,,paradoxes ,,of ,,catholicism ,,by ,,robert ,,hugh ,,benson ,these sermons 7which the following pages contain in a much abbreviated form7 were delivered1 partly in ,england in various places and at various times1 partly in ,new ,york in the ,lent of #aiab1 and finally1 as a complete course1 in the church of ,s4 ,silvestro-in-,capite1 in ,rome1 in the ,lent of #aiac4 ,some of the ideas presented in this book have already been set out in a former volume entitled ,christ in the ,church and a few in the meditations upon the ,seven ,words1 in another volume1 but in altogether other connexions4 ,the author thought it better1 therefore1 to risk repetition rather than incoherency in the present set of considerations4 ,it is hoped that the repetitions are comparatively few4 ,italics have been used for all quotations1 whether verbal or substantial1 from ,holy ,scripture and other literature4 ,,robert ,,hugh ,,benson ,,hare ,,street ,,house1 ,,buntingford ,,easter1 #aiac ,,contents ,,introductory 7i7 ,,jesus ,,christ1 ,,god ,,and ,,man 7ii7 ,,the ,,catholic ,,church1 ,,divine ,,and ,,human ,i ,,peace ,,and ,,war ,,ii ,,wealth ,,and ,,poverty ,,iii ,,sanctity ,,and ,,sin ,,iv ,,joy ,,and ,,sorrow ,v ,,love ,,of ,,god ,,and ,,love ,,of ,,man ,,vi ,,faith ,,and ,,reason ,,vii ,,authority ,,and ,,liberty ,,viii ,,corporateness ,,and ,,individualism ,,ix ,,meekness ,,and ,,violence ,x ,,the ,,seven ,,words ,,xi ,,life ,,and ,,death ,,paradoxes ,,of ,,catholicism ,,introductory 7i7 ,,jesus ,,christ1 ,,god ,,and ,,man ,i and ,my ,father are one4--,,john ,x4 #cj4 ,my ,father is greater than ,i4--,,john ,,xiv4 #bj4 ,the mysteries of the ,church1 a materialistic scientist once announced to an astonished world1 are child's play compared with the mysteries of nature4#a ,he was completely wrong1 of course1 yet there was every excuse for his mistake4 ,for1 as he himself tells us in effect1 he found everywhere in that created nature which he knew so well1 anomaly piled on anomaly and paradox on paradox1 and he knew no more of theology than its simpler and more explicit statements4 ,footnote #a3 ,professor ,huxley4 ,we can be certain therefore--we who understand that the mysteries of nature are1 after all1 within the limited circle of created life1 while the mysteries of grace run up into the supreme ,mystery of the eternal and uncreated ,life of ,god--we can be certain that1 if nature is mysterious and paradoxical1 grace will be incalculably more mysterious4 ,for every paradox in the world of matter1 in whose environment our bodies are confined1 we shall find a hundred in that atmosphere of spirit in which our spirits breathe and move--those spirits of ours which1 themselves1 paradoxically enough1 are forced to energize under material limitations4 ,we need look no further1 then1 to find these mysteries than to that tiny mirror of the ,supernatural which we call our self1 to that little thread of experience which we name the spiritual life4 ,how is it1 for example1 that while in one mood our religion is the lamp of our shadowy existence1 in another it is the single dark spot upon a world of pleasure--in one mood the single thing that makes life worth living at all1 and in another the one obstacle to our contentment8 ,what are those sorrowful and joyful mysteries of human life1 mutually contradictory yet together resultant 7as in the ,rosary itself7 in others that are glorious8 ,turn to that master passion that underlies these mysteries--the passion that is called love--and see if there be anything more inexplicable than such an explanation4 ,what is this passion1 then1 that turns joy to sorrow and sorrow to joy--this motive that drives a man to lose his life that he may save it1 that turns bitter to sweet and makes the cross but a light yoke after all1 that causes him to find his centre outside his own circle1 and to please himself best by depriving himself of pleasure8 ,what is that power that so often fills us with delights before we have begun to labour1 and rewards our labour with the darkness of dereliction8 ,i4 ,if our interior life1 then1 is full of paradox and apparent contradiction--and there is no soul that has made any progress that does not find it so--we should naturally expect that the ,divine ,life of ,jesus ,christ on earth1 which is the central ,objective ,light of the ,world reflected in ourselves1 should be full of yet more amazing anomalies4 ,let us examine the records of that ,life and see if it be not so4 ,and let us for that purpose begin by imagining such an examination to be made by an inquirer who has never received the ,christian tradition4 7i7 ,he begins to read1 of course1 with the assumption that this ,life is as others and this ,man as other men2 and as he reads he finds a hundred corroborations of the theory4 ,here is one1 born of a woman1 hungry and thirsty by the wayside1 increasing in wisdom2 one who works in a carpenter's shop2 rejoices and sorrows2 one who has friends and enemies2 who is forsaken by the one and insulted by the other--who passes1 in fact1 through all those experiences of human life to which mankind is subject--one who dies like other men and is laid in a grave4 ,even the very marvels of that ,life he seeks to explain by the marvellous humanity of its hero4 ,he can imagine1 as one such inquirer has said1 how the magic of ,his presence was so great--the magic of ,his simple yet perfect humanity--that the blind opened their eyes to see the beauty of ,his face and the deaf their ears to hear ,him4 ,yet1 as he reads further1 he begins to meet his problems4 ,if this ,man were man only1 however perfect and sublime1 how is it that ,his sanctity appears to run by other lines than those of other saints8 ,other perfect men as they approached perfection were most conscious of imperfection2 other saints as they were nearer ,god lamented their distance from ,him2 other teachers of the spiritual life pointed always away from themselves and their shortcomings to that ,eternal ,law to which they too aspired4 ,yet with this ,man all seems reversed4 ,he1 as ,he stood before the world1 called on men to imitate ,him2 not1 as other leaders have done1 to avoid ,his sins3 this ,man1 so far from pointing forward and up1 pointed to ,himself as the ,way to the ,father2 so far from adoring a ,truth to which ,he strove1 named ,himself its very incarnation2 so far from describing a ,life to which ,he too one day hoped to rise1 bade ,his hearers look on ,himself ,who was their ,life2 so far from deploring to ,his friends the sins under which ,he laboured1 challenged ,his enemies to find within ,him any sin at all4 ,there is an extraordinary ,self-consciousness in ,him that has in it nothing of self as usually understood4 ,then it may be1 at last1 that our inquirer approaches the ,gospel with a new assumption4 ,he has been wrong1 he thinks1 in his interpretation that such a ,life as this was human at all4 ,never man spake like this man4 ,he echoes from the ,gospel1 ,what manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey ,him8 ,how1 after all1 he asks himself1 could a man be born without a human father1 how rise again from the dead upon the third day8 ,or1 ,how even could such marvels be related at all of one who was no more than other men8 ,so once more he begins4 ,here1 he tells himself1 is the old fairy story come true2 here is a ,god come down to dwell among men2 here is the solution of all his problems4 ,and once more he finds himself bewildered4 ,for how can ,god be weary by the wayside1 labour in a shop1 and die upon a cross8 ,how can the ,eternal ,word be silent for thirty years8 ,how can the ,infinite lie in a manger8 ,how can the ,source of ,life be subject to death8 ,he turns in despair1 flinging himself from theory to theory--turns to the words of ,christ ,himself1 and the perplexity deepens with every utterance4 ,if ,christ be man1 how can ,he say1 ,my ,father and ,i are one8 ,if ,christ be ,god1 how can ,he proclaim that ,his ,father is greater than ,he8 ,if ,christ be ,man1 how can ,he say1 ,before ,abraham was1 ,i am8 ,if ,christ be ,god1 how can ,he name ,himself the ,son of ,man4 7ii7 ,turn to the spiritual teaching of ,jesus ,christ1 and once more problem follows problem1 and paradox1 paradox4 ,here is ,he ,who came to soothe men's sorrows and to give rest to the weary1 ,he ,who offers a sweet yoke and a light burden1 telling them that no man can be ,his disciple who will not take up the heaviest of all burdens and follow ,him uphill4 ,here is one1 the ,physician of souls and bodies1 ,who went about doing good1 ,who set the example of activity in ,god's service1 pronouncing the silent passivity of ,mary as the better part that shall not be taken away from her4 ,here at one moment ,he turns with the light of battle in ,his eyes1 bidding ,his friends who have not swords to sell their cloaks and buy them2 and at another bids those swords to be sheathed1 since ,his ,kingdom is not of this world4 ,here is the ,peacemaker1 at one time pronouncing ,his benediction on those who make peace1 and at another crying that ,he came to bring not peace but a sword4 ,here is ,he ,who names as blessed those that mourn bidding ,his disciples to rejoice and be exceeding glad4 ,was there ever such a ,paradox1 such perplexity1 and such problems8 ,in ,his ,person and ,his teaching alike there seems no rest and no solution--,what think ye of ,christ8 ,whose ,son is ,he8 ,,ii4 7i7 ,the ,catholic teaching alone1 of course1 offers a key to these questions2 yet it is a key that is itself1 like all keys1 as complicated as the wards which it alone can unlock4 ,heretic after heretic has sought for simplification1 and heretic after heretic has therefore come to confusion4 ,christ is ,god1 cried the ,docetic2 therefore cut out from the ,gospels all that speaks of the reality of ,his ,manhood6 ,god cannot bleed and suffer and die2 ,god cannot weary2 ,god cannot feel the sorrows of man4 ,christ is ,man1 cries the modern critic2 therefore tear out from the ,gospels ,his ,virgin ,birth and ,his ,resurrection6 ,for none but a ,catholic can receive the ,gospels as they were written2 none but a man who believes that ,christ is both ,god and ,man1 who is content to believe that and to bow before the ,paradox of paradoxes that we call the ,incarnation1 to accept the blinding mystery that ,infinite and ,finite ,natures were united in one ,person1 that the ,eternal expresses ,himself in ,time1 and that the ,uncreated ,creator united to ,himself ,creation--none but a ,catholic1 in a word1 can meet1 without exception1 the mysterious phenomena of ,christ's ,life4 7ii7 ,turn now again to the mysteries of our own limited life and1 as in a far-off phantom parallel1 we begin to understand4 ,for we too1 in our measure1 have a double nature4 ,as ,god and ,man make one ,christ1 so soul and body make one man3 and1 as the two natures of ,christ--as ,his ,perfect ,godhead united to ,his ,perfect ,manhood--lie at the heart of the problems which ,his ,life presents1 so too our affinities with the clay from which our bodies came1 and with the ,father of ,spirits ,who inbreathed into us living souls1 explain the contradictions of our own experience4 ,if we were but irrational beasts1 we could be as happy as the beasts2 if we were but discarnate spirits that look on ,god1 the joy of the angels would be ours4 ,yet if we assume either of these two truths as if it were the only truth1 we come certainly to confusion4 ,if we live as the beasts1 we cannot sink to their contentment1 for our immortal part will not let us be2 if we neglect or dispute the rightful claims of the body1 that very outraged body drags our immortal spirit down4 ,the acceptance of the two natures of ,christ alone solves the problems of the ,gospel2 the acceptance of the two parts of our own nature alone enables us to live as ,god intends4 ,our spiritual and physical moods1 then1 rise and fall as the one side or the other gains the upper hand3 now our religion is a burden to the flesh1 now it is the exercise in which our soul delights2 now it is the one thing that makes life worth living1 now the one thing that checks our enjoyment of life4 ,these moods alternate1 inevitably and irresistibly1 according as we allow the balance of our parts to be disturbed and set swaying4 ,and so1 ultimately1 there is reserved for us the joy neither of beasts nor of angels1 but the joy of humanity4 ,we are higher than the one1 we are lower than the other1 that we may be crowned by ,him ,who in that same ,humanity sits on the ,throne of ,god4 ,so much1 then1 for our introduction4 ,we have seen how the ,paradox of the ,incarnation alone is adequate to the phenomena recorded in the ,gospel--how that supreme paradox is the key to all the rest4 ,we will proceed to see how it is also the key to other paradoxes of religion1 to the difficulties which the history of ,catholicism presents4 ,for the ,catholic ,church is the extension of ,christ's ,life on earth2 the ,catholic ,church1 therefore1 that strange mingling of mystery and common-sense1 that union of earth and heaven1 of clay and fire1 can alone be understood by him who accepts her as both ,divine and ,human1 since she is nothing else but the mystical presentment1 in human terms1 of ,him ,who1 though the ,infinite ,god and the ,eternal ,creator1 was found in the form of a servant1 of ,him ,who1 dwelling always in the ,bosom of the ,father1 for our sakes came down from heaven4 7ii7 ,,the ,,catholic ,,church1 ,,divine ,,and ,,human ,blessed art thou ,simon ,bar-jona2 because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee1 but ,my ,father ,who is in heaven4444 ,go behind me1 satan1 for thou savourest not the things that are of ,god1 but the things that are of men4--,,matt4 ,,xvi4 #ag1 #bc4 ,we have seen how the only reconciliation of the paradoxes of the ,gospel lies in the ,catholic doctrine of the ,incarnation4 ,it is only to him who believes that ,jesus ,christ is perfect ,god and perfect ,man that the ,gospel record is coherent and intelligible4 ,the heretics--men who for the most part either rejected or added to the inspired record--were those who1 on the one side1 accepted ,christ's ,divinity and rejected the proofs of ,his ,humanity1 or accepted ,his ,humanity and rejected the proofs of ,his ,divinity4 ,in the early ages1 for the most part1 these accepted ,his ,divinity and1 rejecting ,his ,humanity1 invented childish miracles which they thought appropriate to a ,god dwelling on earth in a phantom manhood2 at the present day1 rejecting ,his ,divinity1 they reject also those miracles for which ,his ,divinity alone is an adequate explanation4 ,now the ,catholic ,church is an extension of the ,incarnation4 ,she too 7though1 as we shall see1 the parallel is not perfect7 has her ,divine and ,human ,nature1 which alone can account for the paradoxes of her history2 and these paradoxes are either predicted by ,christ--asserted1 that is1 as part of ,his spiritual teaching--or actually manifested in ,his own life4 7,we may take them as symbolised1 so to speak1 in those words of our ,lord to ,st4 ,peter in which ,he first commends him as a man inspired by ,god and then1 almost simultaneously1 rebukes him as one who can rise no further than an earthly ideal at the best47 ,i4 7i7 ,just as we have already imagined a well-disposed inquirer approaching for the first time the problems of the ,gospel1 so let us now again imagine such a man1 in whom the dawn of faith has begun1 encountering the record of ,catholicism4 ,at first all seems to him ,divine4 ,he sees1 for example1 how singularly unique she is1 how unlike to all other human societies4 ,other societies depend for their very existence upon a congenial human environment2 she flourishes in the most uncongenial4 ,other societies have their day and pass down to dissolution and corruption2 she alone knows no corruption4 ,other dynasties rise and fall2 the dynasty of ,peter the ,fisherman remains unmoved4 ,other causes wax and wane with the worldly influence which they can command2 she is usually most effective when her earthly interest is at the lowest ebb4 ,or again1 he falls in love with her ,divine beauty and perceives even in her meanest acts a grace which he cannot understand4 ,he notices with wonder how she takes human mortal things--a perishing pagan language1 a debased architecture1 an infant science or philosophy--and infuses into them her own immortality4 ,she takes the superstitions of a country-side and1 retaining their accidents1 transubstantiates them into truth2 the customs or rites of a pagan society1 and makes them the symbols of a living worship4 ,and into all she infuses a spirit that is all her own--a spirit of delicate grace and beauty of which she alone has the secret4 ,it is her ,divinity1 then1 that he sees1 and rightly4 ,but1 wrongly1 he draws certain one-sided conclusions4 ,if she is so perfect1 he argues 7at least subconsciously71 she can be nothing else than perfect2 if she is so ,divine she can be in no sense human4 ,her pontiffs must all be saints1 her priests shining lights1 her people stars in her firmament4 ,if she is ,divine1 her policy must be unerring1 her acts all gracious1 her lightest movements inspired4 ,there must be no brutality anywhere1 no self-seeking1 no ambition1 no instability4 ,how should there be1 since she is ,divine8 ,such are his first instincts4 ,and then1 little by little1 his disillusionment begins4 ,for1 as he studies her record more deeply1 he begins to encounter evidences of her ,humanity4 ,he reads history1 and he discovers here and there a pontiff who but little in his moral character resembles ,him ,whose ,vicar he is4 ,he meets an apostate priest2 he hears of some savagery committed in ,christ's name2 he talks with a convert who has returned complacently to the ,city of ,confusion2 there is gleefully related to him the history of a family who has kept the faith all through the period of persecution and lost it in the era of toleration4 ,and he is shaken and dismayed4 ,how can these be in a ,society that is ,divine8 ,i had trusted that it had been ,she who should have redeemed ,israel2 and now--6 7ii7 ,another man approaches the record of ,catholicism from the opposite direction4 ,to him she is a human society and nothing more2 and he finds1 indeed1 a thousand corroborations of his theory4 ,he views her amazing success in the first ages of ,christianity--the rapid propagation of her tenets and the growth of her influence--and sees behind these things nothing more than the fortunate circumstance of the existence of the ,roman ,empire4 ,or he notices the sudden and rapid rise of the power of the ,roman pontiff and explains this by the happy chance that moved the centre of empire to the east and left in ,rome an old prestige and an empty throne4 ,he sees how the ,church has profited by the divisions in ,europe2 how she has inherited the old ,latin genius for law and order2 and he finds in these things an explanation of her unity and of her claim to rule princes and kings4 ,she is to him just human1 and no more4 ,there is not1 at first sight1 a phenomenon of her life for which he cannot find a human explanation4 ,she is interesting1 as a result of innumerable complicated forces2 she is venerable1 as the oldest coherent society in ,europe2 she has the advantage of ,italian diplomacy2 she has been shrewd1 unweary1 and persevering4 ,but she is no more4 ,and then1 as he goes deeper1 he begins to encounter phenomena which do not fall so easily under his compact little theories4 ,if she is merely human1 why do not the laws of all other human societies appear to affect her too8 ,why is it that she alone shows no incline towards dissolution and decay8 ,why has not she too split up into the component parts of which she is welded8 ,how is it that she has preserved a unity of which all earthly unities are but shadows8 ,or he meets with the phenomena of her sanctity and begins to perceive that the difference between the character she produces in her saints and the character of the noblest of those who do not submit to her is one of kind and not merely of degree4 ,if she is merely mediaeval1 how is it that she commands such allegiance as that which is paid to her in modern ,america8 ,if she is merely ,european1 how is it that she alone can deal with the ,oriental on his own terms8 ,if she is merely the result of temporal circumstances1 how is it that her spiritual influence shows no sign of waning when the forces that helped to build her are dispersed8 ,his theory too1 then1 becomes less confident4 ,if she is ,human1 why is she so evidently ,divine8 ,if she is ,divine1 whence comes her obvious ,humanity8 ,so years ago men asked1 ,if ,christ be ,god1 how could ,he be weary by the wayside and die upon the ,cross8 ,so men ask now1 ,if ,christ be ,man1 how could ,he cast out devils and rise from the dead8 ,,ii4 ,we come back1 then1 to the ,catholic answer4 ,treat the ,catholic ,church as ,divine only and you will stumble over her scandals1 her failures1 and her shortcomings4 ,treat her as ,human only and you will be silenced by her miracles1 her sanctity1 and her eternal resurrections4 7i7 ,of course the ,catholic ,church is ,human4 ,she consists of fallible men1 and her ,humanity is not even safeguarded as was that of ,christ against the incursions of sin4 ,always1 therefore1 there have been scandals1 and always will be4 ,popes may betray their trust1 in all human matters2 priests their flocks2 laymen their faith4 ,no man is secure4 ,and1 again1 since she is human it is perfectly true that she has profited by human circumstances for the increase of her power4 ,undoubtedly it was the existence of the ,roman ,empire1 with its roads1 its rapid means of transit1 and its organization1 that made possible the swift propagation of the ,gospel in the first centuries4 ,undoubtedly it was the empty throne of ,caesar and the prestige of ,rome that developed the world's acceptance of the authority of ,peter's ,chair4 ,undoubtedly it was the divisions of ,europe that cemented the ,church's unity and led men to look to a ,supreme ,authority that might compose their differences4 ,there is scarcely an opening in human affairs into which she has not plunged2 hardly an opportunity she has missed4 ,human affairs1 human sins and weaknesses as well as human virtues1 have all contributed to her power4 ,so grows a tree1 even in uncongenial soil4 ,the rocks that impede the roots later become their support2 the rich soil1 waiting for an occupant1 has been drawn up into the life of the leaves2 the very winds that imperilled the young sapling have developed too its power of resistance4 ,yet these things do not make the tree4 7ii7 ,for her ,humanity1 though it is the body in which her ,divinity dwells1 does not create that ,divinity4 ,certainly human circumstances have developed her1 yet what but ,divine ,providence ordered and developed those human circumstances8 ,what but that same power1 which indwells in the ,church1 dwelt without her too and caused her to take root at that time and in that place which most favored her growth8 ,certainly she is ,human4 ,it may well be that her rulers have contradicted one another in human matters--in science1 in policy1 and in discipline2 but how is it1 then1 that they have not contradicted one another in matters that are ,divine8 ,granted that one ,pope has reversed the policy of his predecessor1 then what has saved him from reversing his theology also8 ,certainly there have been appalling scandals1 outrageous sinners1 blaspheming apostates--but what of her saints8 ,and1 above all1 she gives proof of her ,divinity by that very sign to which ,christ ,himself pointed as a proof of ,his own4 ,granted that she dies daily--that her cause fails in this century and in that country2 that her science is discredited in this generation and her active morality in that and her ideals in a third--how comes it that she also rises daily from the dead2 that her old symbols rise again from their ruins2 that her virtues are acclaimed by the children of the men who renounced her2 that her bells and her music sound again where once her churches and houses were laid waste8 ,here1 then1 is the ,catholic answer and it is this alone that makes sense of history1 as it is ,catholic doctrine which alone makes sense of the ,gospel record4 ,the answer is identical in both cases alike1 and it is this--that the only explanation of the phenomena of the ,gospels and of ,church history is that the ,life which produces them