils pouring down upon her from every side, ready, in appearence, to overwhelm her In an avalanche of destruction. de-struction. The powerful hand of God has buoyed her up. She has ever risen, like Noah'3 ark, above the rising flood. i Jews, Pagans, Philosophers and in- fidels have combined against her; schismatics and heretics of different descriptions have, by turns, attacked .-J her unity and her faith; their attacks j have as often failed. Tyranny may strip the church of her temporal pos- sessions they are fortuitous acquisi- f tions, not essential to her existence penal statutes may forbid the public exercise of her religious worship, but she will silently preserve inviolate the inviolable rigthts of conscience till the tempest ceases, and she will ever reign triumphant in the hearts of the faithful. faith-ful. W. F. M. |