The apostleship of prayer

Front matter

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

THE APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER

IMPRIMATUR.

Introduction

Analysis. I. [General principle for answering difficulties against religion; particular answer regarding the grace sufficient for salvation, given to all men.] The mystery, seemingly scant fruit from Incarnation — a favorite blasphemy of infidels. 1st answer from St. Paul. His 2d answer the ground of this work, aiming practically at Christians praying for the salvation of all men as a prime duty. The Apostle's line of argument : God wishes the salvation of all men, seriously, but not without their free co-operation.

II. 1st conclusion : a world not Christian in opposition with GocTs will. Calvin's blasphemous imputation to God. Jesus Christ nothing, or the universal Saviour; His teaching in the Samaritan city. Not the design of Providence to save men without co-operation — the twofold Apostleship, of the Word and of Prayer. Examples : the Blessed Virgin and St. John at the foot of the Cross — the reason for the Church's being — the mission of the Apostles. This 1st lesson of St. Paul refutes Calvin.

III. 2d conclusion: actual state of the world from the free will of man. Nature of God's co-operation with man's free will — the latter can refuse to carry out God's first design. Example, our Lord and Judas — the final triumph of God's glory — application to all men. St. Augustine on St. Paul, grace given to every man. God's mercy with many has ways mysterious to us, to be known at the last day — meanwhile graces given to others to be reckoned from our own. This 2d lesson of St. Paul, absolutely, is sufficient to answer the infidel.

IV. 3d conclusion, further condition laid down by Apostle, the duty of praying for all men because God wishes the salvation of all : hence, salvation depends on the free will of the one to be saved, but also on the zeal of others already in the way of salvation. An instance of the great law of human society, mutual influence. Example from the material universe, application to the moral world. Without this law, no true society, no real manifestation of the ineffable society of the Trinity. Essential relations of society with this law : God's impulsion of the moral world — man's co-operation an essential condition — man's power of resistance : hence, mutual dependence in the moral world. God's providing for each one in essentials not done away with — mutual influence adds superabundant means.

This law a view of charity according to St. Peter — an obligation on all. Admission of this law resolves the entire problem : the world not yet Christian, not because of any plan on the part of God, [nor because of lack of sufficient grace given to each soul] ; but because of lack of co-operation with God's designs on the part of Christians. Examples : the Church, her entire work in this co-operation ; children of the Church not faithful, Arius, Luther, Calvin, Voltaire — counterexamples, Sts. Vincent de Paul, Teresa, Xavier ; present unbelieving philosophers, what if Christian ? Not only extraordinary men bound to this co-operation, but result chiefly to be expected from the great number — all men have this vocation — Providence relies on the zeal and prayers of common Christians — glorious results wherever this is realized. This the chief co-operation asked by the Heart of Jesus — to explain this the object of this book.

editor's note on DIFFICULTIES. S

I

[The author, with the frankness of a Christian whose faith is complete and fearless, puts forth from the start one of the most striking difficulties of our religion. It is true this difficulty arises chiefly in imaginations sensitive to the attacks of the enemies of the Church. As put forward by the author it is fully answered in the succeeding pages — fully, that is, for the intellect. But the sensitive imagination may need to be turned aside to other considerations, when charges are so recklessly made against the holiness and goodness of Gcd by modern infidels. It is well, therefore, to add to the general answer made by St. Paul and quoted by our author, the broad principle laid down by Cardinal Newman: A hundred difficulties do not make one doubt ; also the sensible remark of an English priest who had received into the Church a notable number of converts : To every objection there is somewhere an answer.

Besides this summary way of dismissing the difficulty, the ordinary teaching of the Church, when properly stated, gives entire satisfaction to the mind. God, in one way or another — how it matters not — gives to every man who has the use of reason a light and strength of grace sufficient for him to save his soul, if he will. This is the answer St. Teresa was used to make to herself when she found her imagination weighed down by the sad state of the world such as it must always appear in our narrow and incomplete knowledge of things : No one has ever been condemned unless he willed it, that is, by deliberate and mortal sin. Once this truth is firmly grasped the soul may go safely on to consider how far a more than sufficient, a superabundant grace may be obtained for men by the apostolic and united prayers of Christians. This latter question, in its fulness,

4 THE MYSTERY.

is considered by the author. He too addresses himself to the imagination and heart of the Christian, but chiefly to reason enlightened by faith.]