is both ,human and ,divine4 ,i ,,peace ,,and ,,war ,blessed are the peacemakers2 for they shall be called the children of ,god4--,,matt4 ,v4 #i4 ,do not think that ,i am come to send peace on earth2 ,i came not to send peace but the sword4--,,matt4 ,x4 #cd4 ,we have considered how the key to the ,paradoxes of the ,gospel and the key to the ,paradoxes of ,catholicism is one and the same--that the ,life that produces them is at once ,divine and ,human4 ,let us go on to consider how this resolves those of ,catholicism1 especially those charged against us by our adversaries4 ,for we live in a day when ,catholicism is no longer considered by intelligent men to be too evidently absurd to be argued with4 ,definite reasons are given by those who stand outside our borders for the attitude they maintain2 definite accusations are made which must either be allowed or refuted4 ,now those who stand without the walls of the ,city of ,peace know nothing1 it is true1 of the life that its citizens lead within1 nothing of the harmony and consolation that ,catholicism alone can give4 ,yet of certain points1 it may be1 in the large outlines of that city against the sky1 of the place it occupies in the world1 of its wide effect upon human life in general1 it may very well be that these detached observers may know more than the devout who dwell at peace within4 ,let us1 then1 consider their reflections not necessarily as wholly false2 it may be that they have caught glimpses which we have missed and relations which either we take too much for granted or have failed altogether to see4 ,it may be that these accusations will turn out to be our credentials in disguise4 ,i4 ,every world-religion1 we are told1 worthy of the name has as its principal object and its chief claim to consideration its establishing or its fostering of peace among men4 ,supremely this was so in the first days of ,christianity4 ,it was this that its great prophet predicted of its work when its ,divine ,founder should come on earth4 ,nature shall recover its lost harmony and the dissensions of men shall cease when ,he1 the ,prince of ,peace1 shall approach4 ,the very beasts shall lie down together in amity1 the lion and the lamb and the leopard and the kid4 ,further1 it was the ,message of ,peace that the angels proclaimed over ,his cradle in ,bethlehem2 it was the ,gift of ,peace which ,he ,himself promised to ,his disciples2 it was the ,peace of ,god which passeth knowledge to which the great ,apostle commended his converts4 ,this then1 we are told1 is of the very essence of ,christianity2 this is the supreme benediction on the peacemakers that they shall be called the children of ,god4 ,yet1 when we turn to ,catholicism1 we are bidden to see in it not a gatherer but a scatterer1 not the daughter of peace but the mother of disunion4 ,is there a single tormented country in ,europe to-day1 it is rhetorically demanded1 that does not owe at least part of its misery to the claims of ,catholicism8 ,what is it but ,catholicism that lies at the heart of the divided allegiance of ,france1 of the miseries of ,portugal1 and of the dissensions of ,italy8 ,look back through history and you will find the same tale everywhere4 ,what was it that disturbed the politics of ,england so often from the twelfth to the fifteenth century1 and tore her in two in the sixteenth1 but the determined resistance of an adolescent nation to the tyranny of ,rome8 ,what lay behind the religious wars of ,europe1 behind the fires of ,smithfield1 the rack of ,elizabeth1 and the blood of ,st4 ,bartholomew's ,day but this intolerant and intolerable religion which would come to no terms even with the most reasonable of its adversaries8 ,it is impossible1 of course1 altogether to apportion blame1 to say that in each several instance it was the ,catholic that was the aggressor2 but at least it is true to say that it was ,catholic principles that were the occasion and ,catholic claims the unhappy cause of all this incalculable flood of human misery4 ,how singularly unlike1 then1 we are told1 is this religion of dissension to the religion of ,jesus ,christ1 of all these dogmatic and disciplinary claims and assertions to the meekness of the ,poor ,man of ,nazareth6 ,if true ,christianity is anywhere in the world to-day it is not among such as these that it lies hid2 rather it must be sought among the gentle humanitarians of our own and every country--men who strive for peace at all cost1 men whose principal virtues are those of toleration and charity1 men who1 if any1 have earned the beatitude of being called the children of ,god4 ,,ii4 ,we turn to the ,life of ,jesus ,christ from the ,life of ,catholicism1 and at first indeed it does seem as if the contrast were justified4 ,we cannot deny our critic's charges2 every one of his historical assertions is true3 it is indeed true that ,catholicism has been the occasion of more bloodshedding than has any of the ambitions or jealousies of man4 ,and it is1 further1 true that ,jesus ,christ pronounced this benediction2 that ,he bade ,his followers seek after peace1 and that ,he commended them1 in the very climax of ,his exaltation1 to the ,peace which ,he alone could bestow4 ,yet1 when we look closer1 the case is not so simple4 ,for1 first1 what was1 as a matter of fact1 the direct immediate effect of the ,life and ,personality of ,jesus ,christ upon the society in which ,he lived but this very dissension1 this very bloodshedding and misery that are charged against ,his ,church8 ,it was precisely on this account that ,he was given into the hands of ,pilate4 ,he stirreth up the people4 ,he makes ,himself a ,king4 ,he is a contentious demagogue1 a disloyal citizen1 a danger to the ,roman ,peace4 ,and indeed there seem to have been excuses for these charges4 ,it was not the language of a modern humanitarian1 of the modern tolerant ,christian1 that fell from the ,divine ,lips of ,jesus ,christ4 ,go and tell that fox1 ,he cries of the ruler of ,his people4 ,o you whited sepulchres full of dead men's bones6 ,you vipers6 ,you hypocrites6 ,this is the language ,he uses to the representatives of ,israel's religion4 ,is this the kind of talk that we hear from modern leaders of religious thought8 ,would such language as this be tolerated for a moment from the humanitarian ,christian pulpits of to-day8 ,is it possible to imagine more inflammatory speech1 more unchristian sentiments1 as they would be called to-day1 than those words uttered by none other but the ,divine ,founder of ,christianity8 ,what of that amazing scene when ,he threw the furniture about the temple courts8 ,and as for the effect of such words and methods1 our ,lord ,himself is quite explicit4 ,make no mistake1 ,he cries to the modern humanitarian who claims alone to represent ,him4 ,make no mistake4 ,i am not come to bring peace at any price2 there are worse things than war and bloodshed4 ,i am come to bring not peace but a sword4 ,i am come to divide families1 not to unite them2 to rend kingdoms1 not to knit them up2 ,i am come to set mother against daughter and daughter against mother2 ,i am come not to establish universal toleration1 but universal ,truth4 ,what1 then1 is the reconciliation of the ,paradox8 ,in what sense can it be possible that the effect of the ,personality of the ,prince of ,peace1 and therefore the effect of ,his ,church1 in spite of their claims to be the friends of peace1 should be not peace1 but the sword8 ,,iii4 ,now 7#a7 the ,catholic ,church is a ,human ,society4 ,she is constituted1 that is to say1 of human beings2 she depends1 humanly speaking1 upon human circumstances2 she can be assaulted1 weakened1 and disarmed by human enemies4 ,she dwells in the midst of human society1 and it is with human society that she has to deal4 ,now if she were not human--if she were merely a ,divine ,society1 a far-off city in the heavens1 a future distant ideal to which human society is approximating1 there would be no conflict at all4 ,she would never meet in a face-to-face shock the passions and antagonisms of men2 she could suppress1 now and again1 her ,counsels of ,perfection1 her calls to a higher life1 if it were not that these are vital and present principles which she is bound to propagate among men4 ,and again1 if she were merely human1 there would be no conflict4 ,if she were merely ascended from below1 merely the result of the finest religious thought of the world1 the high-water mark of spiritual attainment1 again she could compromise1 could suppress1 could be silent4 ,but she is both human and divine1 and therefore her warfare is certain and inevitable4 ,for she dwells in the midst of the kingdoms of this world1 and these are constituted1 at any rate at the present day1 on wholly human bases4 ,statesmen and kings1 at the present day1 do not found their policies upon supernatural considerations2 their object is to govern their subjects1 to promote the peace and union of their subjects1 to make war1 if need be1 on behalf of the peace of their subjects1 wholly on natural grounds4 ,commerce1 finance1 agriculture1 education in the things of this world1 science1 art1 exploration--human activities generally--these1 in their purely natural aspect1 are the objects of nearly all modern statesmanship4 ,our rulers are professedly1 in their public capacity1 neither for religion nor against it2 religion is a private matter for the individual1 and governments stand aside--or at any rate profess to do so4 ,and it is in this kind of world1 in this fashion of human society1 that the ,catholic ,church1 in virtue of her humanity1 is bound to dwell4 ,she too is a kingdom1 though not of this world1 yet in it4 7#b7 ,for she is also ,divine4 ,her message contains1 that is to say1 a number of supernatural principles revealed to her by ,god2 she is supernaturally constituted2 she rests on a supernatural basis2 she is not organized as if this world were all4 ,on the contrary she puts the kingdom of ,god definitely first and the kingdoms of the world definitely second2 the ,peace of ,god first and the harmony of men second4 ,therefore she is bound1 when her supernatural principles clash with human natural principles1 to be the occasion of disunion4 ,her marriage laws1 as a single example1 are at conflict with the marriage laws of the majority of modern ,states4 ,it is of no use to tell her to modify these principles2 it would be to tell her to cease to be supernatural1 to cease to be herself4 ,how can she modify what she believes to be her ,divine ,message8 ,again1 since she is organized on a supernatural basis1 there are supernatural elements in her own constitution which she can no more modify than her dogmas4 ,recently1 in ,france1 she was offered the kingdom of this world if she would do so2 it was proposed to her that she actually retain her own wealth1 her churches and her houses1 and yield up her principle of spiritual appeal to the ,vicar of ,christ4 ,if she had been but human1 how evident would have been her duty6 ,how inevitable that she should modify her constitution in accordance with human ideas and preserve her property intact6 ,and how entirely impossible such a bargain must be for a ,society that is divine as well as human6 ,take courage then6 ,we desire peace above all things--that is to say1 the ,peace of ,god1 not that peace which the world1 since it can give it1 can also take away2 not that peace which depends on the harmony of nature with nature1 but of nature with grace4 ,yet1 so long as the world is divided in allegiance2 so long as the world1 or a country1 or a family1 or even an individual soul bases itself upon natural principles divorced from divine1 so long to that world1 that country1 that family1 and that human heart will the supernatural religion of ,catholicism bring not peace1 but a sword4 ,and it will do so to the end1 up to the final world-shattering catastrophe of ,armageddon itself4 ,i come1 cries the ,rider on the ,white ,horse1 to bring ,peace indeed1 but a peace of which the world cannot even dream2 a peace built upon the eternal foundations of ,god ,himself1 not upon the shifting sands of human agreement4 ,and until that ,vision dawns there must be war2 until ,god's ,peace descends indeed and is accepted1 till then ,my ,garments must be splashed in blood and from ,my ,mouth comes forth not peace1 but a two-edged sword4 ,,ii ,,wealth ,,and ,,poverty ,make to yourselves friends of the ,mammon of iniquity4 ,you cannot serve ,god and ,mammon4-,,luke ,,xvi4 #i1 #ac4 ,we have seen how the ,church of the ,prince of ,peace must continually be the centre of war4 ,let us go on to consider how1 as a ,human ,society dwelling in this world1 she must continually have her eyes fixed upon the next1 and how1 as a ,divine ,society1 she must be open to the charge of worldliness4 ,i4 7i7 ,the charge is a very common one3 ,look at the extraordinary wealth and splendour that this ,church of the ,poor ,man of ,nazareth constantly gathers around her and ask yourself how she can dare to claim to represent ,him6 ,go through ,holy ,rome and see how the richest and most elaborate buildings bear over their gateways the heraldic emblems of ,christ's ,vicar6 ,go through any country which has not risen in disgust and cast off the sham that calls herself ',christ's ,church' and you will find that no worldly official is so splendid as these heavenly delegates of ,jesus ,christ1 no palaces more glorious than those in which they dwell who pretend to preach ,him who had not where to lay ,his head6 ,above all1 turn from that simple poverty-stricken figure that the ,gospels present to us1 to the man who claims to be ,his ,vicegerent on earth4 ,see him go1 crowned three times over1 on a throne borne on men's shoulders1 with the silver trumpets shrilling before him and the ostrich fans coming on behind1 and you will understand why the world cannot take the ,church seriously4 ,look at the court that is about him1 all purple and scarlet1 and set by that the little band of weather-beaten fishermen6 ,no2 if this ,church were truly of ,christ1 she would imitate ,him better4 ,it was ,his supreme mission to point to things that are above2 to lift men's thoughts above dross and gold and jewels and worldly influence and high places and power2 to point to a ,heavenly ,jerusalem1 not made with hands2 to comfort the sorrowful with a vision of future peace1 not to dabble with temporal matters2 to speak of grace and heaven and things to come1 and to let the dead bury their dead6 ,the best we can do for her1 then1 is to disembarrass her of her riches2 to turn her temporal possessions to frankly temporal ends2 to release her from the slavery of her own ambition into the liberty of the poor and the children of ,god6 7ii7 ,in a word1 then1 the ,church is too worldly to be the ,church of ,christ6 ,you cannot serve ,god and ,mammon4 ,yet in another mood our critic will tell us that we are too otherworldly to be the ,church of ,christ4 ,the chief charge ,i have against ,catholicism1 says such a man1 is that the ,church is too unpractical4 ,if she were truly the ,church of ,jesus ,christ1 she would surely imitate ,him better in that which1 after all1 was the mark of ,his highest ,divinity--namely in ,his ,humanity towards men4 ,christ did not come into the world to preach metaphysics and talk forever of a heaven that is to come2 ,he came rather to attend to men's simplest needs1 to feed the hungry1 to clothe the naked1 to reform society on better lines4 ,it was not by ,his dogma that ,he won men's hearts2 it was by ,his simple1 natural sympathy with their common needs4 ,he came1 in a word1 to make the best of this world1 to use the elements that lay ready to ,his hand1 to sanctify all the plain things of earth with which ,he came in contact4 ,these otherworldly ,catholics1 then1 are too much apart from common life and common needs4 ,their dogmas and their aspirations and their metaphysics are useless to a world which wants bread4 ,let them act more and dream less6 ,let them show1 for example1 by the prosperity of ,catholic countries that ,catholicism is practical and not a vision4 ,let them preach less and philanthropize more4 ,let them show that they have the key to this world's progress1 and perhaps we will listen more patiently to their claim to hold the key to the world that is to come6 ,but1 surely1 this is a little hard upon ,catholics6 ,when we make ourselves at home in this world1 we are informed that ,jesus ,christ had not where to lay ,his ,head4 ,when we preach the world that is to come1 we are reminded that ,jesus ,christ after all came down from that world into this to make it better4 ,when we build a comfortable church1 we are told that we are too luxurious4 ,when we build an uncomfortable one we are asked how we expect to do any good unless we are practical4 ,,ii4 ,now1 of course1 both these charges were also objected against our ,blessed ,lord4 ,for ,he too had ,his double activities4 ,it is true that there were times when ,he gave men earthly bread2 it is also true that ,he offered them heavenly bread4 ,there were times when ,he cared for men's bodies2 there were other times when ,he bade them sacrifice all that makes bodily life worth living2 times when ,he sat at meat in the house of a rich man1 and times when ,he starved1 voluntarily1 in the desert4 ,and the world found ,him wrong whichever ,he did4 ,he was too worldly when ,he healed men on the ,sabbath2 for is not the ,law of ,god of more value than a man's bodily ease8 ,why can ,he not wait till to-morrow8 ,he was too worldly when ,he allowed ,his disciples to rub corn in their hands2 for does not the ,law of ,god forbid a man to make bread on the ,sabbath8 ,he was too worldly1 too unpractical1 too sense-loving when ,he permitted the precious ointment to be spilled on ,his feet2 for might not this ointment have been sold for much and given to the poor8 ,is not spirituality enough1 and the incense of adoration8 ,and ,he was too otherworldly when ,he preached the ,sermon on the ,mount4 ,what is the use of saying1 ,blessed are the ,meek1 when the whole world knows that ,blessed are the ,self-,assertive8 ,he was too otherworldly when ,he spoke of ,heavenly ,bread4 ,what is the use of speaking of ,heavenly ,bread when it is earthly food that men need first of all8 ,he was too otherworldly when ,he remained in the country on the feast day4 ,if ,he be the ,christ1 let ,him be practical and say so6 ,it was1 in fact1 on these very two charges that ,he was arraigned for death4 ,he was too worldly for ,pilate1 in that ,he was ,son of ,man and therefore a rival to ,caesar2 and too otherworldly for ,caiphas1 since ,he made ,himself ,son of ,god and therefore a rival to ,jehovah4 ,,iii4 ,the solution1 then1 of this ,catholic ,paradox is very simple4 7i7 ,first1 the ,church is a ,heavenly ,society come down from above--heavenly in her origin and her birth4 ,she is the kingdom of ,god1 first and foremost1 and exists for ,his glory solely and entirely4 ,she seeks1 then1 first the extension of ,his kingdom2 and compared with this1 nothing is of any value in her eyes4 ,never1 then1 must she sacrifice ,god to ,mammon2 never hesitate for one instant if the choice lies between them4 ,for she considers that eternity is greater than time and the soul of man of more value than his body4 ,the sacraments therefore1 in her eyes1 come before an adequate tram-service2 and that a man's soul should be in grace is1 to her1 of more importance than that his body should be in health--if the choice is between them4 ,she prefers1 therefore1 the priest to the doctor1 if there is not time for both1 and ,holy ,communion to a good breakfast4 ,therefore1 of course1 she appears too otherworldly to the stockbroker and the provincial mayor1 since she actually places the things of ,god before the things of man and seeks first ,his ,kingdom4 7ii7 ,and all these things shall be added to her4 ,for she is ,human also1 in that she dwells in this world where ,god has placed her1 and uses therefore the things with which ,he has surrounded her4 ,to say that she is supernatural is not to deny her humanity any more than to assert that man has an immortal soul is to exclude the truth that he also has a body4 ,it is this ,body of hers1 then--this humanity of hers which enshrines her ,divinity--that claims and uses earthly things2 it is this ,body that dwells in houses made with hands and that claims too1 in honour to herself and her ,bridegroom1 that1 so long as her spirituality is not tarnished1 these houses shall be as splendid as art can make them4 ,for she is not a ,puritan nor a ,manichee2 she does not say that any single thing which ,god has made can conceivably be of itself evil1 however grievously it may have been abused2 on the contrary1 she has ,his own authority for saying that all is very good4 ,she uses1 then1 every earthly beauty that the world will yield to her1 to honour her own ,majesty4 ,it may be right to set diamonds round the neck of a woman1 but it is certainly right to set them round the ,chalice of the ,blood of ,god4 ,if an earthly king wears vestments of cloth of gold1 must not a heavenly ,king yet more wear them8 ,if music is used by the world to destroy men's souls1 may not she use it to save their souls8 ,if a marble palace is fit for the ,president of the ,french ,republic1 by what right do men withhold it from the ,king of kings8 ,but the world does withhold its wealth sometimes8 ,very well then1 she can serve ,god without it1 in spite of her rights4 ,if men whine and cringe1 or bully and shout1 for the jewels with which their forefathers honoured ,god1 she will fling them back again down her altar stairs and worship ,god in a barn or a catacomb without them4 ,for1 though she does not serve ,god and ,mammon1 she yet makes to herself friends of the ,mammon of iniquity4 ,though she does not and never can serve ,god and ,mammon1 she will and can1 when the world permits it1 make ,mammon serve her4 ,for the ,church is the ,majesty of ,god dwelling on earth4 ,she is there1 in herself1 utterly independent of her reception4 ,if it is her own to whom she comes1 and her own do not receive her1 they are none the less hers by every right4 ,for1 though she will use every earthly thing to her honour1 though she considers no ointment wasted1 however precious1 that is spilled by love over her feet1 yet her essential glory does not lie in these things4 ,she is all glorious within1 whether or not her vesture is of gold1 for she is a ,king's ,daughter4 ,she is1 essentially1 as glorious in the ,catacombs as in the ,roman basilicas2 as lovely in the barefooted friar as in the robed and sceptred ,vicar of ,christ2 as majestic in ,christ naked on the ,cross as in ,christ ascended and enthroned in heaven4 ,yet1 since she is ,his ,majesty on earth1 she has a right to all that earth can give4 ,all the beasts of the field are hers1 and the cattle on a thousand hills1 all the stars of heaven and the jewels of earth2 all the things in the world are hers by ,divine right4 ,all things are hers1 for she is ,christ's4 ,yet1 nevertheless1 she will suffer the loss of all things sooner than lose ,him4 ,,iii ,,sanctity ,,and ,,sin ,holy1 ,holy1 ,holy6--,,is4 ,,vi4 #c4 ,christ ,jesus came into this world to save sinners4 ,i ,,tim4 ,i4 #ae4 ,a very different pair of charges--and far more vital--than those more or less economic accusations of worldliness and otherworldliness which we have just considered1 concern the standards of goodness preached by the ,church and her own alleged incapacity to live up to them4 ,these may be briefly summed up by saying that one-half the world considers the ,church too holy for human life1 and the other half1 not holy enough4 ,we may name these critics1 respectively1 the ,pagan and the ,puritan4 ,i4 ,it is the ,pagan who charges her with excessive ,holiness4 ,you ,catholics1 he tells us1 are far too hard on sin and not nearly indulgent enough towards poor human nature4 ,let me take as an instance the sins of the flesh4 ,now here is a set of desires implanted by ,god or ,nature 7as you choose to name the ,power behind life7 for wise and indeed essential purposes4 ,these desires are probably the very fiercest known to man and certainly the most alluring2 and human nature is1 as we know1 an extraordinarily inconsistent and vacillating thing4 ,now ,i am aware that the abuse of these passions leads to disaster and that ,nature has her inexorable laws and penalties2 but you ,catholics add a new horror to life by an absurd and