In the ways of God's Providence there is one mystery, if there is any, that is enough to disturb both the heart and the reason of man. It is the small number of the elect, the seeming barrenness of fruit of the Incarnation and of the sweat and blood of the Son of God.

How are we to explain the relative uselessness of the Precious Blood which was shed in torrents? A single drop should have been more than enough to save a thousand worlds. How are we to recognize the action of Supreme Wisdom amid the confusion of monstrous errors, of gross vices, of impure and bloody religions? In the constant strife of passion and self-interest against principle and duty it is the latter that are wellnigh always vanquished. How is it possible for us not to stand in amazement ? The God Who shows Himself so generous to the meanest creatures, Who gives to the flower of the field the drop of dew that it may bloom and to the little ones of the raven their food, leaves so great a number of reasonable beings without the bread of truth, without the refreshing dew of the hopes of heaven.

We must acknowledge it — this pitiful state of things is in sad contrast with the touching pictures given us in Holy Scripture of God's mercy, with that boundless love for men which brought the Son of Man down to earth and to the death of the cross.

ST. Paul's first answer.

As a weapon in its attack on Providence, impiety delights in making use of these incomplete results of the mission of the Incarnate Word. It is one of the favorite themes of its blasphemy, one of the points on which it relies with most success, for shaking the faith of weak or ignorant Christians.

What answer shall we make to its scoffs ? Shall we remain mute before accusations that aim at nothing less than convicting Supreme Wisdom of having failed in the most perfect of Its works? Shall we seem to acknowledge by our silence that God, Whose very essence is His goodness, Who has shown forth His goodness with so great profusion in senseless creatures, has failed in regard to the only beings able to respond to His love ?

God forbid we should be brought to so sad a necessity !

To these impious blasphemies we can, first of all, give an answer that admits of no reply. It is furnished us by the Apostle, when he exclaims : Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knoivledge of God} What are we, to pretend to comprehend with our weak minds His incomprehensible judgments, to penetrate by our shifty reasonings into His impenetrable ways ? Could God be the Infinite One if an understanding so limited as ours were able to enter into all His designs ? Do we dare to make ourselves His counsellors, when day by day we stand con-

1 Romans, xi. 33.

st. paul's second answer.

founded by the genius or the cleverness of our fellows ? Who hath forwarded the spirit of the Lord ? Or who hath been His counsellor and hath taught Him? 2

This first reply is enough to confound the pride of human reason. It is the only one it deserves to receive, perhaps it is the best that could be made to it.

But for the humility of the Christian heart which studies the designs of its God, not to sit in judgment on them but to fulfil them, faith has in store another answer as salutary as it is satisfactory. This answer will serve as a foundation to all the practical considerations developed in this work. It is found, implicitly, in the words of the Apostle which appear on our title-page.

/ desire therefore first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all men : .

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour,

Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God, and one Mediator of God and men, the Man Christ Jesus :

Who gave Himself a redemption for all. 7.

These words comprehend three points. First, there is the Apostle's aim in practice, that Christians

2 Isaias, xl. 13; Romans, xi. 34; Wisdom, ix. 13.

3 I Timothy, ii. 1-6.

HIS PRACTICAL AIM. 7

should pray for the salvation of all men. Then he sets this duty before them as one of the very first of all. And he attaches so great importance to this observation that he is not content with pointing out their duty to them; he persuades, he desires them to apply themselves to it with all their strength. It is not a feeble or passing prayer that he so earnestly desires to see us sending up to God. It is a repeated entreaty, fervent, without ceasing, taking on itself every form that prayer can have, supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings. The Apostle speaks as do all those who are pierced through by some great thought and swayed by its masterful feeling. He heaps together like expressions and exhausts Christian speech, as if no words were enough to tell the importance and the extent of this duty which he desires to impress on us. This, once more, is his practical aim. It is also the aim which this book sets before itself, and the reader is already in a state to appreciate its importance.

Most o/ all at this period of our work, if we are to clear up the frightful problem which we have to face, there is grave need of understanding well the reason on which the Apostle bases this great duty of prayer for the salvation of all our brethren. He says : This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. And then, as if to anticipate the doubt and the distrust which the

8 THE LINE OF ARGUMENT.

feeling of his unworthiness causes to spring up in the heart of man, the Apostle gives us in a few words the most striking proofs of his comforting assertion. He tells us there is one God ; and this God being the Creator and Master of all men cannot but wish the happiness of his privileged creature. There is one Mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, by nature the Son of God, and become the Son of Man by His own free choice; having taken us for His brethren He must also have taken on Himself the obligation of reconciling us with God His Father. Finally, this Divine Mediator gave Himself a redemption for all ; and for the salvation of all He has paid ransom superabundantly. The love of God the Father for His Son is infinite ; and now that He has given Him to us as our Brother and our Saviour, now that He has accepted His blood as a ransom for the crimes of all men, how can He do else than wish the salvation of these men who are thus become His children ?

This is the line of argument of St. Eaul. Everyone at first sight will grasp the resistless strength with which it holds together. It will be quite as easy for us to draw from it the explanation of the actual state of the world and of the great mystery of Providence.

For this purpose let us consider with a little more attention the different parts of the Apostle's discourse ; from the relation they bear to each other

GOD WISHES MAN'S CO-OPERATION. 9

the explanation we seek will be clearly seen. He tells us we must pray without ceasing for the salvation of all men, because God, Who has created all and has given to all His Son as their Saviour, desires the salvation of all equally. But with what will does God desire the salvation of all men? Doubtless, it is a will serious and real \ it would be blasphemous to suppose an insincere will in God. Does it follow that this will of His is so absolute, so efficacious, that its execution is not left to the free co-operation of His creatures ? Clearly not ; for if God willed our salvation in this way He would work it out alone, not waiting for our prayers. By the fact that the Apostle makes God's will the reason of praying for its execution, we are taught that the salvation of the world is one of those works in which God asks and waits for the co-operation of His creatures. This evidently is the sense of the Apostle's words. To understand them otherwise would be to take from them all their meaning, and to make of them, instead of a reasoning as natural as it is solid, a series of incoherent propositions without any real sense.

This is the clearing up of the mystery, and at the same time the revelation to us of our most glorious duty ; this too must result from those evident conclusions to which the Apostle's reasoning will lead us.

10 FIRST CONCLUSION.

II. The first conclusion we should draw is this

If the world is not yet Christian, if the great number of peoples, instead of walking in the way of light that leads to the mountain of Sion, wretchedly drag themselves along the miry roads of error and of vice, this pitiful state is so far from being the outcome of God's designs that it is, on the contrary, in open opposition with His will.

The Apostle proves this truth to us in the manner most convincing ; to doubt it would require us to renounce our reason as men and our faith as Christians as well. No man, unless passion sways him, can persuade himself that the wretched state to which we see a great part of mankind reduced can come from any design of God. For thus God, without other motive than that of using His all-powerful will, would refuse to a great number of His reasonable creatures the means of knowing and serving Him.

Calvin dared to think this. He did not fear to say that, simply through His good pleasure, God has given up the greater number of men to damnation. But the common sense of mankind has treated this blasphemy as it deserved, and even the disciples of the blasphemer have entered their protests against it. Really, we cannot but understand that, if God is free to create or not to create, it is a necessity for calvin's blasphemy. 11

Him to give the beings He creates an end worthy of Himself and according to their own nature. He would be wanting at once in wisdom, in justice, and in goodness, if He gave His reasonable creatures faculties that might reach the Infinite, along with a measureless need of happiness, and at the same time denied them the means absolutely necessary for gaining this only and essential object of their aspirations. If the errors and the crimes of men were the outcome of the wilful design of God, God Himself would be responsible for them. Consequently, He would cease to be holy, to be true, to be God ; and evil would no longer be evil.

This our created reason easily discerns. But God Himself has made it known to us most touchingly, by the mouth of His Son, Who is His Word in the same Substance as Himself and His Uncreated Reason. This desire for our salvation has passed from all eternity from the bosom of the Father to the bosom of the Son. It is the divine seed, and the blessed fruit it has brought forth is the Incarnation. To doubt that God wishes the salvation of all men is to doubt not only the wisdom and the goodness of Jesus Christ, but even His existence. For Jesus Christ is nothing, or else He is the only and universal Saviour.