irrational insistence on the offence that this abuse causes before ,god4 ,for not only do you fiercely denounce the acts of sin1 as you name them1 but you presume to go deeper still to the very desire itself1 as it would seem4 ,you are unpractical and cruel enough to say that the very thought of sin deliberately entertained can cut off the soul that indulges in it from the favour of ,god4 ,or1 to go further1 consider the impossible ideals which you hold up with regard to matrimony4 ,these ideals have a certain beauty of their own to persons who can embrace them2 they may perhaps be1 to use a ,catholic phrase1 ,counsels of ,perfection2 but it is merely ludicrous to insist upon them as rules of conduct for all mankind4 ,human ,nature is human nature4 ,you cannot bind the many by the dreams of the few4 ,or1 to take a wider view altogether1 consider the general standards you hold up to us in the lives of your saints4 ,these saints appear to the ordinary common-place man as simply not admirable at all4 ,it does not seem to us admirable that ,st4 ,aloysius should scarcely lift his eyes from the ground1 or that ,st4 ,teresa should shut herself up in a cell1 or that ,st4 ,francis should scourge himself with briers for fear of committing sin4 ,that kind of attitude is too fantastically fastidious altogether4 ,you ,catholics seem to aim at a standard that is simply not desirable2 both your ends and your methods are equally inhuman and equally unsuitable for the world we have to live in4 ,true religion is surely something far more sensible than this2 true religion should not strain and strive after the impossible1 should not seek to improve human nature by a process of mutilation4 ,you have excellent aims in some respects and excellent methods in others1 but in supreme demands you go beyond the mark altogether4 ,we ,pagans neither agree with your morality nor admire those whom you claim as your successes4 ,if you were less holy and more natural1 less idealistic and more practical1 you would be of a greater service to the world which you desire to help4 ,religion should be a sturdy1 virile growth2 not the delicate hot-house blossom which you make it4 ,the second charge comes from the ,puritan4 ,catholicism is not holy enough to be the ,church of ,jesus ,christ2 for see how terribly easy she is to those who outrage and crucify ,him afresh6 ,perhaps it may not be true after all1 as we used to think1 that the ,catholic priest actually gives leave to his penitents to commit sin2 but the extraordinary ease with which absolution is given comes very nearly to the same thing4 ,so far from this ,church having elevated the human race1 she has actually lowered its standards by her attitude towards those of her children who disobey ,god's ,laws4 ,and consider what some of these children of hers have been6 ,are there any criminals in history so monumental as ,catholic criminals8 ,have any men ever fallen so low as1 let us say1 the ,borgia family of the ,middle ,ages1 as ,gilles de ,rais and a score of others1 as men and women who were perhaps in their faith 'good ,catholics' enough1 yet in their lives a mere disgrace to humanity8 ,look at the ,latin countries with their passionate records of crime1 at the sexual immorality of ,france or ,spain2 the turbulence and thriftlessness of ,ireland1 the ignorant brutality of ,catholic ,england4 ,are there any other denominations of ,christendom that exhibit such deplorable specimens as the runaway nuns1 the apostate priests1 the vicious ,popes of ,catholicism8 ,how is it that tales are told of the iniquities of ,catholicism such as are told of no other of the sects of ,christendom8 ,allow for all the exaggeration you like1 all the prejudice of historians1 all the spitefulness of enemies1 yet there surely remains sufficient ,catholic criminality to show that at the best the ,church is no better than any other religious body1 and at the worst1 infinitely worse4 ,the ,catholic ,church1 then1 is not holy enough to be the ,church of ,jesus ,christ4 ,,ii4 ,when we turn to the ,gospels we find that these two charges are1 as a matter of fact1 precisely among those which were brought against our ,divine ,lord4 ,first1 undoubtedly1 ,he was hated for ,his ,holiness4 ,who can doubt that the terrific standard of morality which ,he preached--the ,catholic preaching of which also is one of the charges of the ,pagan--was a principal cause of ,his rejection4 ,for it was ,he1 after all1 who first proclaimed that the laws of ,god bind not only action but thought2 it was ,he who first pronounced that man to be a murderer and an adulterer who in his heart willed these sins2 it was ,he who summed up the standard of ,christianity as a standard of perfection1 ,be you perfect1 as your ,father in ,heaven is perfect2 who bade men aspire to be as good as ,god6 ,it was ,his ,holiness1 then1 that first drew on ,him the hostility of the world--that radiant white-hot sanctity in which ,his ,sacred ,humanity went clothed4 ,which of you convinceth me of sin8444 ,let him that is without sin amongst you cast the first stone at her6 ,these were words that pierced the smooth formalism of the ,scribe and the ,pharisee and awoke an undying hatred4 ,it was this1 surely1 that led up irresistibly to the final rejection of ,him at the bar of ,pilate and the choice of ,barabbas in ,his place4 ,not this man6 not this piece of stainless ,perfection6 ,not this ,sanctity that reveals all hearts1 but ,barabbas1 that comfortable sinner so like ourselves6 ,this robber in whose company we feel at ease6 ,this murderer whose life1 at any rate1 is in no reproachful contrast to our own6 ,jesus ,christ was found too holy for the world4 ,but ,he was found1 too1 not holy enough4 ,and it is this explicit charge that is brought against ,him again and again4 ,it was dreadful to those keepers of the ,law that this ,preacher of ,righteousness should sit with publicans and sinners2 that this ,prophet should allow such a woman as ,magdalen to touch ,him4 ,if this man were indeed a ,prophet1 ,he could not bear the contact of sinners2 if ,he were indeed zealous for ,god's ,kingdom1 ,he could not suffer the presence of so many who were its enemies4 ,yet ,he sits there at ,zacchaeus' table1 silent and smiling1 instead of crying on the roof to fall in2 ,he calls ,matthew from the tax-office instead of blasting him and it together2 ,he handles the leper whom ,god's own ,law pronounces unclean4 ,,iii4 ,these1 then1 are the charges brought against the disciples of ,christ1 as against the ,master1 and it is undeniable that there is truth in them both4 ,it is true that the ,catholic ,church preaches a morality that is utterly beyond the reach of human nature left to itself2 that her standards are standards of perfection1 and that she prefers even the lowest rung of the supernatural ladder to the highest rung of the natural4 ,and it is also true1 without doubt1 that the fallen or the unfaithful ,catholic is an infinitely more degraded member of humanity than the fallen ,pagan or ,protestant2 that the monumental criminals of history are ,catholic criminals1 and that the monsters of the world--,henry ,,viii for example1 sacrilegious1 murderer1 and adulterer2 ,martin ,luther1 whose printed table-talk is unfit for any respectable house2 ,queen ,elizabeth1 perjurer1 tyrant1 and unchaste--were persons who had had all that the ,catholic ,church could give them3 the standards of her teaching1 the guidance of her discipline1 and the grace of her sacraments4 ,what1 then1 is the reconciliation of this ,paradox8 7#a7 ,first the ,catholic ,church is ,divine4 ,she dwells1 that is to say1 in heavenly places2 she looks always upon the ,face of ,god2 she holds enshrined in her heart the ,sacred ,humanity of ,jesus ,christ and the stainless perfection of that ,immaculate ,mother from whom that ,humanity was drawn4 ,how is it conceivable1 then1 that she should be content with any standard short of perfection8 ,if she were a ,society evolved from below--a merely human ,society that is to say--she could never advance beyond those standards to which in the past her noblest children have climbed4 ,but since there dwells in her the ,supernatural--since ,mary was endowed from on high with a gift to which no human being could ascend1 since the ,sun of ,justice ,himself came down from the heavens to lead a human life under human terms--how can she ever again be content with anything short of that height from which these came8 7#b7 ,but she is also human1 dwelling herself in the midst of humanity1 placed here in the world for the express object of gathering into herself and of sanctifying by her graces that very world which has fallen from ,god4 ,these outcasts and these sinners are the very material on which she has to work2 these waste products of human life1 these marred types and specimens of humanity have no hope at all except in her4 ,for1 first1 she desires if she can--and she has often been able--actually to raise these1 first to sanctity and then to her own altars2 it is for her and her only to raise the poor from the dunghill and to set them with the princes4 ,she sets before the ,magdalen and the thief1 then1 nothing less but her own standard of perfection4 ,yet though in one sense she is satisfied with nothing lower than this1 in another sense she is satisfied with almost infinitely nothing4 ,if she can but bring the sinner within the very edge of grace2 if she can but draw from the dying murderer one cry of contrition2 if she can but turn his eyes with one look of love to the crucifix1 her labours are a thousand times repaid2 for1 if she has not brought him to the head of sanctity1 she has at least brought him to its foot and set him there beneath that ladder of the supernatural which reaches from hell to heaven4 ,for she alone has this power4 ,she alone is so utterly confident in the presence of the sinner because she alone has the secret of his cure4 ,there in her confessional is the ,blood of ,christ that can make his soul clean again1 and in her ,tabernacle the ,body of ,christ that will be his food of eternal life4 ,she alone dares be his friend because she alone can be his ,saviour4 ,if1 then1 her saints are one sign of her identity1 no less are her sinners another4 ,for not only is she the ,majesty of ,god dwelling on earth1 she is also ,his ,love2 and therefore its limitations1 and they only1 are hers4 ,that ,sun of mercy that shines and that ,rain of charity that streams1 on just and unjust alike1 are the very ,sun and ,rain that give her life4 ,if ,i go up to ,heaven she is there1 enthroned in ,christ1 on the ,right ,hand of ,god2 if ,i go down to ,hell she is there also1 drawing back souls from the brink from which she alone can rescue them4 ,for she is that very ladder which ,jacob saw so long ago1 that staircase planted here in the blood and the slime of earth1 rising there into the stainless ,light of the ,lamb4 ,holiness and unholiness are both alike hers and she is ashamed of neither--the holiness of her own ,divinity which is ,christ's and the unholiness of those outcast members of her ,humanity to whom she ministers4 ,by her power1 then1 which again is ,christ's1 the ,magdalen becomes the ,penitent2 the thief the first of the redeemed2 and ,peter1 the yielding sand of humanity1 the ,rock on which ,herself is built4 ,,iv ,,joy ,,and ,,sorrow ,rejoice and be exceeding glad4444 ,blessed are they that mourn4-- ,,matt4 ,v4 #ab1 #e4 ,the ,catholic ,church1 as has been seen1 is always too extreme for the world4 ,she is content with nothing but a ,divine ,peace1 and in its cause is the occasion of bloodier wars than any waged from merely human motives4 ,she is not content with mere goodness1 but urges always ,sanctity upon her children2 yet simultaneously tolerates sinners whom even the world casts out4 ,let us consider now how1 in fulfilling these two apparently mutually contradictory precepts of our ,lord1 to rejoice and to mourn1 once more she appears to the world extravagant in both directions at once4 ,i4 ,it is a common charge against her that she rejoices too exceedingly2 is arrogant1 confident1 and optimistic where she ought to be quiet1 subdued1 and tender4 ,this world1 exclaims her critic1 is on the whole a very sad and uncertain place4 ,there is no silver lining that has not a cloud before it2 there is no hope that may not1 after all1 be disappointed4 ,any religion1 then1 that claims to be adequate to human nature must always have something of sadness and even hesitancy about it4 ,religion must walk softly all her days if she is to walk hand in hand with experience4 ,death is certain2 is life as certain8 ,the function of religion1 then1 is certainly to help to lighten this darkness1 yet not by too great a blaze of light4 ,she may hope and aspire and guess and hint2 in fact1 that is her duty4 ,but she must not proclaim and denounce and command4 ,she must be suggestive rather than exhaustive2 tender rather than virile2 hopeful rather than positive2 experimental rather than dogmatic4 ,now ,catholicism is too noisy and confident altogether4 ,see a ,catholic liturgical function on some high day6 ,was there ever anything more arrogant8 ,what has this blaze of colour1 this shouting of voices1 this blowing of trumpets to do with the soft half-lights of the world and the mystery of the darkness from which we came and to which we return8 ,what has this clearcut dogma to do with the gentle guesses of philosophy1 this optimism with the uncertainty of life and the future--above all1 what sympathy has this preposterous exultation with the misery of the world8 ,and how unlike1 too1 all this is to the spirit of the ,man of ,sorrows6 ,we read that ,jesus wept1 but never that ,he laughed4 ,his was a sad life1 from the dark stable of ,bethlehem to the darker hill of ,calvary4 ,he was what ,he was because ,he knew what sorrow meant2 it was in ,his sorrows that ,he has touched the heart of humanity4 ',blessed1' he says1 'are those that mourn4' ,blessed are they that expect nothing1 for they shall not be disappointed4 ,in another mood1 however1 our critic will find fault with our sadness4 ,why is not the religion of you ,catholics more in accord with the happy world in which we live8 ,surely the supreme function of religion is to hearten and encourage and lay stress on the bright side of life6 ,it should be brief1 bright1 and brotherly4 ,for1 after all1 this is a lovely world and full of gaiety4 ,it is true that it has its shadows1 yet there can be no shadows without a sun2 there is death1 but see how life continually springs again from the grave4 ,since all things1 therefore1 work together for good2 since ,god has taken pains to make the world so sweet1 it is but a poor compliment to the ,creator to treat it as a vale of misery4 ,let us1 then1 make the best of things and forget the worst4 ,let us leave the things that are behind and press forward to the things that are before4 ,let us insist that the world is white with a few black spots upon it1 be optimistic1 happy1 and confident4 ,you ,catholics1 however1 are but a poor-spirited1 miserable race4 ,while other denominations are1 little by little1 eliminating melancholy1 you are insisting upon it4 ,while the rest of us are agreeing that ,hell is but a bogy1 and sin a mistake1 and suffering no more than remedial1 you ,catholics are still insisting upon their reality--that ,hell is eternal1 that sin is the deliberate opposition of the human will to the ,divine1 and that suffering therefore is judicial4 ,sin1 ,penance1 ,sacrifice1 ,purgatory1 and ,hell--these are the old nightmares of dogma2 and their fruits are tears1 pain1 and terror4 ,what is wrong with ,catholicism1 then1 is its gloom and its sorrow2 for this is surely not the ,christianity of ,christ as we are now learning to understand it4 ,christ1 rightly understood1 is the ,man of joy1 not of ,grief4 ,he is more characteristic of ,himself1 so to speak1 as the smiling shepherd of ,galilee1 surrounded by ,his sheep2 as the lover of children and flowers and birds2 as the ,preacher of ,life and ,resurrection--,he is more characteristic of ,himself as crowned1 ascended1 and glorified1 than as the blood-stained martyr of the ,cross whom you set above your altars4 ,rejoice1 then1 and be exceeding glad1 and you will please ,him best4 ,once more1 then1 we appear to be in the wrong1 to whatever side we turn4 ,the happy red-faced monk with his barrel of beer is a caricature of our joy4 ,can this1 it is asked1 be a follower of the ,man of ,sorrows8 ,and the long-faced ascetic with his eyes turned up to heaven is the world's conception of our sorrow4 ,catholic joy and ,catholic sorrow are alike too ardent and extreme for a world that delights in moderation in both sorrow and joy--a little melancholy1 but not too much2 a little cheerfulness1 but not excessive4 ,,ii4 ,first1 then1 it is interesting to remember that these charges are not now being made against us for the first time4 ,in the days even of the ,roman ,empire they were thought to be signs of ,christian inhumanity4 ,these ,christians1 it was said1 must surely be bewitched4 ,see how they laugh at the rack and the whip and go to the arena as to a bridal bed6 ,see how ,lawrence jests upon his gridiron4 ,and yet again1 ,they must be bewitched1 because of their morbidity and their love of darkness1 the enemies of joy and human mirth and common pleasure4 ,in either case they are not true men at all4 ,their extravagance of joy when others would be weeping1 and their extravagance of sorrow when all the world is glad--these are the very signs to which their enemies appealed as proofs that a power other than that of this world was inspiring them1 as proofs that they could not be the simple friends of the human race that they dared to pretend4 ,it is even more interesting to remember that our ,divine ,lord ,himself calls attention to these charges4 ,the ,son of ,man comes eating and drinking4 ,the ,son of ,man sits at the wedding feast at ,cana and at meat in the rich man's house and you say1 ,behold a glutton and a winebibber6 ,the ,son of ,man comes rejoicing and you bid ,him to be sad4 ,and ,john the ,baptist came neither eating nor drinking4 ,john the ,baptist comes from the desert1 an ascetic with his camel-hair about him and words of penance and wrath in his mouth1 and you say1 ,he hath a devil4444 ,we have piped unto you and you have not danced4 ,we have played at weddings like children in a market-place1 and you have told us to be quiet and think about our sins4 ,we have mourned unto you1 we have asked you to play at funerals instead1 and you have told us that it was morbid to think about death4 ,we have mourned and you would not lament4 ,,iii4 ,the fact is1 of course1 that both joy and sorrow must be an element in all religion1 since joy and sorrow together make up experience4 ,the world is neither white with black spots nor black with white spots2 it is black and white4 ,it is quite as true that autumn follows summer as that spring follows winter4 ,it is no less true that life arises out of death than that death follows life4 ,religion then cannot1 if it is to be adequate to experience1 be a passionless thing4 ,on the contrary it must be passionate1 since human nature is passionate too2 and it must be a great deal more passionate4 ,it must not moderate grief1 but deepen it2 not banish joy1 but exalt it4 ,it must weep--and bitterer tears than any that the world can shed--with them that weep2 and rejoice too--with a joy which no man can take away--with them that rejoice4 ,it must sink deeper and rise higher1 it must feel more acutely1 it must agonize and triumph more abundantly1 if it truly comes from ,god and is to minister to men1 since ,his thoughts are higher than ours and ,his ,love more burning4 ,for so did ,christ live on earth4 ,at one hour ,he rejoiced greatly in spirit so that those that watched ,him were astonished2 at another ,he sweated blood for anguish4 ,in one hour ,he is exalted high on the blazing ,mount of ,transfiguration2 in another ,he is plunged deeper than any human heart can fathom in the low-lying garden of ,gethsemane4 ,behold and see if there be any sorrow like to ,my ,sorrow4 ,,iii4 ,for1 again1 the ,church1 like her ,lord1 is both ,divine and ,human4 ,she is ,divine and therefore she rejoices--so filled with the ,new ,wine of the ,kingdom of her ,father that men stare at her in contempt4 ,it is true enough that the world is unhappy2 that hearts are broken2 that families1 countries1 and centuries are laid waste by sin4 ,yet since the ,church is ,divine1 she knows1 not merely guesses or hopes or desires1 but knows1 that although all things come to an end1 ,god's commandment is exceeding broad4 ,years ago1 she knows--and therefore not all the criticism in the world can shake her--that her ,lord came down from heaven1 was born1 died1 rose1 and ascended1 and that ,he reigns in unconquerable power4 ,she knows that ,he will return again and take the kingdom and reign2 she knows1 because she is ,divine1 that in every tabernacle of hers on earth the ,lord of joy lies hidden2 that ,mary intercedes2 that the saints are with ,god2 that the ,blood of ,jesus ,christ cleanseth from all sin4 ,look round her earthly buildings1 then1 and there are the symbols and images of these things4 ,there is the merry light before her altar2 there are the saints stiff with gold and gems2 there is ,mary1 ,cause of our ,joy1 radiant1 with her radiant ,child in her arms4 ,if she were but human1 she would dare but to shadow these things forth--shadows of her own desires2 she would whisper her creed2 murmur her prayers2 darken her windows4 ,but she is ,divine and has herself come down from heaven2 so she does not guess1 or think1 or hope--she knows4 ,but she is human too and dwells in the midst of a human race that does not know and therefore will not wholly take her at her word1 and the very height of her exaltation must also be1 then1 the measure of her despair4 ,the fact that she knows so certainly intensifies a thousandfold her human sorrow1 as she1 who has come that they may have life1 sees how they will not come to her and find it1 as she sees how long the triumph which is certain is yet delayed through their faithlessness4 ,if thou hadst known1 she cries in the heart-broken words of ,jesus ,himself over ,jerusalem1 if thou hadst but known the things that belong to thy peace6 ,behold and see1 then1 if there be any sorrow like to mine1 if there be any grief so profound and so piercing as mine1 who hold the ,keys of ,heaven and watch men turn away from the ,door4 ,so1 then1 in church after church stand symbolic groups of statuary1 representing joy and tragedy1 compared with which ,venus and ,adonis are but childish and half-civilized images--,mary as triumphant ,queen1 with the gold-crowned ,child in her arms1 and ,mary the tormented ,mother1 with her dead ,son across her knees4 ,for she who is both ,divine and ,human alone understands what it is that ,humanity has done to ,divinity4 ,is it any wonder1 then1 that the world thinks her extravagant in both directions at once2 that the world turns away on ,good ,friday from the unutterable depths of her sorrow1 and on ,easter ,day from the unscalable heights of her joy1 calling the one morbid and the other hysterical8 ,for what does the world know of such passions as these8 ,what1 after all1 can the sensualist know of joy1 or the ruined financier of sorrow8 ,and what can the moderate1 self-controlled1 self-respecting man of the world know of either8 ,lastly1 then1 in the ,paradox of ,love1 the ,church holds both these passions1 at full blast1 both at once4 ,as human love turns joy into pain and suffers in the midst of ecstasy1 so ,divine ,love turns pain into joy and exults and reigns upon the ,cross4 ,for the ,church is more than the ,majesty of ,god reigning on earth1 more than the passionless love of the ,eternal2 she is the ,very ,sacred ,heart of ,christ ,himself1 the ,eternal united with ,man1 and both suffering and rejoicing through that union4 ,it is ,his bliss which she at once experiences and extends1 in virtue of her identity with ,him2 and in the midst of a fallen world it is the supremest bliss of that ,sacred ,heart to suffer pain4 ,v ,,love ,,of ,,god ,,and ,,love ,,of ,,man ,thou shalt love the ,lord thy ,god with thy whole heart 444 and thy neighbour as thyself4--,,luke x4 #bg4 ,we have already considered two charges brought against ,catholicism from opposite quarters2 namely1 that we are too worldly and too otherworldly1 too much busied with temporal concerns to be truly spiritual1 and too metaphysical and remote and dogmatic to be truly practical4 ,let us go on to consider these same two charges produced1 so to speak1 a little further into a more definitely spiritual plane2 charges that now accuse us of too great activities in our ministry to men and too many attentions paid to ,god4 ,i4 7i7 ,it is a very common complaint against ,catholics1 laymen as well as clergy1 that they are overzealous in their attempts to proselytize4 ,true and spiritual religion1 we are told1 is as intimate and personal an affair as the love between husband and wife2 it is essentially private and individual4 ,the religion of all sensible men1 it has been said1 is precisely that which they always keep to themselves4 ,tolerance1 therefore1 is a mark of spirituality1 for if ,i am truly religious ,i shall have as much respect for the religion of my neighbour as for my own4 ,i shall no more seek to interfere in his relations with ,god than ,i shall allow him to interfere with mine4 ,now ,catholics are notoriously intolerant4 ,it is not merely that there are intolerant ,catholics1 for intolerance is of course to be found in all narrow-minded persons1 but it is ,catholic principles themselves that are intolerant2 and every ,catholic who lives up to them is bound to be so also4 ,and we can see this illustrated every day4 ,first1 there is the matter of ,catholic missions to the heathen4 ,there are no missionaries1 we are told1 so untiring and so devoted as those of the ,church4 ,their zeal1 of course1 is a proof of their sincerity2 but it is also a proof of their intolerance3 for why1 after all1 cannot they leave the heathen alone1 since religion is1 in its essence1 a private and individual matter8 ,beautiful pictures1 accordingly1 are suggested to us of the domestic peace and happiness reigning amongst the tribes of ,central ,africa until the arrival of the ,preaching ,friar with his destructive dogmas4 ,we are bidden to observe the high doctrines and the ascetic life of the ,brahmin1 the significant symbolism of the ,hindu1 and the philosophical attitudes of the ,confucian4 ,all these various relationships to ,god are1 we are informed1 entirely the private affairs of those who live by them2 and if ,catholics were truly spiritual they would understand that this was so and not seek to supplant by a system which is now1 at any rate1 become an essentially ,european way of looking at things1 these ancient creeds and philosophies that are far better suited to the ,oriental temperament4 ,but the matter is worse1 even1 than this4 ,it may conceivably be argued1 says the modern man of the world1 that after all those ,oriental religions have not developed such virtues and graces as has ,christianity4 ,it may perhaps be argued that in time the religion of the ,west1 if missionaries will persevere1 will raise the ,hindu higher than his own obscenities have succeeded in doing1 and that the civilization produced by ,christianity is actually of a higher type1 in spite of its evil by-products1 than that of the head-hunters of ,borneo and the bloody savages of ,africa4 ,but at any rate there is no excuse whatever for the intolerant ,catholic proselytizer in ,english homes4 ,for1 roughly speaking1 it is only the ,catholic whom you cannot trust in your own home circle2 sooner or later you will find him1 if he at all lives up to his principles1 insinuating the praises of his own faith and the weaknesses of your own2 your sons and daughters he considers to be fair game2 he thinks nothing of your domestic peace in comparison with the propagation of his own tenets4 ,he is characterized1 first and last1 by that dogmatic and intolerant spirit that is the exact contrary of all that the modern world deems to be the spirit of true ,christianity4 ,true ,christianity1 then1 as has been said1 is essentially a private1 personal1 and individual matter between each soul and her ,god4 7ii7 ,the second charge brought against ,catholics is that they make religion far too personal1 too private1 and too intimate for it to be considered the religion of ,jesus ,christ4 ,and this is illustrated by the supreme value which the ,church places upon what is known as the ,contemplative ,life4 ,for if there is one element in ,catholicism that the man-in-the-street especially selects for reprobation it is the life of the ,enclosed ,religious4 ,it is supposed to be selfish1 morbid1 introspective1 unreal2 it is set in violent dramatic contrast with the ministerial ,life of ,jesus ,christ4 ,a quantity of familiar eloquence is solemnly poured out upon it as if nothing of the kind had ever been said before3 it is said that a man cannot get away from the world by shutting himself up in a monastery2 that a man should not think about his own soul so much1 but rather of what good he can do in the world in which ,god has placed him2 that four whitewashed walls are not the proper environment for a philanthropic ,christian4 ,and yet1 after all1 what is the ,contemplative ,life except precisely that which the world just now recommended8 ,and could religion possibly be made a more intimate1 private1 and personal matter between the soul and ,god than the ,carthusian or ,carmelite makes it8 ,the fact is1 of course1 that ,catholics are wrong whatever they do--too extreme in everything which they undertake4 ,they are too active and not retired enough in their proselytism2 too retired and not active enough in their ,contemplation4 ,,ii4 ,now the ,life of our ,divine ,lord exhibits1 of course1 both the ,active and the ,contemplative elements that have always distinguished the ,life of ,his ,church4 ,for three years ,he set ,himself to the work of preaching ,his ,revelation and establishing the ,church that was to be its organ through all the centuries4 ,he went about1 therefore1 freely and swiftly1 now in town1 now in country4 ,he laid down ,his ,divine principles and presented ,his ,divine credentials1 at marriage feasts1 in market-places1 in country roads1 in crowded streets1 and in private houses4 ,he wrought the works of mercy1 spiritual and corporal1 that were to be the types of all works of mercy ever afterwards4 ,he gave spiritual and ascetic teaching on the ,mount of ,beatitudes1 dogmatic instructions in ,capharnaum and the wilderness to the east of ,galilee1 and mystical discourses in the ,upper ,chamber of ,jerusalem and the temple courts4 ,his activities and ,his proselytisms were unbounded4 ,he broke up domestic circles and the routine of offices4 ,he called the young man from his estates and ,matthew from custom-house and ,james and ,john from their father's fishing business4 ,he made a final demonstration of ,his unlimited claim on humanity in ,his ,procession on ,palm ,sunday1 and on ,ascension ,day ratified and commissioned the proselytizing activities of ,his ,church for ever in ,his tremendous charge to the ,apostolic band4 ,going1 therefore1 teach ye all nations 444 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever ,i have commanded you2 and behold ,i am with you all the days1 even to the consummation of the world4 ,yet this1 it must be remembered1 was not only not the whole of ,his ,life on earth1 it was not even a very considerable part of it1 if reckoned by years4 ,for three years ,he was active1 but for thirty ,he was retired in the house of ,nazareth2 and even those three years are again and again broken by retirement4 ,he is now in the wilderness for forty days1 now on the mountain all night in prayer1 now bidding ,his disciples come apart and rest themselves4 ,the very climax of ,his ministry too was wrought in silence and solitude4 ,he removed ,himself about a stone's throw in the garden of ,gethsemane from those who loved ,him best2 ,he broke ,his silence on the ,cross to bid farewell even to ,his holy ,mother herself4 ,above all1 he explicitly and emphatically commended the ,life of ,contemplative ,prayer as the highest that can be lived on earth1 telling ,martha that activity1 even in the most necessary duties1 was not after all the best use to which time and love could be put1 but rather that ,mary had chosen the best part 444 the one thing that is necessary1 and that it shall not be taken away from her even by a sister's loving zeal4 ,finally1 fault was found with ,jesus ,christ1 as with ,his ,church1 on precisely these two points4 ,when ,he was living the life of retirement in the country ,he was rebuked that ,he did not go up to the feast and state ,his claims plainly--justify1 that is1 by activity1 ,his pretensions to the ,messiahship2 and when ,he did so1 ,he was entreated to bid his acclaimants to hold their peace--to justify1 that is1 by humility and retirement1 ,his pretensions to spirituality4 ,,iii4 ,the reconciliation1 therefore1 of these two elements in the ,catholic system is very easy to find4 7i7 ,first1 it is the ,church's ,divinity that accounts for her passion for ,god4 ,to her as to none else on earth is the very face of ,god revealed as the ,absolute and ,final ,beauty that lies beyond the limits of all ,creation4 ,she in her ,divinity enjoys it may be said1 even in her sojourn on earth1 that very ,beatific ,vision that enraptured always the ,sacred ,humanity of ,jesus ,christ4 ,with all the company of heaven then1 with ,mary ,immaculate1 with the ,seraphim and with the glorified saints of ,god1 she endures1 seeing ,him ,who is invisible4 ,even while the eyes of her humanity are held1 while her human members walk by faith and not by sight1 she1 in her ,divinity1 which is the guaranteed ,presence of ,jesus ,christ in her midst1 already dwells in heavenly places and is already come to ,mount ,zion and the ,city of the living ,god and to ,god ,himself1 ,who is the ,light in which all fair things are seen to be fair4 ,is it any wonder then that1 now and again1 some chosen child of hers catches a mirrored glimpse of what she herself beholds with unveiled face2 that some ,catholic soul1 now and again1 chosen and called by ,god to this amazing privilege1 should suddenly perceive1 as never before1 that ,god is the one and only ,absolute ,beauty1 and that1 compared with the contemplation of this ,beauty--which contemplation is1 after all1 the final life of ,eternity to which every redeemed soul shall come--all the activities of earthly life are nothing2 and that1 in her passion for this adorable ,god1 she should run into a secret room and shut the door and pray to her ,father ,who is in secret1 and so remain praying1 a hidden channel of life to the whole of that ,body of which she is a member1 an intercessor for the whole of that ,society of which she is one unit8 ,there in silence1 then1 she sits at ,jesus' feet and listens to the ,voice which is as the sound of many waters2 in the whiteness of her cell watches ,him ,whose ,face is as a ,flame of ,fire1 and in austerity and fasting tastes and finds that the ,lord is gracious4 ,of course this is but madness and folly to those who know ,god only in ,his ,creation1 who imagine ,him merely as the ,soul of the ,world and the ,vitality of ,created ,life4 ,to such as these earth is ,his highest ,heaven and the beauty of the world the noblest vision that can be conceived4 ,yet to that soul that is ,catholic1 who understands that the ,eternal ,throne is indeed above the stars and that the ,transcendence of ,god is as fully a truth as ,his ,immanence--that ,god in ,himself1 apart from all that ,he has made1 is all-fair and all-sufficient in ,his own ,beauty--to such a soul as this1 if called to such a life1 there is no need that the ,church should declare explicitly that the ,contemplative ,life is the highest4 ,she knows it already4 7ii7 ,the ,first ,great ,commandment of the ,law1 then1 is inevitably followed by the ,second1 and the ,catholic interpretation of the ,second is thought by the world1 which understands neither1 to be as extravagant as her interpretation of the ,first4 ,for this ,divine ,church that knows ,god is also a ,human ,society that dwells among men1 and since she in herself unites ,divinity and ,humanity1 she cannot rest until she has united them everywhere else4 ,for1 as she turns her eyes from ,god to men1 she sees there immortal souls1 made in the image of ,god and made for ,him and ,him alone1 seeking to satisfy themselves with ,creation instead of with the ,creator4 ,she hears how the world preaches the sanctity of the temperament1 and the holiness of the individual point of view1 as if there were no ,transcendent ,god at all and no objective external ,revelation ever made by ,him4 ,she sees how men1 instead of seeking to conform themselves to ,god's ,revelation of ,himself1 attempt rather to conform such fragments of that ,revelation as have reached them to their own points of view2 she listens to talk about aspects of truth and schools of thought and the values of experience as if ,god had never spoken either in the thunders of ,sinai or the still voice of ,galilee4 ,is it any wonder1 then1 that her ,proselytism appears to such a world as extravagant as her ,contemplation1 her passion for men as unreasonable as her passion for ,god1 when that world sees her bring herself from her cloisters and her secret places to proclaim as with a trumpet those demands of ,god which ,he has made known1 those ,laws which ,he has promulgated1 and those rewards which ,he has promised8 ,for how can she do otherwise who has looked on the all-glorious ,face of ,god and then on the vacant and complacent faces of men--she who knows ,god's infinite capacity for satisfying men and men's all but infinite incapacity for seeking ,god--when she sees some poor soul shutting herself up indeed within the deadly and chilly walls of her own temperament and individual point of view1 when earth and heaven and the ,lord of them both is waiting for her outside8 ,the ,church1 then1 is too much interested in men and too much absorbed in ,god4 ,of course she is too much interested and too much absorbed1 for she alone knows the value and capacity of both2 she who is herself both ,divine and ,human4 ,for ,religion1 to her1 is not an elegant accomplishment or a graceful philosophy or a pleasing scheme of conjectures4 ,it is the fiery bond between ,god and man1 neither of whom can be satisfied without the other1 the ,one in virtue of ,his ,love and the other in virtue of his createdness4 ,she alone1 then1 understands and reconciles the tremendous ,paradox of the ,law that is ,old as well as ,new4 ,thou shalt love the ,lord thy ,god with thy whole heart 444 and thy neighbour as thyself 4 ,,vi ,,faith ,,and ,,reason ,whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of ,god as a little child shall not enter into it4--,,mark ,x4 #ae4 ,some things hard to be understood1 which the unlearned and the unstable wrest1 as also the other ,scriptures1 to their own perdition4-- ,,ii ,,pet4 ,,iii4 #af4 ,there are two great gifts1 or faculties1 by which men attain to truth3 faith and reason4 ,from these two sides1 therefore1 come two more assaults upon the ,catholic position1 a position which itself faces in both these directions4 ,on the one side we are told that we believe too simply1 on the other that we do not believe simply enough2 on the one side that we reason too little1 on the other that we do not reason enough4 ,let us set out these attacks in order4 ,i4 7i7 ,you ,catholics1 says one critic1 are far too credulous in matters of religion4 ,you believe1 not as reasonable men believe1 because you have verified or experienced the truths you profess1 but simply because these dogmas are presented to you by the ,church4 ,if reason and common-sense are gifts of ,god and intended for use1 surely it is very strange to silence them in your search for the supreme truth4 ,faith1 of course1 has its place1 but it must not be blind faith4 ,reason must test1 verify1 and interpret1 or faith is mere credulity4 ,consider1 for example1 the words of ,christ1 ,this is ,my ,body4 ,now the words as they stand may certainly be supposed to mean what you say they mean2 yet1 interpreted by ,reason1 they cannot possibly mean anything of the kind4 ,did not ,christ ,himself sit in bodily form at the table as ,he spoke them8 ,how then could ,he hold ,himself in ,his hand8 ,did ,he not speak in metaphors and images continually8 ,did ,he not call ,himself a ,door and a ,vine8 ,using ,reason1 then1 to interpret these words1 it is evident that ,he meant no more than that ,he was instituting a memorial feast1 in which the bread should symbolize ,his ,body and the wine ,his ,blood4 ,so too with many other distinctively ,catholic doctrines--with the ,petrine claims1 with the authority 'to bind and loose1' and the rest4 ,catholic belief on these points exhibits not faith properly so-called--that is1 ,faith tested by ,reason--but mere credulity4 ,god gave us all ,reason6 ,then in ,his ,name let us use it6 7ii7 ,from the other side comes precisely the opposite charge4 ,you ,catholics1 cries the other critic1 are far too argumentative and deductive and logical in your ,faith4 ,true ,religion is a very simple thing2 it is the attitude of a child who trusts and does not question4 ,but with you ,catholics ,religion has degenerated into ,theology4 ,jesus ,christ did not write a ,summa2 ,he made a few plain statements which comprise1 as they stand1 the whole ,christian ,religion2 they are full of mystery1 no doubt1 but it is ,he who left them mysterious4 ,why1 then1 should your theologians seek to penetrate into regions which ,he did not reveal and to elaborate what ,he left unelaborated8 ,take1 for example1 ,christ's words1 ,this is ,my ,body4 ,now of course these words are mysterious1 and if ,christ had meant that they should be otherwise1 ,he would ,himself have given the necessary comment upon them4 ,yet ,he did not2 ,he left them in an awful and deep simplicity into which no human logic ought even to seek to penetrate4 ,yet see the vast and complicated theology that the traditions have either piled upon them or attempted to extract out of them2 the philosophical theories by which it has been sought to elucidate them2 the intricate and wide-reaching devotions that have been founded upon them6 ,what have words like ',transubstantiation' and ',concomitance1' devotions like ',benediction1' gatherings like ,eucharistic ,congresses to do with the august simplicity of ,christ's own institution8 ,you ,catholics argue too much--deduce1 syllogize1 and explain--until the simple splendour of ,christ's mysterious act is altogether overlaid and hidden4 ,be more simple6 ,it is better to 'love ,god than to discourse learnedly about the ,blessed ,trinity4' ,it has not pleased ,god to save ,his people through dialectics4 ,believe more1 argue less6 ,once more1 then1 the double charge is brought4 ,we believe1 it seems1 where we ought to reason4 ,we reason where we ought to believe4 ,we believe too blindly and not blindly enough4 ,we reason too closely and not closely enough4 ,here1 then1 is a vast subject--the relations of ,faith and ,reason and the place of each in man's attitude towards ,truth4 ,it is1 of course1 possible only to glance at these things in outline4 ,,ii4 ,first1 let us consider1 as a kind of illustration1 the relations of these things in ordinary human science4 ,neither ,faith nor ,reason will1 of course1 be precisely the same as in supernatural matters2 yet there will be a sufficient parallel for our purpose4 ,a scientist1 let us say1 proposes to make observations upon the structure of a fly's leg4 ,he catches his fly1 dissects1 prepares1 places it in his microscope1 observes1 and records4 ,now here1 it would seem1 is ,pure ,science at its purest and ,reason in its most reasonable aspect4 ,yet the acts of faith in this very simple process are1 if we consider closely1 simply numberless4 ,the scientist must make acts of faith1 certainly reasonable acts1 yet none the less of faith1 for all that3 first1 that his fly is not a freak of nature2 next1 that his lens is symmetrically ground2 then that his observation is adequate2 then that his memory has not played him false between his observing and his recording that which he has seen4 ,these acts are so reasonable that we forget that they are acts of faith4 ,they are justified by reason before they are made1 and they are usually1 though not invariably1 verified by ,reason afterwards4 ,yet they are1 in their essence1 ,faith and not ,reason4 ,so1 too1 when a child learns a foreign language4 ,reason justifies him in making one act of faith that his teacher is competent1 another that his grammar is correct1 a third that he hears and sees and understands correctly the information given him1 a fourth that such a language actually exists4 ,and when he visits ,france afterwards he can1 within limits1 again verify by his reason the acts of faith which he has previously made4 ,yet none the less they were acts of faith1 though they were reasonable4 ,in a word1 then1 no acquirement of or progress in any branch of human knowledge is possible without the exercise of faith4 ,i cannot walk downstairs in the dark without at least as many acts of faith as there are steps in the staircase4 ,society could not hold together another day if mutual faith were wholly wanting among its units4 ,certainly we use reason first to justify our faith1 and we reason later to verify it4 ,yet none the less the middle step is faith4 ,columbus reasoned first that there must be a land beyond the ,atlantic1 and he used that same reason later to verify his discovery4 ,yet without a sublime act of faith between these processes1 without that almost reckless moment in which he first weighed anchor from ,europe1 reason would never have gone beyond speculative theorizing4 ,faith made real for him what ,reason suggested4 ,faith actually accomplished that of which ,reason could only dream4 ,,iii4 ,turn now to the coming of ,jesus ,christ on earth4 ,he came1 as we know now1 a ,divine ,teacher from heaven to make a ,revelation from ,god2 ,he came1 that is1 to demand from men a sublime ,act of ,faith in ,himself4 ,for ,he ,himself was ,incarnate ,wisdom1 and ,he demanded1 therefore1 as none else can demand it1 a supreme acceptance of ,his claim4 ,no progress in ,divine knowledge1 as ,he ,himself tells us1 is possible1 then1 without this initial act4 ,whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of ,god as a little child shall not enter into it4 ,every soul that is to receive this teaching in its entirety must first accept the ,teacher and sit at ,his feet4 ,yet ,he did not make this claim merely on ,his own unsupported word4 ,he presented ,his credentials1 so to say2 ,he fulfilled prophecy2 ,he wrought miracles2 ,he satisfied the moral sense4 ,believe ,me1 ,he says1 for the very works' sake4 ,before1 then1 demanding the fundamental act of ,faith on which the reception of ,revelation must depend1 ,he took pains to make this ,act of ,faith reasonable4 ,you see what ,i do1 ,he said in effect1 you have observed ,my life1 ,my words1 ,my actions4 ,now is it not in accordance with ,reason that you should grant ,my claims8 ,can you explain away1 reasonably1 on any other grounds than those which ,i state1 the phenomena of ,my life8 ,certainly1 then1 ,he appealed to ,reason2 ,he appealed to ,private ,judgment1 since that1 up to that moment1 was all that ,his hearers possessed4 ,but1 in demanding an ,act of ,faith1 ,he appealed to ,private ,judgment to set itself aside2 ,he appealed to ,reason as to whether it were not ,reasonable to stand aside for the moment and let ,faith take its place4 ,and we know how ,his disciples responded4 ,whom do you say that ,i am8444 ,thou art the ,christ1 the ,son of the ,living ,god4 ,at that instant1 then1 a new stage was begun4 ,they had used their ,reason and their ,private ,judgment1 and1 aided by ,his grace1 had concluded that the next reasonable step was that of ,faith4 ,up to that point they had observed1 dissected1 criticized1 and analyzed ,his words2 they had examined1 that is1 ,his credentials4 ,and now it was ,reason itself that urged them towards ,faith1 ,reason that abdicated what had hitherto been1 its right and its duty1 that ,faith might assume her proper place4 ,henceforth1 then1 their attitude must be a different one4 ,up to now they had used their ,reason to examine ,his claim2 now it was ,faith1 aided and urged by ,reason1 which accepted it4 ,yet even now ,reason's work is not done1 though its scope in future is changed4 ,reason no longer examines whether ,he be ,god2 ,faith has accepted it3 yet ,reason has to be as active as ever2 for ,reason now must begin with all its might the task of understanding ,his ,revelation4 ,faith has given them1 so to speak1 casket after casket of jewels2 every word that ,jesus ,christ henceforth speaks to them is a very mine of treasure1 absolutely true since ,he is known to be a ,divine ,teacher ,who has given it4 ,and ,reason now begins her new work1 not of justifying ,faith1 but1 so to say1 of interpreting it2 not of examining ,his claims1 since these have been once for all accepted1 but of examining1 understanding1 and assimilating all that ,he reveals4 ,,iii4 ,turn now to ,catholicism4 ,it is the ,catholic ,church1 and the ,catholic ,church only1 that acts as did ,jesus ,christ and offers an adequate object to ,reason and ,faith alike4 ,for1 first1 it is evident that if ,christ intended ,his ,revelation to last through all time1 ,he must have designed a means by which it should last1 an ,authority that should declare and preserve it as ,he ,himself delivered it4 ,and next1 it is evident that since the ,catholic ,church alone even claims that prerogative1 clearly and coherently1 her right to represent that ,authority is in proportion to the clearness and coherence of her claim4 ,or1 again1 she advances in support of that claim precisely those same credentials as did ,he3 she points to her miracles1 her achievements1 the fulfilment of prophecy1 the unity of her teaching1 the appeal to men's moral sense--all of them appeals to ,reason1 and appeals which lead up1 as did ,his1 to the supreme claim1 which ,he also made1 to demand an ,act of ,faith in herself as a ,divine ,teacher4 ,for she alone demands it4 ,other denominations of ,christendom point to a ,book1 or to the writings of ,fathers1 or to the example of their members1 and she too does these things4 ,but it is she alone who appeals to these things not as final in themselves1 not as constituting in themselves a final court of appeal1 but as indicating as that court of appeal her own ,living ,voice4 ,believe me1 for the works' sake1 she too says4 ,use your reason to the full to examine my credentials2 study prophecy1 history1 the ,fathers--study my claims in any realm in which your intellect is competent--and then see if it is not after all supremely reasonable for ,reason to abdicate that particular throne on which she has sat so long and to seat ,faith there instead8 ,certainly follow your ,reason and use your private judgment1 for at present you have no other guide2 and then1 please ,god1 aided by ,faith1 ,reason will itself bow before ,faith1 and take her own place henceforth1 not on the throne1 but on the steps that lead to it4 ,is ,reason1 then1 to be silent henceforth8 ,why1 the whole of theology gives the answer4 ,did ,newman cease to think when he became a ,catholic8 ,did ,thomas ,aquinas resign his intellect when he devoted himself to study8 ,not for one instant is ,reason silent4 ,on the contrary1 she is active as never before4 ,certainly she is no longer occupied in examining as to whether the ,church is divine1 but instead she is busied1 with incredible labours1 in examining what follows from that fact1 in sorting the new treasures that are opened to her with the dawn of ,revelation upon her eyes1 in arranging1 deducting1 and understanding the details and structure of the astonishing ,vision of ,truth4 ,and more1 she is as inviolate as ever4 ,for never can there be presented to her one article of ,faith that gives the lie to her own nature1 since ,revelation and ,reason cannot contradict one the other4 ,she has learned1 indeed1 that the mysteries of ,god often transcend her powers1 that she cannot fathom the infinite with the finite2 yet never for one moment is she bidden to evacuate her own position or believe that which she perceives to be untrue4 ,she has learned her limitations1 and with that has come to understand her inviolable rights4 ,see1 then1 how the features of ,christ look out through the lineaments of ,his ,church4 ,she alone dares to claim an act of ,divine ,faith in herself1 since it is ,he ,who speaks in her ,voice4 ,she alone1 since she is ,divine1 bids the wisest men become as little children at her feet and endows little children with the wisdom of the ancients4 ,yet1 on the other hand1 in her magnificent ,humanity1 she has produced through the exercise of illuminated human ,reason such a wealth of theology as the world has never seen4 ,is it any wonder that the world thinks both her ,faith and ,reason alike too extreme8 ,for her ,faith rises from her ,divinity and her ,reason from her ,humanity2 and such an outpouring of ,divinity and such an emphatic ,humanity1 such a superb confidence in ,god's revelation and such untiring labours upon the contents of that ,revelation1 are altogether beyond the imagination of a world that in reality1 fears both ,faith and ,reason alike4 ,at her feet1 and hers only1 then1 do the wisest and the simple kneel together--,st4 ,thomas and the child1 ,st4 ,augustine and the charcoal burner2 as diverse1 in their humanity1 as men can be2 as united in the light of ,divinity as only those can be who have found it4 ,so1 then1 she goes forward to victory4 ,first use your reason1 she cries to the world1 to see whether ,i be not ,divine6 ,then1 impelled by ,reason and aided by ,grace1 rise to ,faith4 ,then once more call up your ,reason1 to verify and understand those mysteries which you accept as true4 ,and so1 little by little1 vistas of truth will open about you and doctrines glow with an undreamed-of light4 ,so ,faith will be interpreted by ,reason and ,reason hold up the hands of ,faith1 until you come indeed to the unveiled vision of the ,truth whose feet already you grasp in love and adoration2 until you see1 face to face in ,heaven1 ,him ,who is at once the ,giver of ,reason and the ,author of ,faith4 ,,vii ,,authority ,,and ,,liberty ,the truth shall make you free4--,,john ,,viii4 #cb4 ,bringing into captivity every understanding to the obedience of ,christ4--,,ii ,,cor4 ,x4 #e4 ,we have already considered in outline the relations between ,faith and ,reason2 how each1 in its own province1 is supreme and how each1 in its turn1 supports and ratifies the other4 ,we pass on to a development of that theme1 springing almost immediately out of it1 namely1 the relations between ,authority and ,liberty4 ,and we will begin that consideration1 as before1 as it is illustrated by the accusations of the world against the ,church4 ,briefly they are stated as follows4 ,i4 ,freedom1 we are told1 is the note of ,christianity as laid down in the ,gospels1 in both discipline and doctrine4 ,jesus ,christ came into the world largely for this very purpose1 to substitute the ,new ,law for the ,old and thereby to free men from the complicated theology and the minutia of religious routine which characterized men's attempts to reduce that ,old ,law to practice4 ,the ,old ,law may or may not have been perfectly adapted1 when first it was given1 to the needs of ,god's people in the early stages of ,jewish civilization2 but at any rate it is certain1 from a hundred texts in the ,gospel1 that ,jesus ,christ in ,his day found it an intolerable slavery laid upon the religious life of the people4 ,theology had degenerated into an incredible hair-splitting system of dogma1 and discipline had degenerated into a multitude of irritating observances4 ,jesus ,christ1 then1 in the place of all this1 preached a ,creed that was essentially simple1 and simultaneously substituted for the elaborate ceremonialism of the ,pharisees the spirit of liberty4 ,the dogma that ,he preached was little more than that ,god is the ,father of all and that all men therefore are brothers2 discipline in the ordinary sense of the word is practically absent from the ,gospel1 and as for ceremonial there is none1 except such as is necessary for the performance of the two extremely simple rites that ,he instituted1 ,baptism and the ,lord's ,supper4 ,now this supposed spirit of liberty1 we are informed1 is to-day to be found only in ,protestantism4 ,in that system1 if it can strictly be called one1 and in that system only1 may a man exercise that freedom which was secured to him by ,jesus ,christ4 ,first1 in doctrine1 he may choose1 weigh1 and examine for himself1 within the wide limits which alone ,christ laid down1 those doctrines or hopes which commend themselves to his intellect2 and next1 in matters of discipline1 again1 he may choose for himself those ways of life and action that he may find helpful to his spiritual development4 ,he may worship1 for example1 in any church that he prefers1 attend those services and those only which commend themselves to his taste2 he may eat or not eat this or that food1 as he likes1 and order his day1 generally1 as it pleases him4 ,and all this1 we are informed1 is of the very spirit of ,new ,testament ,christianity4 ,the ,truth has made him free1 as ,christ ,himself promised4 ,the ,catholic ,church1 on the other hand1 is essentially a ,church of slavery4 ,first1 in discipline1 an enormous weight of observances and duties is laid upon her children1 comparable only to the ,pharisaic system4 ,the ,catholic must worship in this church and not in that1 in this manner and not in the other4 ,he must observe places and days and times1 and that not only in religious matters but in secular4 ,he must eat this food on this day and that on the other2 he must frequent the sacraments at specified periods2 he must perform certain actions and refrain from others1 and that in matters in themselves indifferent4 ,in dogma1 too1 no less is the burden that he must bear4 ,not only are the simple words of ,christ developed into a vast theological system by the ,church's officials1 but the whole of this system is laid1 as of faith1 down to its minutest details1 on the shoulders of the unhappy believer4 ,he may not choose between this or that theory of the mode of ,christ's ,presence in the ,eucharist2 he must accept precisely that1 and no other1 which his ,church has elaborated4 ,in fact1 in doctrine and in discipline alike1 the ,church has gone back to precisely that old reign of tyranny which ,christ abolished4 ,the ,catholic1 unlike the ,protestant who has retained the spirit of liberty1 finds himself in the same case as that under which ,israel itself once groaned4 ,he is a slave and not a child2 he binds his own limbs1 as the old phrase says1 by his act of faith and puts the other end of the chain into the hands of the priest4 ,such1 in outline1 is the charge against us4 99 99 99 99 99 ,now much of it is so false that it needs no refutation4 ,it is1 for example1 entirely false that ,new ,testament theology is simple4 ,it is far more true to say that1 compared with the systematized theology of the ,church1 it is bewilderingly complex and puzzling1 and how complex and puzzling it is1 is indicated by the hundreds of creeds which ,protestants have made out of it1 each creed claiming1 respectively1 to be its one and only proper interpretation4 ,men have only come to think it simple in modern days by desperately eliminating from it every element on which all ,protestants are not agreed4 ,the residuum is indeed simple4 ,only it is not the ,new ,testament theology6 ,dogmas such as that of the ,blessed ,trinity1 of the ,procession of the ,holy ,ghost1 of the nature of grace and of sin--these1 whether as held by orthodox or unorthodox1 are at any rate not simple1 and it is merely untrue to say that ,christ made no statements on these points1 however they may be understood4 ,further1 it is merely untrue to say that ,protestant theology is simple2 it is every whit as elaborate as ,catholic theology and considerably more complex in those points in which ,protestant divines are not agreed4 ,the controversies on ,justification in which such men as ,calvin and ,luther1 with their disciples1 continually engaged are fully as complicated as any disputations on ,grace between ,jesuits and ,dominicans4 ,yet the general contention is plain enough--that on the whole the ,catholic is bound to believe a certain set of dogmas1 while the ,protestant is free to accept or reject them4 ,therefore1 it is argued1 the ,protestant is free and the ,catholic is not4 ,and this brings us straight to the consideration of the relations between ,authority and ,liberty4 ,,ii4 ,what1 then1 is ,religious ,liberty8 ,it is necessary to begin by forming some idea as to what it is that is meant by the word in other than religious matters4 ,very briefly it may be said that an individual enjoys social liberty when he is able to obey and to use the laws and powers of his true nature1 and that a community enjoys it when all its members are able to do so without interfering unduly one with the other4 ,the more complete is this ability1 the more perfect is ,liberty4 ,a remarkable paradox at once presents itself--that ,liberty can only be secured by ,laws4 ,where there are no laws1 or too few1 to secure it1 slavery immediately appears1 no less surely than when there are too many2 for the stronger individuals are1 by the absence of law1 enabled to tyrannize over the weaker4 ,even the vast and complex legislation of our own days is designed to increase and not to fetter liberty1 and its greater complexity is necessitated by the greater complexity and the more numerous interrelationships of modern society4 ,laws1 of course1 may be unwise or excessively minute or deliberately enslaving2 yet this does not affect the point that for all that ,laws are necessary to the preservation of ,liberty4 ,merchants1 women and children1 and citizens generally1 can only enjoy rightful liberty if they are protected by laws4 ,only that man is free1 then1 who is most carefully guarded4 ,in the same manner ,scientific ,liberty does not consist in the absence of knowledge1 or of scientific dogmas1 but in their presence4 ,we are surrounded by innumerable facts of nature1 and that man is free who is fully aware of those which affect his own life4 ,it is true1 for example1 that two and two make four1 and that heavy bodies tend to fall towards the centre of the earth2 and it can only be a very superficial thinker who considers that to be ignorant of these facts is to be free from the enslaving dogmas of them4 ,if ,i am ignorant of them ,i am1 of course1 in a sense at liberty to believe that two and two make five1 and to jump off the roof of my house2 yet this is not ,liberty at all in the sense in which reasonable people use the word1 since my knowledge of the laws enables me to be effective and1 in fact1 to survive in the midst of a world where they happen to be true4 ,that man1 then1 is more truly free whose intellect is informed of and submits to these laws1 than is the man whose intellect is unaware of them4 ,marconi's intellect submits to the laws of lightning and he is thereby enabled to avail himself of them4 ,ajax is unaware of them and is accordingly destroyed by their action4 ,the ,truth1 then1 makes us free4 ,the ,state which controls men's actions and educates their intellects1 which1 in a word1 enforces the knowledge of truth and compels obedience to it1 is actually freeing its citizens by that process4 ,it is only by a misuse of words or a failure to grasp ideas that ,i can maintain that an ignorant savage is more free than an educated man4 ,it is true that ,i am1 in a sense1 free to think that two and two make five1 if ,i have not learned arithmetic2 on the other hand1 when ,i learn that they make four ,i rise into that higher and more real liberty which a knowledge of arithmetic bestows4 ,i am more effective1 not less so2 ,i am more free to exercise my powers and use the forces of the world in which ,i live1 and not less free1 when ,i have submitted my intellect to facts4 ,,iii4 7i7 ,now the soul too has an environment4 ,men may differ as to its nature and its conditions1 but all who believe in the soul at all believe also that it has an environment1 and that this environment is as much in the realm of ,law as is the natural world itself4 ,prayer1 for example1 elevates the soul1 base thinking degrades it4 ,now the laws of this environment were true even before ,christ came4 ,david knew1 at any rate1 something of penitence and of the guilt of sin1 and ,nathan knew something1 at least1 of the forgiveness of sins and of their temporal punishment4 ,christ came1 then1 with this object amongst others3 that ,he might reveal the laws of ,grace and convey to men's minds some at least of the facts of the spiritual life amongst which they lived4 ,he came1 moreover1 partly to modify the workings of these laws1 to release some more fully1 and to restrain others2 in a word1 to be the ,revealer of ,truth and the ,administrator of ,grace4 ,he came then1 to increase men's liberty by increasing their knowledge1 as1 in another sphere1 the scientist comes to us with the same purpose4 ,here1 for example1 is the law that murder is a sin before ,god and brings its consequences with it1 a law stated briefly in the commandment ,thou shall not kill4 ,but our ,divine ,lord revealed more of the workings of this law than men had hitherto recognized4 ,i say unto you1 declared ,christ1 that whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer4 ,he revealed1 that is to say1 the fact that this law runs even in the realm of thought1 that the hating spirit incurs the guilt and punishment of murder1 and not merely the murderous action4 ,were men less free when they learned that fact8 ,not unless ,i am less free than ,i was before1 when ,i learn for the first time that lightning kills4 ,christ came1 then1 to reveal the ,truth that makes us free1 and ,he does so by informing our intellects and enabling us to bring into captivity every understanding to ,his obedience4 7ii7 ,turn now to the ,catholic ,church4 ,here is a ,society whose function it is to preserve and apply the teaching of ,christ2 to analyze it and to state it in forms or systems which every generation can receive4 ,for this purpose1 then1 she draws up not merely a ,creed--which is the systematic statement of the ,christian ,revelation--but disciplinary rules and regulations that will make this ,creed and the life that is conformable to it more easy of realization1 and all this she does with the express object of enabling the individual soul to respond to her spiritual environment and to rise to the full exercise of her powers and rights4 ,as the scientist and the statesmen take1 respectively1 the great laws of nature and society and reduce them to rules and codes1 yet without adding or taking away from these facts1 that are true whether they are popularly recognized or not--and all with the purpose not of diminishing but of increasing the general liberty--so the ,church1 divinely safeguarded too in the process1 takes the ,revelation of ,christ and by her dogma and her discipline popularizes it1 so to speak1 and makes it at once comprehensible and effective4 ,what1 then1 is this foolish cry about the slavery of dogma8 ,how can ,truth make men anything except more free8 ,unless a man is prepared to say that the scientist enslaves his intellect by telling him facts1 he dare not say that the ,church fetters his intellect by defining dogma4 ,christ did not condemn the ,pharisaic system because it was a system1 but because it was ,pharisaic2 because1 that is1 it was not true2 because it obscured instead of revealing the true relations between ,god and man2 because it made the ,word of ,god of none effect through its traditions4 ,but the ,catholic system has the appearance of enslaving men8 ,why yes2 for the only way of aiming at and using effectively the truth that makes us free is by bringing into captivity every understanding to the obedience of ,christ4 ,,viii ,,corporateness ,,and ,,individualism ,he that shall lose his life for ,my sake shall find it4 ,for what doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul8--,,matt4 ,,xvi4 #be1 #bf4 ,no recorded word of our ,lord better illustrates than does this the startling and paradoxical manner of ,his teaching4 ,for ,he ,who knew what was in man1 ,who spoke always down to man's deepest interests1 dwelt and spoke therefore in that realm of truth where man's own paradoxical nature is most manifest2 where his interests appear to flourish only by being ruthlessly pruned2 where he rises to the highest development of self only by self-mortification4 ,this is1 in fact1 the very lesson ,christ teaches in these words4 ,to find the life is the highest object of every man and the end for which he was created2 yet this can be attained only by the losing of it for ,christ's sake4 ,individuality can be preserved only by the sacrifice of ,individualism4 ,let us break up this thought and consider it more in detail4 ,i4 7i7 ,catholics1 it is said1 are the most fundamentally selfish people in the whole world1 since all that they do and say and think is directed and calculated1 so far as they are good ,catholics1 to the salvation of their own souls4 ,it is this that continually crops up in their conversation1 and this that presumably is their chief pre-occupation4 ,yet surely this1 above all methods1 is the very worst for achieving such an end4 ,one does not pull up flowers to see how they are growing4 ,the very secret of health is to be unconscious of it4 ,catholics1 on the other hand1 scarcely ever do anything else2 they are for ever examining themselves1 for ever going to confession1 for ever developing and cultivating the narrowest virtues4 ,the whole science of ,casuistry1 for example1 is directed to nothing else but this--the exact definition of those limits within which the salvation of the soul is secure and beyond which it is imperilled2 and ,casuistry1 as we all know1 has a stifling and deadening influence upon all who study it4 ,again1 see how the true development and expansion of the soul must necessarily be hindered by such an ideal4 ,i must not read this book1 however brilliant1 since it might be dangerous to my faith4 ,i must not mix in this company1 however charming1 since evil communications corrupt good manners4 ,what kind of life is that which must always be checked and stunted in this fashion8 ,what kind of salvation can there be that can only be purchased by the sacrifice of so much that is noble and inspiring8 ,true life consists in experience1 not in introspection2 in going out from self into the world1 not in retiring from the world inwards4 ,let us therefore live our life without fear1 lose ourselves in humanity1 forget self in experience1 and leave the rest to ,god6 7ii7 ,so much for the one side1 while from the other comes almost precisely the opposite criticism4 ,catholics1 it is said1 are not nearly individualistic enough2 on the contrary they are for ever sinking themselves and their personalities in the corporate life of the ,church4 ,not only are their outward actions checked and their words guarded1 but even their very consciences and thoughts are informed and made by the collective conscience and mind of others4 ,it is the highest ambition of every good ,catholic sentire cum ecclesia2 not merely to act and speak but even to think in obedience to others4 ,now a man's true life1 we are told1 consists in an assertion of his own individuality4 ,god has made no two men the same2 the mould was made and broken in each several case4 ,if1 therefore1 we are to be what ,he meant us to be1 we must make the most of our own personalities2 we must think our own thoughts1 not other people's1 direct our own lives1 speak our own minds--so far1 of course1 as we can do so without interfering with our neighbour's equal liberty4 ,once more1 therefore1 we are bidden to live our life to the full2 not in this case1 however1 because we all share in a common humanity1 but because we do not6 ,we ,catholics are wrong1 therefore1 for both reasons and in both directions4 ,we are wrong when we put self first and we are wrong when we do not4 ,we are wrong when we launch out into the current of life1 and wrong when we withdraw ourselves from its waters4 ,we are wrong when we insist upon our personal responsibility1 and wrong when we look to the ,church to undertake it4 ,,ii4 7i7 ,here then1 indeed1 is a ,paradox2 but it is one which our ,lord ,himself expressly emphasizes4 ,for1 first1 there is nothing on which ,he so repeatedly insists as the supreme and singular value of every soul's salvation4 ,if this is not attained1 all is lost4 ,what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul8 ,all else1 then1 must be sacrificed if this is in peril4 ,no human possession1 however great1 can be weighed against this4 ,no human tie1 however sacred1 can hold against its claim4 ,not only must houses and lands1 but father and mother and wives and children must take second place1 so soon as eternal life is at stake4 ,and yet1 somehow or another1 this salvation can only be attained by loss2 self can only live if it be mortified1 can only be saved by its own denial4 ,individuality1 as has been said1 can only be preserved by the loss of ,individualism4 7ii7 ,but this is not peculiar to the spiritual sphere2 it is a paradox that is true1 in some sense1 of life on every plane--civic1 intellectual1 artistic1 human4 ,the man that desires to bring his intellectual and personal powers to their highest pitch must continually be sinking them1 so to speak1 in the current of his fellows1 continually exhausting1 using1 and wearing them out4 ,he must risk1 and indeed inevitably lose1 in a very real sense1 his personal point of view1 if he is to have a point of view that is worth possessing2 he must be content to see his theories and his thoughts modified1 merged1 changed1 and destroyed1 if his thought is to be of value4 ,for1 so far as he withdraws himself from his fellows into a physical or mental isolation1 so far he approaches egotistic madness4 ,he cannot grow unless he decreases2 he cannot remain himself unless he ceases to be himself4 ,so1 too1 is it in civic and artistic life4 ,the citizen who truly lives to the ,state of which he is a member--the man to whom his country raises a monument1 for example--is one1 always1 who has lost himself for his nation1 whether he has died in battle or sacrificed himself in politics or philanthropy4 ,and the citizen who has merely hugged his citizenship to himself1 who has enjoyed all the privileges he can get and paid nothing for them1--least of all himself--who has1 so to say1 gained the whole world1 has simultaneously lost himself indeed and is forgotten within a year of his death4 ,so with the artist4 ,the man who has made his art serve him1 who has employed it1 let us say1 purely for the sake of the money he could get out of it1 who has kept it within severe limits1 who has been merely prudent and orderly and restrained1 this man has1 in a sense1 saved his own life2 yet simultaneously he has lost it4 ,but the man to whom art is a passion1 to whom nothing else is comparatively of any value1 who has plunged himself in his art1 has dedicated to it his days and his nights1 has sacrificed to it every power of his being and every energy of his mind and body1 this man has indeed lost himself4 ,yet he lives in his art as the other has not1 he has saved himself in a sense of which the other knows nothing2 and exactly in proportion as he has succeeded in his self-abnegation1 so far has he attained1 as we say1 immortality4 ,there is not1 then1 one sphere of life in which the paradox is not true4 ,the great historical lovers in romance1 the pioneers of science1 the immortals in every plane1 are precisely those that have fulfilled on lower levels the spiritual aphorism of ,jesus ,christ4 7iii7 ,turn1 then1 once more to the ,catholic ,church and see how in the ,life which she offers1 as in none other1 there is presented to us a means of fulfilling our end4 ,for it is she alone who even demands in the spiritual sphere a complete and entire abnegation of self4 ,from every other ,christian body comes the cry1 ,save your soul1 assert your individuality1 follow your conscience1 form your opinions2 while she1 and she alone1 demands from her children the sacrifice of their intellect1 the submitting of their judgment1 the informing of their conscience by hers1 and the obedience of their will to her lightest command4 ,for she1 and she alone1 is conscious of possessing that ,divinity1 in complete submission to which lies the salvation of ,humanity4 ,for she1 as the coherent and organic mystical ,body of ,christ1 calls upon those who look to her to become1 not merely her children1 but her very members2 not to obey her as soldiers obey a leader or citizens a ,government1 but as the hands and eyes and feet obey a brain4 ,once1 therefore1 ,i understand this1 ,i understand too how it is that by being lost in her ,i save myself2 that ,i lose only that which hinders my activity1 not that which fosters it4 ,for when is my hand most itself8 ,when separated from the body1 by paralysis or amputation8 ,or when1 in vital union with the brain1 with every fibre alert and every nerve alive1 it obeys in every gesture and receives in every sensation a life infinitely vaster and higher than any which it might1 temporarily1 enjoy in independence8 ,it is true that its capacity for pain is the greater when it is so united1 and that it would cease to suffer if once its separation were accomplished2 yet1 simultaneously1 it would lose all that for which ,god made it and1 saving itself1 would be lost indeed4 ,i live1 then1 the perfect ,catholic may say1 as none other can say1 when ,i have ceased to be myself4 ,and yet not ,i1 since ,i have lost my ,individualism4 ,no longer do ,i claim any activity at all on my own behalf2 no longer do ,i demand to form my opinions1 to follow my own conscience apart from that informing of it that comes from ,god1 or to live my own life4 ,yet in losing my ,individualism ,i have won my ,individuality1 for ,i have found my true place at last4 ,i have lost the whole world8 ,yes1 so far as that world is separate from or antagonistic to ,god's will2 but ,i have gained my own soul and attained immortality4 ,for it is not ,i that live1 but ,christ that liveth in me4 ,,ix ,,meekness ,,and ,,violence ,blessed are the meek4--,,matt4 ,v4 #d4 ,the ,kingdom of ,heaven suffereth violence1 and the violent bear it away4--,,matt4 ,,xi4 #ab4 ,we have already considered the ,church's relations towards such things as wealth and human influence and power1 how she will sometimes use and sometimes disdain them4 ,let us now penetrate a little deeper and understand the spirit that underlies and explains this varying attitude of hers4 ,i4 7i7 ,it has been charged against ,christianity in general1 and therefore implicitly and supremely against the ,church that was for so long its sole embodiment and is still1 alone1 its adequate representative1 that it has fostered virtues which retard progress4 ,progress1 in the view of the ,german philosopher who explicitly made this charge1 is merely natural both in its action and its end2 and ,nature1 as we are well aware1 knows nothing of forgiveness or compassion or tenderness3 on the contrary she moves from lower to higher forms by forces that are their precise opposite4 ,the wounded stag is not protected by his fellows1 but gored to death2 the old wolf is torn to pieces1 the sick lion wanders away to die of starvation1 and all these instincts1 we are informed1 have for their object the gradual improvement of the breed by the elimination of the weak and ineffective4 ,so should it be1 he tells us1 with man1 and the extreme ,eugenists echo his teaching4 ,christianity1 on the other hand1 deliberately protects the weak and teaches that the sacrifice of the strong is supreme heroism4 ,christianity has raised hospitals and refuges for the infirm1 seeking to preserve those very types which ,nature1 if she had her way1 would eliminate4 ,christianity1 then1 is the enemy of the human race and not its friend1 since ,christianity has retarded1 as no other religion has ever succeeded in retarding1 the appearance of that superman whom ,nature seeks to evolve4444 ,it is scarcely to be wondered at that the teacher of such a doctrine himself died insane4 ,a parallel doctrine is taught largely to-day by persons who call themselves practical and businesslike4 ,meekness and gentleness and compassion1 they tell their sons1 are very elegant and graceful virtues for those who can afford them1 for women and children who are more or less sheltered from the struggle of life1 and for feeble and ineffective people who are capable of nothing else4 ,but for men who have to make their own way in the world and intend to win success there1 a more stern code is necessary2 from these there is demanded such a rule of action as ,nature herself dictates4 ,be self-confident and self-assertive then1 not meek4 ,remember that the weakness of your neighbour is your own opportunity4 ,take care of number one and let the rest take care of themselves4 ,a man does not go into the stock-exchange or into commerce in order to exhibit ,christian virtues there1 but business qualities4 ,in a word1 ,christianity1 so far as it affects material or commercial or political progress1 is a weakness rather than a strength1 an enemy rather than a friend4 7ii7 ,but if1 on the one side1 the gentleness and non-resistance inculcated by ,christianity form the material of one charge against the ,church1 on the other side1 no less1 she is blamed for her violence and intransigeance4 ,catholics are not yielding enough1 we are told1 to be true followers of the meek ,prophet of ,galilee1 not gentle enough to inherit the blessing which ,he pronounced4 ,on the contrary there are no people so tenacious1 so obstinate1 and even so violent as these professed disciples of ,jesus ,christ4 ,see the way1 for example1 in which they cling to and insist upon their rights2 the obstacles they raise1 for example1 to reasonable national schemes of education or to a sensible system in the divorce courts4 ,and above all1 consider their appalling and brutal violence as exhibited in such institutions as that of the ,index and ,excommunication1 the fierceness with which they insist upon absolute and detailed obedience to authority1 the ruthlessness with which they cast out from their company those who will not pronounce their shibboleths4 ,it is true that in these days they can only enforce their claims by spiritual threatenings and penalties1 but history shows us that they would do more if they could4 ,the story of the racks and the fires of the ,inquisition shows plainly enough that the ,church once used1 and therefore1 presumably1 would use again if she could1 carnal weapons in her spiritual warfare4 ,can anything be more unlike the gentle ,spirit of ,him ,who1 when ,he was reviled1 reviled not again2 of ,him ,who bade men to learn of ,him1 for ,he was meek and lowly of heart1 and so find rest to their souls8 ,here1 then1 is the ,paradox1 and here are two characteristics of the ,catholic ,church3 that she is at once too meek and too self-assertive1 too gentle and too violent4 ,it is a paradox exactly echoed by our ,divine ,lord ,himself1 ,who in the ,upper ,chamber bade ,his disciples who had no sword to sell their cloaks and buy them1 and ,who yet1 in the garden of ,gethsemane1 commanded the one disciple who had taken ,him at ,his word to put up the sword into its sheath1 telling him that they who took the sword should perish by it4 ,it is echoed yet again in ,his action1 first in taking the scourge into ,his own ,hand1 in the temple courts1 and then in baring ,his shoulders to that same scourge in the hands of others4 ,how1 then1 is this ,paradox to be reconciled8 ,,ii4 ,the ,church1 let us remind ourselves again1 is both ,human and ,divine4 7i7 ,she consists of human persons1 and those persons are attached both to one another and to the world outside by a perfectly balanced system of human rights known as the ,law of ,justice4 ,this ,law of ,justice1 though coming indeed from ,god1 is1 in a sense1 natural and human2 it exists to some extent in all societies1 as well as being closely defined and worked out in the ,old ,law given on ,sinai4 ,it is a ,law which men could have worked out1 at any rate in its main principles1 by the light of reason only1 unaided by ,revelation1 and it is a ,law1 further1 so fundamental that no ,revelation could conceivably ever outrage or set it aside4 ,at the coming of ,christ into the world1 however1 ,supernatural ,charity came with ,him4 ,the ,law of ,justice still remained2 men still had their rights on which they might insist1 still had their rights which no ,christian may refuse to recognize4 ,but such was the torrent of ,divine generosity which ,christ exhibited1 so overwhelming was the ,vision which ,he revealed of the supernatural charity of ,god towards men1 that a set of ideals sprang into life such as the world had never dreamed of2 more1 ,charity came with such power that her commands actually overruled in many instances the feeble claims of ,justice1 so that she bade men henceforward to forgive1 for example1 not merely according to ,justice1 but according to her own ,divine nature1 to forgive unto seventy times seven1 to give good measure1 heaped up and running over1 and not the bare minimum which men had merely earned4 ,it was from this advent of ,charity1 then1 that all these essentially ,christian virtues of generosity and meekness and self-sacrifice sprang which ,nietsche condemned as hostile to material progress4 ,for1 from henceforth1 if a man take thy coat1 let him take thy cloak also2 if he will compel thee to go with him one mile1 go two2 if he strike thee on one cheek1 turn to him the other also4 ,the ,law of ,natural justice is transcended and the ,law of ,charity and ,sacrifice reigns instead4 ,resist not evil2 do not insist always1 that is to say1 on your natural rights2 give men more than their due1 and be yourself content with less4 ,learn of ,me1 for ,i am meek and lowly of heart1 and find rest to your souls4 ,forgive one another your trespasses with the same generous charity with which ,god has forgiven and will forgive you yours4 ,judge not and you shall not be judged4 ,do not1 in personal matters1 insist upon bare justice for yourself1 but act on that scale and by those principles by which ,god ,himself has dealt with you4 ,meekness1 then1 is undoubtedly a ,christian virtue4 ,sometimes it is obligatory1 sometimes it is but a ,counsel of ,perfection2 it stands1 in any case1 high among those ideals which it has been the glory of ,christianity to create4 7ii7 ,but there are other elements in life besides the human and the natural1 beyond those personal rights and claims which a ,christian may1 if he is aiming at perfection1 set aside out of charity4 ,the ,church is ,divine as well as ,human4 ,for the ,church has entrusted to her1 besides the rights of men1 which may be sacrificed by their possessors1 the rights and claims of ,god1 which none but ,he can set aside4 ,he has given into her keeping1 for example1 a ,revelation of truths and principles which1 springing out of ,his own ,nature or of ,his ,will1 are as immutable and eternal as ,himself4 ,and it is precisely in defence of these truths and principles that the ,church exhibits that which the world calls intransigeance and ,jesus ,christ violence4 ,here1 for example1 is the right of a baptized ,catholic child to be educated in his religion1 or rather1 the right of ,god ,himself to teach that child in the manner ,he has ordained4 ,here is the revealed truth that marriage is indissoluble2 here that ,jesus ,christ is the ,son of ,god4 ,now these are not human rights or opinions at all--rights and opinions which men1 urged by charity or humility1 can set aside or waive in the face of opposition4 ,they rest on an entirely different basis2 they are1 so to speak1 the inalienable possessions of ,god2 and it would neither be charity nor humility1 but sheer treachery1 for the ,church to exhibit meekness or pliancy in matters such as these1 given to her as they are1 not to dispose of1 but to guard intact4 ,on the contrary here1 exactly1 comes the command1 ,he that hath not1 let him sell his cloak and buy a sword11 for here comes the line between the ,divine and the ,human2 let all personal possessions go1 all merely natural rights and claims be yielded1 and let a sword take their place4 ,for here is a matter that must be resisted1 even unto blood4 ,the ,catholic ,church then is1 and always will be1 violent and intransigeant when the rights of ,god are in question4 ,she will be absolutely ruthless1 for example1 towards heresy1 for heresy affects not personal matters on which ,charity may yield1 but a ,divine right on which there must be no yielding4 ,yet1 simultaneously1 she will be infinitely kind towards the heretic1 since a thousand human motives and circumstances may come in and modify his responsibility4 ,at a word of repentance she will readmit his person into her treasury of souls1 but not his heresy into her treasury of wisdom2 she will strike his name eagerly and freely from her black list of the rebellious1 but not his book from the pages of her ,index4 ,she exhibits meekness towards him and violence towards his error2 since he is human1 but her ,truth is ,divine4 ,it is1 then1 from a modern confusion of thought with regard to the realms of the ,divine and the ,human that the amazing inability arises1 on the world's part1 to understand the respective principles on which the ,catholic ,church acts in these two and utterly separate departments4 ,the world considers it reasonable for a country to defend its material possessions by the sword1 but intolerant and unreasonable for the ,church to condemn1 resisting even unto blood1 principles which she considers erroneous or false4 ,the ,church1 on the other hand1 urges her children again and again to yield rather than to fight when merely material possessions are at stake1 since ,charity permits and sometimes even commands men to be content with less than their own rights1 and yet again1 when a ,divine truth or right is at stake1 here she will resist unfaltering and undismayed1 since she cannot be charitable with what is not her own2 here she will sell her cloak and buy that sword which1 when the dispute was on merely temporal matters1 she thrust back again into its sheath4 ,to-day#a as ,christ rides into ,jerusalem we see1 as in a mirror1 this ,paradox made plain4 ,thy ,king cometh to thee1 meek4 ,was there ever so mean a ,procession as this8 ,was there ever such meekness and charity8 ,he ,who1 as ,his personal right1 is attended in heaven by a multitude on white horses1 now1 in virtue of ,his ,humanity1 is content with a few fishermen and a crowd of children4 ,he to ,whom1 in ,his personal right1 the harpers and the angels make eternal music is content1 since ,he has been made ,man for our sakes1 with the discordant shoutings of this crowd4 ,he ,who rode on the ,seraphim and came flying on the wings of the wind sits on the colt of an ass4 ,he comes1 meek indeed1 from the golden streets of the ,heavenly ,jerusalem to the foul roads of the ,earthly1 laying aside ,his personal rights since ,he is that very ,fire of ,charity by which ,christians relinquish theirs4 ,footnote #a3 ,this sermon was preached on ,palm-,sunday4 ,but1 for all that1 it is riding that thy ,king cometh to thee4444 ,he will not relinquish ,his inalienable claim and ,he will have nothing essential left out4 ,he has ,his royal escort1 even though a ragged one2 ,he will have ,his spearmen1 even though their spears be only of palm2 ,he will have ,his heralds to proclaim ,him1 however much the devout ,pharisees may be offended by their proclamation2 ,he will ride into ,his own ,royal ,city1 even though that ,city casts ,him out1 and ,he will have ,his ,coronation1 even though it be with thorns4 ,so1 too1 the ,catholic ,church advances through the ages4 ,in merely human rights and personal matters again and again she will yield up all that she has1 making1 it may be1 but one protest for ,justice' sake and then no more4 ,and she will urge her children to do the same4 ,if the world will let her have no jewels1 then she will put glass beads in her monstrance1 and for marble she will use plaster1 and tinsel for gold4 ,but she will have her ,procession and insist upon her ,royalty4 ,it may seem as poor and as mean and as tawdry as the entrance of ,christ ,himself through the royal gate2 for she will yield up all that the world demands of her1 so long as her ,divine ,right itself remains intact4 ,she will issue her orders1 though few be found to obey them2 she will cast out from her the rebellious who question her authority1 and cleanse her ,temple ,courts even though with a scourge at which men mock4 ,she will give up all that is merely human1 if the world will have it so1 and will resist not evil if it merely concerns herself4 ,but there is one thing which she will not renounce1 one thing she will claim1 even with violence and intransigeance1 and that is the ,royalty with which ,god ,himself has crowned her4 ,x ,,the ,,seven ,,words ,,the ,,three ,,hours ,,introduction ,the value1 to the worshippers1 of the ,devotion of the ,three ,hours' ,agony is in proportion to the degree in which they understand that they are watching not so much the tragedy of nineteen hundred years ago as the tragedy of their own lives and times4 ,merely to dwell on the ,death of ,christ on ,calvary would scarcely avail them more than to study the details of the assassination of ,caesar at the foot of ,pompey's statue4 ,such considerations might indeed be interesting1 exciting1 and even a little instructive or inspiring2 but they could not be better than this1 and they might be no better than morbid and harmful4 ,the ,death of ,christ1 however1 is unique because it is1 so to say1 universal4 ,it is more than the crowning horror of all murderous histories2 it is more even than the type of all the outrages that men have ever committed against ,god4 ,for it is just the very enactment1 upon the historical stage of the world1 of those repeated interior tragedies that take place in every soul that rejects or insults ,him2 since the ,god whom we crucify within is the same ,god that was once crucified without4 ,there is not an exterior detail in the ,gospel which may not be interiorly repeated in the spiritual life of a sinner2 the process recorded by the ,evangelists must be more or less identical with the process of all apostasy from ,god4 ,for1 first1 there is the ,betrayal of ,conscience1 as a beginning of the tragedy2 its betrayal by those elements of our nature that are intended as its friends and protectors--by ,emotion or ,forethought1 for example4 ,then ,conscience is led away1 bound1 to be judged2 for there can be no mortal sin without deliberation1 and no man ever yet fell into it without conducting first a sort of hasty mock-trial or two in which a sham ,prudence or a false idea of ,liberty solemnly decide that ,conscience is in the wrong4 ,yet even then ,conscience persists1 and so ,he is made to appear absurd and ridiculous1 and set beside the ,barabbas of a coarse and sturdy lower nature that makes no high pretensions and boasts of it4 ,and so the drama proceeds and ,conscience is crucified3 ,conscience begins to be silent1 breaking the deepening gloom now and again with protests that grow weaker every time1 and at last ,conscience dies indeed4 ,and thenceforward there can be no hope1 save in the miracle of ,resurrection4 ,this ,cross of ,calvary1 then1 is not a mere type or picture2 it is a fact identical with that so dreadfully familiar to us in spiritual life4 ,for ,christ is not one ,person1 and ,conscience something else1 but it is actually ,christ who speaks in ,conscience and ,christ1 therefore1 ,who is crucified in mortal sin4 ,let us1 then1 be plain with ourselves4 ,we are watching not only ,christ's ,death but our own1 since we are watching the ,death of ,christ ,who is our ,life4 ,,the ,,first ,,word ,father forgive them1 for they know not what they do4 ,in previous considerations we have studied the ,life of ,christ in ,his ,mystical ,body from an angle at which the strange and innumerable paradoxes which abound in all forms of life at a certain depth become visible4 ,and we have seen how these paradoxes lie in those strata1 so to say1 where the ,divinity and the ,humanity meet4 ,christ is ,god and ,god cannot die2 therefore ,christ became man in order to be able to do so4 ,the ,church is ,divine and therefore all-holy1 but she dwells in a ,body of sinful ,humanity and reckons her sinners to be her children and members no less than her saints4 ,we will continue to regard the crucifixion of ,jesus ,christ and the ,words which ,he spoke from the ,cross from the same angle1 and to find1 therefore1 the same characteristic paradoxes and mysteries in all that we see4 ,in the ,first ,word we meet the ,paradox of ,divine ,forgiveness4 ,i4 ,ordinary human forgiveness is no more than a natural virtue1 resulting from a natural sense of justice1 and if a man is normal1 his forgiveness will be a natural and inevitable part of the process of reconciliation so soon as a certain kind of restitution has been made4 ,for example1 a friend of mine sins against me--he injures1 perhaps1 my good name2 and my natural answer is the emotion of resentment towards him and1 perhaps1 of actual revenge4 ,but what ,i chiefly resent is my friend's stupidity and his ignorance of my real character4 ,i am angry1 ,i say1 with perfect sincerity1 not so much at the thing he has said of me1 as at this proof of his incapacity to understand me4 ,i thought he was my friend1 that he was in sympathy with my character or1 at least1 that he understood it sufficiently to do me justice4 ,but now1 from what he has just said of me1 ,i see that he does not4 ,if the thing he said were true of me1 the most of my anger would be gone4 ,but ,i see that he does not know me1 after all4 ,and then1 presently1 my friend does understand that he has wronged me2 that the gossip he repeated or the construction he put upon my actions was not fair or true4 ,and immediately that ,i become aware of this1 from him or from another1 my resentment goes1 if ,i have any natural virtue at all2 it goes because my wounded pride is healed4 ,i forgive him easily and naturally because he knows now what he has done4 ,,ii4 ,how entirely different from this easy1 self-loving1 human forgiveness is the ,divine ,forgiveness of ,christ6 ,now it is true that in the conscience of ,pilate1 the unjust representative of justice1 and in that thing that called itself conscience in ,herod1 and in the hearts of the priests who denounced their ,god1 and of the soldiers who executed their overlord1 and of ,judas who betrayed his friend1 in all these there was surely a certain uneasiness--such an uneasiness is actually recorded of the first and the last of the list--a certain faint shadow of perception and knowledge of what it was that they had done and were doing4 ,and1 for the natural man1 it would have been comparatively easy to forgive such injuries on that account4 ,i forgive them1 such a man might have said from his cross1 because there is just a glimmer of knowledge left2 there is just one spark in their hearts that still does me justice1 and for the sake of that ,i can try1 at least1 to put away my resentment and ask ,god to forgive them4 ,but ,jesus ,christ cries1 ,forgive them because they do not know what they do6 ,forgive them because they need it so terribly1 since they do not even know that they need it6 ,forgive in them that which is unforgivable6 ,,iii4 ,two obvious points present themselves in conclusion4 7#a7 ,first1 it is ,divine ,forgiveness that we need1 since no sinner of us all knows the full malice of sin4 ,one man is a slave1 let us say1 to a sin of the flesh1 and seeks to reassure himself by the reflection that he injures no one but himself2 ignorant as he is of the outrage to ,god the ,holy ,ghost ,whose temple he is ruining4 ,or a woman repeats again every piece of slanderous gossip that comes her way and comforts herself in moments of compunction by reflecting that she means no harm2 ignorant as she is of the discouragement of souls of which she is the cause and of the seeds of distrust and enmity sown among friends4 ,in fact it is incredible that any sinner ever knows what it is that he does by sin4 ,we need1 therefore1 the ,divine ,forgiveness and not the human1 the pardon that descends when we are unaware that we must have it or die2 the love of the ,father ,who1 while we are yet a great way off1 runs to meet us1 and ,who teaches us for the first time1 by the warmth of ,his welcome1 the icy distances to which we had wandered4 ,if we knew1 anyone could forgive us4 ,it is because we do not that only ,god1 ,who knows all things1 can forgive us effectively4 7#b7 ,and it is this ,divine ,forgiveness that we ourselves have to extend to those that sin against us1 since only those who so forgive can be forgiven4 ,we must not wait until wounded pride is made whole by the conscious shame of our enemy2 until the debt is paid by acknowledgment and we are complacent once more in the knowledge that justice has been done to us at last4 ,on the contrary1 the only forgiveness that is supernatural1 and which1 therefore1 alone is meritorious1 is that which reach out to men's ignorance and not their knowledge of their need4 ,,the ,,second ,,word ,amen ,i say to thee1 to-day thou shalt be with ,me in ,paradise4 ,our ,divine ,lord1 in this ,second ,word1 immediately applies and illustrates the ,first and drives its lesson home4 ,he shows us how the rain of mercy that poured out of heaven in answer to the prayer ,he made just now enlightens the man who1 above all others present on ,calvary1 was the most abjectly ignorant of all2 the man who1 himself at the very heart of the tragedy1 understood it less1 probably1 than the smallest child on the outskirts of the crowd4 ,his life had been one long defiance of the laws of both ,god and man4 ,he had been a member of one of those troops of human vermin that crawl round ,jerusalem1 raiding solitary houses1 attacking solitary travellers1 guilty of sins at once the bloodiest and the meanest1 comparable only to the ,french apaches of our own day4 ,well1 he had been gripped at last by the ,roman machine1 caught in some sordid adventure1 and here1 resentful and furious and contemptuous1 full of bravado and terror1 he snarled like a polecat at every human face he saw1 snarled and spat at the ,divine ,face ,itself that looked at him from a cross that was like his own2 and1 since he had not even a spark of the honour that is reputed to exist among thieves1 taunted his fellow criminal for the folly of ,his crime4 ,if thou be the ,christ1 save ,thyself and us4 ,again1 then1 the ,paradox is plain enough4 ,surely an educated priest1 or a timid disciple1 or a good-hearted dutiful soldier who hated the work he was at1 surely one of these will be the first object of ,christ's pardon2 and so one of these would have been1 if one of ourselves had hung there4 ,but when ,god forgives1 ,he forgives the most ignorant first--that is1 the most remote from forgiveness--and makes1 not ,peter or ,caiphas or the ,centurion1 but ,dismas the thief1 the firstfruits of ,redemption4 ,i4 ,the first effect of the ,divine ,mercy is ,enlightenment4 ,before they call1 ,i will answer4 ,before the thief feels the first pang of sorrow ,grace is at work on him1 and for the first time in his dreary life he begins to understand4 ,and an extraordinary illumination shines in his soul4 ,for no expert penitent after years of spirituality1 no sorrowful saint1 could have prayed more perfectly than this outcast4 ,his intellect1 perhaps1 took in little or nothing of the great forces that were active about him and within him2 he knew1 perhaps1 explicitly little or nothing of ,who this was that hung beside him2 yet his soul's intuition pierces to the very heart of the mystery and expresses itself in a prayer that combines at once a perfect love1 an exquisite humility1 an entire confidence1 a resolute hope1 a clear-sighted faith1 and an unutterable patience2 his soul blossoms all in a moment3 ,lord1 remember me when ,thou comest in ,thy ,kingdom4 ,he saw the glory behind the shame1 the ,eternal ,throne behind the ,cross1 and the future behind the present2 and he asked only to be remembered when the glory should transfigure the shame and the ,cross be transformed into the ,throne2 for he understood what that remembrance would mean3 ,remember1 ,lord1 that ,i suffered at ,thy side4 ,,ii4 ,so perfect1 then1 are the dispositions formed in him by grace that at one bound the last is first4 ,not even ,mary and ,john shall have the instant reward that shall be his2 for them there are other gifts1 and the first are those of separation and exile4 ,for the moment1 then1 this man steps into the foremost place and they who have hung side by side on ,calvary shall walk side by side to meet those waiting souls beyond the veil who will run so eagerly to welcome them4 ,to-day thou shalt be with ,me in ,paradise4 ,,iii4 ,now this ,paradox1 the last shall be first1 is an old doctrine of ,christ1 so startling and bewildering that ,he has been forced to repeat it again and again4 ,he taught it in at least four parables3 in the parables of the ,lost ,piece of ,silver1 the ,lost ,sheep1 the ,prodigal ,son1 and the ,vineyard4 ,the ,nine ,pieces lie neglected on the table1 the ,ninety-nine sheep are exiled in the ,fold1 the ,elder ,son is1 he thinks1 overlooked and slighted1 and the ,labourers complain of favouritism4 ,yet still1 even after all this teaching1 the complaint goes up from ,christians that ,god is too loving to be quite just4 ,a convert1 perhaps1 comes into the ,church in middle age and in a few months develops the graces of ,saint ,teresa and becomes one of her daughters4 ,a careless black-guard is condemned to death for murder and three weeks later dies upon the scaffold the death of a saint1 at the very head of the line4 ,and the complaints seem natural enough4 ,thou hast made them equal unto us who have borne the burden and heat of the day4 ,yet look again1 you ,elder ,sons4 ,have your religious1 careful1 timid lives ever exhibited anything resembling that depth of self-abjection to which the ,younger ,son has attained8 ,certainly you have been virtuous and conscientious2 after all1 it would be a shame if you had not been so1 considering the wealth of grace you have always enjoyed4 ,but have you ever even striven seriously after the one single moral quality which ,christ holds up in ,his own character as the point of imitation3 ,learn of ,me1 for ,i am meek and lowly of heart8 ,it is surely significant that ,he does not say1 expressly1 ,learn of ,me to be pure1 or courageous1 or fervent2 but ,learn to be humble1 for in this1 above all1 you shall find rest to your souls4 ,instead1 have you not had a kind of gentle pride in your religion or your virtue or your fastidiousness8 ,in a word1 you have not been as excellent an ,elder ,son as your brother has been a ,younger4 ,you have not corresponded with your graces as he has corresponded with his4 ,you have never yet been capable of sufficient lowliness to come home 7which is so much harder than to remain there71 or of sufficient humility to begin for the first time to work with all your heart only an hour before sunset4 ,begin1 then1 at the beginning1 not half-way up the line4 ,go down to the church door and beat your breast and say not1 ,god reward me who have done so much for ,him1 but ,god be merciful to me who have done so little4 ,get off your seat amongst the ,pharisees and go down on your knees and weep behind ,christ's couch1 if perhaps ,he may at last say to you1 ,friend1 come up higher4 ,,the ,,third ,,word ,woman1 behold thy son4 ,behold thy mother4 ,our ,divine ,lord now turns1 from the soul who at one bound has sprung into the front rank1 to those two souls who have never left it1 and supremely to that ,mother on whose soul sin has never yet breathed1 on whose breast ,incarnate ,god had rested as inviolate and secure as on the ,bosom of the ,eternal ,father1 that ,mother who was ,his ,heaven on earth4 ,standing beside her is the one human being who is least unworthy to be there1 now that ,joseph has passed to his reward and ,john the ,baptist has gone to join the ,prophets--the disciple whom ,jesus loved1 who had lain on the breast of ,jesus as ,jesus had lain on the breast of ,mary4 ,our ,lord has just shown how ,he deals with ,his dear sinners2 now ,he shows how ,he will be glorified with ,his ,saints4 ,the ,paradox of this ,word is that ,death1 the divider of those who are separated from ,god1 is the bond of union between those that are united to ,him4 ,i4 ,death is the one inexorable enemy of human society as constituted apart from ,god4 ,a king dies and his kingdom is at once in danger of disruption4 ,a child dies and his mother prays that she may bear another1 lest his father and she should drift apart4 ,death is the supreme sower of discord and disunion1 then1 in the natural order1 since he is the one supreme enemy of natural life4 ,he is the noonday terror of the ,rich ,fool of the parable and the nightmare of the ,poor ,fool1 since those who place their hope in this life see that death is the end of their hope4 ,for these there is no appeal beyond the grave4 ,,ii4 ,now precisely the opposite of all this is true in the supernatural order1 since the gate of death1 viewed from the supernatural side1 is an entrance and not an ending1 a beginning and not a close4 ,this may be seen to be so even in a united human family in this world1 the members of whom are living the supernatural life2 for where such a family is living in the love of ,god1 ,death1 when he comes1 draws not only the survivors closer together1 but even those whom he seems to have separated4 ,he does not bring consternation and terror and disunion1 but he awakens hope and tenderness1 he smooths away old differences1 he explains old misunderstandings4 ,our ,blessed ,lord has already1 over the grave of ,lazarus1 hinted that this shall be so1 so soon as ,he has consecrated death by ,his own dying4 ,he that believeth in ,me shall never die4 ,he1 that is to say1 who has died with ,christ1 whose centre henceforward is in the supernatural1 simply no longer finds death to be what nature finds it4 ,it no longer makes for division but for union2 it no longer imperils or ends life and interest and possession1 but releases them from risk and mortality4 ,here1 then1 ,he deliberately and explicitly acts upon this truth4 ,he once raised ,lazarus and the daughter of ,jairus and the ,widow's ,son from the dead1 for death's sting could1 at that time1 be drawn in no other way2 but now that ,he ,himself is tasting death for every man1 ,he performs an even more emphatically supernatural act and conquers death by submitting to it instead of by commanding it4 ,life had already united1 so far as mortal life can unite1 those two souls who loved ,him and one another so well4 ,these two1 since they knew ,him so perfectly1 knew each the other too as perfectly as knowledge and sympathy can unite souls in this life4 ,but now the whole is to be raised a stage higher4 ,they had already been united on the living breast of ,jesus2 now1 over ,his dead body1 they were to be made yet more one4 ,it is marvellous that1 after so long1 our imaginations should still be so tormented and oppressed by the thought of death2 that we should still be so without understanding that we think it morbid to be in love with death1 for it is far more morbid to be in fear of it4 ,it is not that our reason or our faith are at fault2 it is only that that most active and untamable faculty of ours1 which we call imagination1 has not yet assimilated the truth1 accepted by both our faith and our reason1 that for those who are in the friendship of ,god death is simply not that at all which it is to others4 ,it does not1 as has been said1 end our lives or our interests3 on the contrary it liberates and fulfils them4 ,and all this it does because ,jesus ,christ has ,himself plunged into the heart of ,death and put out his fires4 ,henceforth we are one family in ,him if we do ,his will--his brother and sister and mother2 and ,mary is our ,mother1 not by nature1 which is accidental1 but by supernature1 which is essential4 ,mary is my ,mother and ,john is my brother1 since1 if ,i have died with ,christ1 it is no longer ,i that live1 but ,christ that liveth in me4 ,in a word1 it is the ,communion of ,saints which ,he inaugurates by this utterance and seals by ,his dying4 ,,the ,,fourth ,,word ,my ,god1 ,my ,god1 why hast ,thou forsaken ,me8 ,our ,blessed ,lord in the revelation ,he makes from the ,cross passes gradually inwards to ,himself ,who is its centre4 ,he begins in the outermost circle of all1 with the ignorant sinners4 ,he next deals with the one sinner who ceased to be ignorant1 and next with those who were always nearest to ,himself1 and now at last ,he reveals the deepest secret of all4 ,this is the central ,word of the ,seven in every sense4 ,there is no need to draw attention to the ,paradox it expresses4 ,i4 ,first1 then1 let us remind ourselves of the revealed dogma that ,jesus ,christ was the ,eternal ,son of the ,father2 that ,he dwelt always in the ,bosom of that ,father2 that when ,he left heaven ,he did not leave the ,father's side2 that at ,bethlehem and ,nazareth and ,galilee and ,jerusalem and ,gethsemane and ,calvary ,he was always the ,word that was with ,god and the ,word that was ,god4 ,next1 that the eyes even of ,his ,sacred ,humanity looked always and continuously upon the ,face of ,god1 since ,his union with ,god was entire and complete3 as ,he looked up into ,his ,mother's face from the manger1 ,he saw behind it the ,face of ,his ,father2 as ,he cried in ,gethsemane1 ,if it be possible1 even in ,his ,sacred ,humanity ,he knew that it could not be2 as ,he groaned out on ,calvary that ,god had forsaken ,him1 ,he yet looked without one instant's intermission into the glory of heaven and saw ,his ,father there4 ,yet simultaneously with these truths it is also true that ,his cry of dereliction was incalculably more of a reality than when first uttered by ,david or1 since1 by any desolate sinner in the thickest spiritual darkness4 ,all the miseries of holy and sinful souls1 heaped together1 could not approach even afar off the intolerable misery of ,christ4 ,for of ,his own will ,he refused to be consoled at all by that ,presence which ,he could never lack1 and of ,his own will ,he chose to be pierced and saturated and tormented by the sorrow ,he could never deserve4 ,he held firm against the touch of consolation every power of ,his ,divine and ,human ,being and1 simultaneously1 flung them open to the assaults of every pain4 ,and if the psychology of this state is altogether beyond our power to understand1 we may remind ourselves that it is the psychology of the ,word made ,flesh that is confronting us4444 ,do we expect to understand that8444 ,,ii4 ,there is a human phrase1 however1 itself a paradox1 yet corresponding to something which we know to be true1 which throws some faint glimmer of light upon this impenetrable darkness and seems to extend ,christ's experience upon the ,cross so as to touch our own human life4 ,it is a phrase that describes a condition well known to spiritual persons3 ,to leave ,god for ,god4 7#a7 ,the simplest and lowest form of this state is that condition in which we acquiesce with our will in the withdrawal of ordinary spiritual consolation4 ,certainly it is an inexplicable state1 since both the ordinary aids to our will--our understanding and our emotion--are1 by the very nature of the case1 useless to it4 ,our heart revolts from that dereliction and our understanding fails to comprehend the reasons for it4 ,yet we acquiesce1 or at least perceive that we ought to do so2 and that by doing so--by ceasing1 that is1 to grasp ,god's ,presence any longer--we find it as never before4 ,we leave ,god in order to find ,him4 7#b7 ,the second state is that in which we find ourselves when not only do all consolations leave us1 but the very grip of intelligent faith goes too2 when the very reasons for faithfulness appear to vanish4 ,it is an incalculably more bitter trial1 and soul after soul fails under it and must be comforted again by ,god in less august ways or perish altogether4 ,and yet this is not the extremest pitch even of human desolation4 7#c7 ,for there is a third of which the saints tell us in broken words and images4444 ,,iii4 ,our final point1 for application to ourselves1 is that dereliction in some form or another is as much a stage in spiritual progress as autumn and winter are seasons of the year4 ,the beginners have to suffer one degree1 the illuminated another1 and those that have approached a real ,union with ,god a third4 ,but all must suffer it1 and each in his own degree1 or progress is impossible4 ,let us take courage therefore and face it1 in the light of this ,word4 ,for1 as we can sanctify bodily pain by the memory of the nails1 so too can we sanctify spiritual pain by the memory of this darkness4 ,if ,he ,who never left the ,father's side can suffer this in an unique and supreme sense1 how much more should we be content to suffer it in lower degrees1 who have so continually1 since we came to the age of reason1 been leaving not ,his side only1 but ,his very house4 ,,the ,,fifth ,,word ,i thirst4 ,our ,lord continues to reveal ,his own condition1 since ,he1 after all1 is the key to all ,humanity4 ,if we understand anything of ,him1 simultaneously we shall understand ourselves far better4 ,he has shown us that ,he can truly be deprived of spiritual consolation2 and the value of this deprivation2 now ,he shows us the value of bodily deprivation also4 ,and the ,paradox for our consideration is that the ,source of all can lose all2 that the ,creator needs ,his creation2 that ,he ,who offers us the water springing up into ,life ,eternal can lack the water of human life--the simplest element of all4 ,in ,his ,divine ,dereliction ,he yet continues to be ,human4 ,i4 ,it is very usual1 under this ,word1 to meditate on ,christ's thirst for souls2 and this is1 of course1 a legitimate thought1 since it is true that ,his whole ,being1 and not merely one part of it1 longed and panted on the ,cross for every object of ,his desire4 ,certainly ,he desired souls6 ,when does ,he not8 ,but it is easy to lose the proportion of truth1 if we spiritualize everything1 and pass over1 as if unworthy of consideration1 ,his bodily pain4 ,for this ,thirst of the ,crucified is the final sum of all the pains of crucifixion3 the physical agony1 the fever produced by it1 the torrential sweat1 the burning of the sun--all these culminated in the torment of which this ,cry is ,his expression4 ,bodily pain1 then1 since ,jesus not only deigned to suffer it1 but to speak of it1 is as much a part of the ,divine process as the most spiritual of derelictions3 it is an intense and a vital reality in life4 ,it is the fashion1 at present1 to pose as if we were superior to such things2 as if either it were too coarse for our high natures or even actually in itself evil4 ,the truth is that we are terrified of its reality and its sting1 and seek1 therefore1 to evade it by every means in our power4 ,we affect to smile at the old penances of the saints and ascetics as if we ourselves had risen into a higher state of development and needed no longer such elementary aids to piety6 ,let this ,word1 then1 bring us back to our senses and to the due proportions of truth4 ,we are body as well as soul2 we are incomplete without the body4 ,the soul is insufficient to itself1 the body has as real a part to play in ,redemption as the soul which is its inmate and should be its mistress4 ,we look for the redemption of our body and the ,resurrection of the ,flesh1 we merit or demerit before ,god in our soul for the deeds done in our body4 ,so was it too with our ,lord of ,his infinite compassion4 ,the ,word was made ,flesh1 dwelt in the ,flesh1 has assumed that ,flesh into heaven4 ,further1 ,he suffered in the ,flesh and deigned to tell us so2 and that ,he found that suffering all but intolerable4 ,,ii4 ,in a well-known book a ,catholic poet#a describes with a great deal of power the development of men's nervous systems in these later days1 and warns his readers against a scrupulous terror lest they1 who no longer scourge themselves with briers1 should be neglecting a means of sanctification4 ,he points out1 with perfect justice1 that men1 in these days1 suffer instead in more subtle manners than did those of the ,middle ,ages1 yet none the less physical2 and puts us on our guard lest we should afflict ourselves too much4 ,yet we must take care1 also1 that we do not fall into the opposite extreme and come to regard bodily pain1 7as has been said7 as if it were altogether too elementary for our refined natures and as if it must have no place in the alchemy of the spirit4 ,this would be both dangerous and false4 ,what ,god hath joined together1 let no man put asunder6 ,for1 if we once treat body and soul as ill-matched companions and seek to deal with them apart1 instantly the door is flung open to the old ,gnostic horrors of sensualism on the one side or inhuman mutilation or neglect on the other4 ,footnote #a3 ,health and ,holiness by ,francis ,thompson4 ,the ,church1 on the other hand1 is very clear and insistent that body and soul make one man as fully as ,god and ,man make one ,christ2 and she illustrates and directs these strange co-relations and mutual effects of these two partners by her steady insistence on such things as ,fasting and ,abstinence4 ,and the saints are equally clear and insistent4 ,there never yet has been a single soul whom the ,church has raised to her altars in whose life bodily austerity in some form has not played a considerable part4 ,it is true that some have warned us against excess2 but what warnings and what excess6 ,be moderate1 advises ,st4 ,ignatius1 that most reasonable and moderate of all the saints4 ,take care that you do not break any bones with your iron scourge4 ,god does not wish that6 ,pain1 then1 has a real place in our progress4 ,who that has suffered can ever doubt it again8 ,let us consider1 therefore1 under this ,word of ,christ1 whether our attitude to bodily pain is what ,god would have it to be4 ,there are two mistakes that we may be committing4 ,either we may fear it too little--meet it1 that is to say1 with ,pagan stoicism instead of with ,christianity--or we may fear it too much4 ,despise not the chastening1 on one side1 or faint on the other4 ,it is surely the second warning that is most needed now4 ,for pain had a real place in ,christ's programme of life4 ,he fasted for forty days at the beginning of ,his ,ministry1 and ,he willed every shocking detail of the ,praetorium and ,calvary at the end4 ,he told us that ,his ,spirit willed it and1 yet more kindly1 that ,his ,flesh was weak4 ,he revealed1 then1 that ,he really suffered and that ,he willed it so4444 ,i thirst4 ,,the ,,sixth ,,word ,it is consummated4 ,he has finished ,his ,father's business1 ,he has dealt with sinners and saints1 and has finally disclosed to us the secrets of the ,soul and the ,body of ,his that are the hope of both sinners and saints alike4 ,and there is no more for ,him to do4 ,an entirely new ,beginning1 then1 is at hand1 now that the ,last ,sabbath is come--the ,last ,sabbath1 so much greater than the ,first as ,redemption is greater than ,creation4 ,for ,creation is a mere introduction to the ,book of ,life2 it is the arrangement of materials that are to be thrown instantly into confusion again by man1 who should be its crown and master4 ,the ,old ,testament is one medley of mistakes and fragments and broken promises and violated treaties1 to reach its climax in the capital ,mistake of ,calvary1 when men indeed knew not what they did4 ,and even ,god ,himself in the ,new ,testament1 as man in the ,old1 has gone down in the catastrophe and hangs here mutilated and broken4 ,real life1 then1 is now to begin4 ,yet1 strangely enough1 ,he calls it an ,end rather than a ,beginning4 ,consummatum est6 ,i4 ,the one and only thing in human life that ,god desires to end is ,sin4 ,there is not a pure joy or a sweet human relationship or a selfless ambition or a divine hope which ,he does not desire to continue and to be crowned and transfigured beyond all ambition and all hope4 ,on the contrary1 ,he desires only to end that one single thing which ruins relationships and spoils joy and poisons aspirations4 ,for up to the present there is not one page of history which has not this blot upon it4 ,god has had to tolerate1 for lack of better1 such miserable specimens of humanity6 ,jacob have ,i loved6 444 ,david a man after my heart2 the one a poor1 mean1 calculating man1 who had1 however1 that single glimmer of the supernatural which ,esau1 for all his genial sturdiness1 was without2 the other an adulterous murderer1 who yet had grace enough for real contrition4 ,hitherto ,he has been content with so little4 ,he has accepted vinegar for want of wine4 ,next1 ,god has had to tolerate1 and indeed to sanction--such an unworthy worship of ,himself--all the blood of the temple and the spilled entrails and the nameless horrors4 ,and yet this was all to which men could rise2 for without it1 they never could have learned the more nameless horror of sin4 ,last1 for ,his worshippers ,he has had to content ,himself with but one ,people instead of all peoples and nations and languages4 ,and what a ,people1--whom even ,moses could not bear for their treachery and instability6 ,and all this wretched record ends in the ,crime of ,calvary1 at which the very earth revolts and the sun grows dark with shame4 ,is it any wonder that ,christ cried1 ,thank ,god that is all done with at last6 ,,ii4 ,instead of this miserable past1 then1 what is to come8 ,what is that ,new ,wine ,he would drink with us in ,his ,father's ,kingdom8 ,first2 real and complete saints of ,god are to take the place of the fragmentary saints of the ,old ,dispensation1 saints with heads of gold and feet of clay4 ,souls are to be born again in ,baptism1 not merely sealed by circumcision1 and to be purified before they can contract any actual guilt of their own4 ,and1 of these1 many shall keep their baptismal innocence and shall go1 wearing that white robe1 before ,god ,who gave it them4 ,others again shall lose it1 but regain it once more1 and1 through the power of the ,precious ,blood1 shall rise to heights of which ,jacob and ,david never even dreamed4 ,to awake in ,his likeness was the highest ambition of the man after ,god's ,heart2 but to be not merely like ,christ1 but one with ,him1 is the hope of the ,christian4 ,i live1 the new saints shall say with truth1 yet now not ,i1 but ,christ liveth in me4 ,next1 instead of the old worship of blood and pain there shall be an ,unbloody ,sacrifice and a ,pure ,offering in which shall be all the power and propitiation of ,calvary without its pain1 all the glory without the degradation4 ,and last1 in place of the old enclosed ,race of ,israel shall be a ,church of all nations and tongues1 one vast ,society1 with all walls thrown down and all divisions done away1 one ,jerusalem from above1 that shall be the ,mother of us all4 ,,iii4 ,that1 then1 is what ,christ intended as ,he cried1 ,it is consummated4 ,behold the old things are passed away6 ,behold1 ,i make all things new6 ,and now let us see how far that is fulfilled4 ,where is there1 in me1 the ,new ,wine of the ,gospel8 ,i have all that ,god can give me from ,his ,throne on ,calvary4 ,i have the truth that ,he proclaimed and the grace that ,he released4 ,yet is there in me1 up to the present1 even one glimmer of what is meant by ,sanctity8 ,am ,i even within an appreciable distance of the saints who knew not ,christ8 ,have ,i ever wrestled like ,jacob or wept like ,david8 ,has my religion1 that is to say1 ever inspired me beyond the low elevation of joy into the august altitudes of pain8 ,is it possible that with me the old is not put away1 the old man is not yet dead1 and the new man not yet put on8 ,is that ,new ,sacrifice the light of my daily life8 ,have ,i done anything except hinder the growth of ,christ's ,church1 anything except drag down her standards1 so far as ,i am able1 to my own low level8 ,is there a single soul now in the world who owes1 under ,god1 her conversion to my efforts8 ,why1 as ,i watch my life and review it in ,his ,presence it would seem as if ,i had done nothing but disappoint ,him all my days6 ,he cried1 like the deacon of ,his own ,sacrifice1 ,go6 it is done6 ,ite2 missa est6 ,the ,sacrifice is finished here2 go out in its strength to live the life which it makes possible6 ,let me at least begin to-day1 have done with my old compromises and shifts and evasions4 ,ite2 missa est6 ,,the ,,seventh ,,word ,father1 into ,thy hands ,i commend ,my spirit4 ,he has cried with a loud voice1 and the rocks have rent to its echo1 and the earth is shaken1 and the ,veil of the ,old ,testament is torn from top to bottom as the ,old ,covenant passes into the ,new and the enclosed sanctity of the ,most ,holy ,place breaks out into the world4 ,and now1 as the level sun shines out again beneath the pall of clouds1 ,he whispers1 as at ,mary's knee in ,nazareth1 the old childish prayer and yields up ,his spirit into ,his ,father's hands4 ,the last ,paradox1 then1 is uttered4 ,he ,who saves others cannot save ,himself6 ,the ,shepherd of souls relinquishes ,his own4 ,for1 as we cannot save our lives unless we lose them for ,his sake1 so ,he too cannot save them unless ,he loses ,his for our sake4 ,i4 ,this1 then1 is merely the summary of all that has gone before2 it is the word ,finis written at the end of this new ,book of ,life which ,he has written in ,his ,blood4 ,it is the silence of the white space at the close of the last page4 ,yet it is1 too1 the final act that gives value to all that have preceded it4 ,if ,christ had not died1 our faith would be vain4 ,oh6 these ,new ,theologies that see in ,christ's ,death merely the end of ,his ,life6 ,why1 it is the very point and climax of ,his ,life that ,he should lay it down6 ,like ,samson himself1 that strange prototype of the ,strong ,man armed1 he slew more of the enemies of our souls by ,his ,death than by all ,his gracious ,life4 ,for this cause ,he came into the world4 ,for ,sacrifice1 which is the very heart of man's instinctive worship of ,god1 was set there1 imperishably1 in order to witness to and be ratified by ,his ,one ,offering which alone could truly take away sins2 and to deny it or to obscure it is to deny or to obscure the whole history of the human race1 from the ,death of ,abel to the ,death of ,christ1 to deny or obscure the significance of every lamb that bled in the ,temple and of every wine-offering poured out before the ,holy ,place1 to deny or to obscure 7if we will but penetrate to the roots of things7 the free will of ,man and the ,love of ,god4 ,if ,christ had not died1 our faith would be vain4 ,,ii4 ,once again1 then1 let us turn to the event in our own lives that closes them2 that death which1 united to ,christ's1 is our entrance into liberty and1 disunited1 the supreme horror of existence4 7#a7 ,for without ,christ death is a violent interruption to life1 introducing us to a new existence of which we know nothing1 or to no existence at all4 ,without ,christ1 however great our hopes1 it is abrupt1 appalling1 stunning1 and shattering4 ,it is this at the best1 and1 at the worst1 it is peaceful only as the death of a beast is peaceful4 7#b7 ,yet1 with ,christ1 it is harmonious and continuous with all that has gone before1 since it is the final movement of a life that is already dead with ,christ1 the last stage of a process of mortality1 and the stage that ends its pain4 ,it is just one more passing phase1 by which is changed the key of that music that every holy life makes always before ,god4 ,there is1 then1 the choice4 ,we may1 if we will1 die fighting to the end a force that must conquer us however we may fight1 resisting the irresistible4 ,or we may die1 in lethargic resignation1 as dogs die1 without hopes or regrets1 since the past1 without ,christ1 is as meaningless as the future4 ,or we may die1 like ,christ1 and with ,him1 yielding up a spirit that came from the ,father back again into ,his ,fatherly hands1 content that ,he ,who brought us into the world should receive us when we go out again1 confident that1 as the thread of ,his purpose is plain in earthly life1 it shall shine yet more plainly in the life beyond4 ,one last look1 then1 at ,jesus shows us the lines smoothed from ,his face and the agony washed from ,his eyes4 ,may our souls and the souls of all the faithful departed1 through ,his ,mercy1 rest in ,him6 ,,xi ,,life ,,and ,,death ,as dying1 and behold we live4--,,ii ,,cor4 ,,vi4 #i4 ,we have considered1 so far1 a number of paradoxical phenomena exhibited in the life of ,catholicism and have attempted to find their reconciliation in the fact that the ,catholic ,church is at once ,human and ,divine4 ,in her striving1 for example1 after a ,divine and supernatural ,peace1 of which she alone possesses the secret1 she resists even unto blood all human attempts to supplant this by another4 ,as a human society1 again1 she avails herself freely of human opportunities and aids1 of earthly and created beauty1 for the setting forth of her message2 yet she can survive1 as can no human society1 when she is deprived of her human rights and her acquired wealth4 ,as human she numbers the great multitude of the world's sinners among her children1 yet as ,divine she has produced the saints4 ,as ,divine she bases all her gospel on a ,revelation which can be apprehended only by ,faith1 yet as human she employs the keenest and most profound intellects for its analysis and its propagation4 ,in these and in many other similar points it has been attempted to show why she offers now one aspect and now another to human criticism1 and how it is that the very charges made against her become1 when viewed in the light of her double claim1 actual credentials and arguments on behalf of that claim4 ,finally1 in the meditations upon the ,seven ,words of ,christ1 we considered very briefly how1 in the hours of the deepest humiliation of ,his ,humanity1 ,he revealed again and again the characteristics of ,his ,divinity4 ,it now remains to consider that point in which she most manifests that double nature of hers and1 simultaneously therefore1 presents1 as in a kind of climax1 her identity1 under human terms1 with ,him ,who1 ,himself the ,lord of ,life1 conquered death by submitting to it and1 by ,his ,resurrection from the dead1 showed ,himself the ,son of ,god with power4 ,i4 ,death1 the world tells us1 is the final end of all things1 and is the one universal law of which evasion is impossible2 and this is true1 not of the individual only1 but of society1 of nations1 of civilization1 and even1 it would seem1 ultimately of physical life itself4 ,every vital energy therefore that we possess can be directed not to the abolition1 but only to the postponement of this final full close to which the most ecstatic created harmony must come at last4 ,our physicians cannot heal us1 they can merely ward off death for a little4 ,our statesmen cannot establish an eternal federation1 they can but help to hold a crumbling society together for a little longer4 ,our civilization cannot really evolve an immortal superman1 it can but render ordinary humanity a little less mortal1 temporarily and in outward appearance4 ,death1 then1 in the world's opinion1 is the duellist who is bound to win4 ,we may parry1 evade1 leap aside for a little2 we may even advance upon him and seem to threaten his very existence2 our energies1 in fact1 must be concentrated upon this conflict if we are to survive at all4 ,but it is only in seeming1 at the best4 ,the moment must come when1 driven back to the last barrier1 our last defence falters 444 and ,death has only to wipe his sword4 ,now the attitude of the ,catholic ,church towards ,death is not only the most violent reversal of the world's policy1 but the most paradoxical1 too1 of all her methods4 ,for1 while the world attempts to keep ,death at arm's length1 the ,church strives to embrace him4 ,where the world draws his sword to meet ,death's assault1 the ,church spreads her heart only to receive it4 ,she is in love with ,death1 she pursues him1 honours him1 extols ,him4 ,she places over her altars not a ,risen ,christ1 but a dying ,one4 ,if thou wilt be perfect1 she cries to the individual soul1 give up all that thou hast and follow me4 ,give up all that makes life worth living1 strip thyself of every advantage that sustains thy life1 of all that makes thee effective4 ,it is this that is her supreme appeal1 not indeed uttered1 with all its corollaries1 to all her children1 but to those only that desire perfection4 ,yet to all1 in a sense1 the appeal is there4 ,die daily1 die to self1 mortify1 yield1 give in4 ,if any man will save his life1 he must lose it4 ,so too1 in her dealings with society1 is her policy judged suicidal by a world that is in love with its own kind of life4 ,it is suicidal1 cries that world1 to relinquish in ,france all on which the temporal life of the ,church depends2 for how can that society survive which renounces the very means of existence8 ,it is suicidal to demand the virgin life of the noblest of her children1 suicidal to desert the monarchical cause of one country1 and to set herself in opposition to the ,republican ideals of another4 ,for even she1 after all1 is human and must conform to human conditions4 ,even she1 however august her claims1 must make terms with the world if she desires to live in it4 ,and this comment has been made upon her actions in every age4 ,she condemned ,arius1 when a little compromise might surely have been found2 and lost half her children4 ,she condemned ,luther and lost ,germany2 ,elizabeth1 and lost ,england4 ,at every crisis she has made the wrong choice1 she has yielded when she should have resisted1 resisted when she should have yielded4 ,the wonder is that she survives at all4 ,yes1 that is the wonder4 ,as dying1 behold she lives6 ,,ii4 ,the answer of course is easy4 ,it is that she simply does not desire the kind of life which the world reckons alone to be life4 ,to her that is not life at all4 ,she desires of course to survive as a human society1 and she is assured that she always shall so survive4 ,yet it is not on the ordinary terms of ordinary society that she desires survival4 ,it is not a natural life of which she is ambitious1 a life that draws its strength from human conditions and human environment1 a life1 therefore1 that waxes and wanes with those human conditions and ultimately meets their fate1 but a supernatural life that draws its strength from ,god4 ,and she recognizes1 as one of the most fundamental paradoxes of all1 that such a life can be gained and held only through what the world calls death4 ,she does not1 then1 want merely the life of a prosperous human state1 whether monarchy or republic4 ,there are times indeed in her history when such an accompaniment to her real existence is useful to her effectiveness2 and she has1 of course1 the right1 as have other societies1 to earthly dominions that may have been won and presented to her by her children4 ,or through her ministers1 as in ,paraguay1 she may administer for a while the ordinary civil affairs of men who choose to be loyal to her government4 ,yet if1 for one instant1 such a responsibility were really to threaten her spiritual effectiveness--if1 that is1 the choice were really presented to her between spiritual and temporal dominion--she would let all the kingdoms of the world go in an instant1 to retain her kingdom from ,god2 she would gladly suffer the loss of all things to retain ,christ4 ,and how is it possible to deny for one instant that her success has been startling and overwhelming--this fructification of ,life by ,death4 ,are there any human beings1 for example1 who have been more effective and influential than her saints--men and women1 that is to say1 who have died daily1 in order to live indeed8 ,they have not1 it is true1 prospered1 let us say1 as business men1 directors of companies1 or government officials1 but such a success is simply not her ideal for them1 not their own ideal for themselves4 ,that is precisely the kind of life to which they have1 as a rule1 determinedly and perseveringly died4 ,yet their effectiveness in this world has been none the less4 ,are any kings remembered as is the beggar ,labr who gnawed cabbage stalks in the gutters of ,rome8 ,are the names of any statesmen of1 let us say1 even a hundred years ago1 reverenced and repeated as is the name of the woman of ,spain called ,teresa of ,jesus who1 four hundred years ago1 ruled a few nuns within the enclosure of a convent8 ,are any musicians or artists loved to-day with such rapture as is ,god's little troubadour1 called ,francis1 who made music for himself and the angels by rubbing one stick across another8 ,or1 again1 is any empire that the world has ever seen so great1 so loyally united in itself1 so universal and yet so rigorous as is that spiritual empire whose capital is ,rome8 ,is there any nation with so fierce a patriotism as she who is ,supernational8 ,earthly kings speak from their thrones and what happens8 ,and an old man in ,rome who wears three crowns on his head speaks from his prison in the ,vatican and all the earth rings with it4 ,has her policy1 then1 been so suicidal after all8 ,from the world's point of view it has never been anything else4 ,her history is but one long example of the sacrifice of human activities and earthly opportunities2 she has expelled from her pulpits the most brilliant of her children1 she has silenced or alienated the most eloquent of her defenders4 ,she has cut off from herself all that she should have kept1 and hugged to her arms all that she should have relinquished6 ,she has never done anything but die6 ,she never does anything but live6 ,,iii4 ,turn1 then1 to the life of her ,lord for the solution of this riddle4 ,last week#a ,he was going to ,his ,death4 ,he was losing1 little by little1 all that bound ,him to ,life4 ,the multitudes that had followed ,him hitherto were leaving ,him by units and groups1 they who might have formed ,his armies to seat ,him on the throne of ,his father ,david4 ,disloyalty had made its way even among ,his chosen body-guard1 and already ,judas is bargaining for the price of ,his ,master's blood4 ,even the most loyal of all are dismayed1 and presently will forsake ,him and flee when the swords flash out in the garden of ,gethsemane4 ,a few weeks ago in ,galilee thousands were leaving ,him for the last time2 and when1 once again1 a company seemed to rally1 ,he wept6 ,and so at last the sacrifice was complete and1 one by one1 ,he laid down of ,his own will every tie that kept ,him in life4 ,and then on ,good ,friday itself ,he suffered that beauty of ,his ,face to be marred so that no man would ever desire ,him any more1 silenced the melody of the ,voice that had broken so many hearts and made them whole again2 ,he stretched out ,his ,shepherd's ,hands with which alone ,he could gather ,his sheep to ,his ,breast1 and the ,feet that alone could bear ,him into the wilderness to seek after that which was lost4 ,was there ever a ,suicide such as this1 such a despair of high hopes1 such a ruin of all ambition1 a dying so complete and irremediable as the ,dying of ,jesus ,christ8 ,footnote #a3 ,this ,sermon was preached on ,easter ,day4 ,and now on ,easter ,day look at ,him again and see how ,he lives as never before4 ,see how the ,life that has been ,his for thirty years--the ,life of ,god made ,man--itself pales almost to a phantom before the glory of that same ,life transfigured by ,death4 ,three days ago ,he fainted beneath the scourge and nails2 now ,he shows the very scars of ,his ,passion to be the emblems of immortal strength4 ,three days ago ,he spoke in human words to those only that were near ,him1 and limited ,himself under human terms of space and time2 ,he speaks now in every heart4 ,three days ago ,he gave ,his ,body to the few who knelt at ,his ,table2 to-day in ten thousand tabernacles that same ,body may be worshipped by all who come4 ,in a word1 ,he has exchanged a ,natural ,life for a ,supernatural in every plane at once4 ,he has laid down the ,natural ,life of ,his ,body to take it back again supernaturalized for ever4 ,he has died that ,his ,life may be released2 ,he has finished in order to begin4 ,it is easy1 then1 to see why it is that the ,church dies daily1 why it is that she is content to be stripped of all that makes her life effective1 why she too permits her hands to be bound and her feet fettered and her beauty marred and her voice silenced so far as men can do those things4 ,she is human8 ,yes2 she dwells in a body that is prepared for her1 but prepared chiefly that she may suffer in it4 ,her far-reaching hands are not hers merely that she may bind up with them the broken-hearted1 nor her swift feet hers merely that she may run on them to succour the perishing1 nor her head and heart hers merely that she may ponder and love4 ,but all this sensitive human organism is hers that at last she may agonize in it1 bleed from it from a thousand wounds1 be lifted up in it to draw all men to her cross4 ,she does not desire1 then1 in this world1 the throne of her ,father ,david1 nor the kind of triumph which is the only kind that the world understands to be so4 ,she desires one life and one triumph only--the ,risen ,life of her ,saviour4 ,and this1 at last1 is the transfiguration of her ,humanity by the power of her ,divinity and the vindication of them both4