In fact, what is the whole Gospel other than the expression of this will ? We find it on every page ; it is enough to cite a single instance.

12 our lord's teaching.

One day our Divine Saviour had wearied Himself without seeming aim. After a long journey He was come, toward the hour of noon, to the neighborhood of an unbelieving city. There He stayed His steps beside a well; and His disciples, seeing Him worn out with fatigue and hunger, went into the city to seek refreshment for Him. On their return they found Him speaking to an unbelieving woman, whose mind He had enlightened and whose heart He had healed, by means the most considerate and merciful.

Master, they said to Him, take this food, of which You stand in need. I have other food, replied the Saviour, which your eyes as yet know not how to discern. And as they were astonished He added, My food is to do the will of My Father and to save souls. Behold these fields, covered with the fair growing crops. In three months, you say, the harvest-time will come. Ah, lift your eyes higher and behold, far away, how the whole world is but one vast field already ripe to the harvest. This field I am to sow in My tears. But to you and your successors I leave the joy of the harvest. For it is a true word — one is he that soweth, another he that reapeth ; and the labor is shared, that one day there may be joy in common. 4

In such teaching Jesus Christ unfolds to us His Father's will, and the only aim of the mission He

4 St. John, iv.

THE TWOFOLD APOSTLESHIP. 13

Himself has received from the Father, and the cause of the seeming want of success of His mission. To save souls, to bring back to the fold the wandering sheep, to bring home again all God's children scattered through the wilderness of this world, to spread the fire broadcast over the earth and utterly enkindle it with the flames of the love of God — this was the object of His desire, the work He had unceasingly before His eyes, to the fulfilment of which He sacrificed Himself without reserve. But it was not in the designs of Providence that He should accomplish this work by Himself alone. There must be others to work along with Him, and these co-workers He shall not find so long as He is on the earth. The food for which He hungers none will give Him. Lifted up on the Cross — the altar of His sacrifice — He looks out upon the earth and finds few souls that do not withstand all the attraction of His love. He leaves the earth with a cry of distress from His mercy poured out in vain — I thirst.

This thirst for the salvation of all men the Church — there on Calvary in the persons of Mary and John and the Holy Women — will take to herself as her dearest inheritance. And to the successors of St. John and the Holy Women she will transmit it, that is, to the twofold apostleship which, until the end, shall share the fulfilling of the work of Jesus Christ — the priesthood of office and the priesthood of zeal, the apostleship of the word and the apostleship of prayer.

14 THE MISSION OF THE APOSTLES.

God's will that all men be saved is therefore the Church's reason for existence, as it was the reason why Jesus Christ existed. In truth, Jesus Christ sent His Apostles as the Father had sent Him, with the same power, but also with the same end in view. He knows there is no other name than His in which the world, both the peoples and the individuals who compose it, can be saved. He has said that He is the corner stone, that all which is not built up on Him is doomed to fee overthrown. He is the way, and by no other can anyone draw near to His Father and reach the final rest of life everlasting. He is the vine, and all that brings not forth fruit in Him is to be cast into the fire. Therefore He sends His Apostles to the ends of the earth, that they may bring all men to Him.

And He said to them : Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be condemned*

Again He says to them : Stay you in the city until you be endued with power from on high} Then go forth, and you shall be witnesses unto Me, not only in Jerusalem and Samaria, but even to the uttermost part of the earth?

Now we can see : to deny that God wills seriously the salvation of all the world and of each man, to endeavor to cast back on Him the responsibility

5 St. Mark, xvi. 15, 16. 6 St. Luke, xxiv. 49. 7 Acts, i. 8,

REFUTATION OF CALVIN. 15 for the darkness that covers the great part of nations, is to deny the existence of the Church and the Divinity of Jesus Christ, it is to deny all reason and God Himself.

This is the first lesson given us by St. Paul. It is not sufficient to resolve the sorrowful problem before us ; it is only enough to set finally aside the hateful imaginings of Calvin. But the whole question still remains behind. If it is not to the original design of Providence that we are to attribute the actual state of the world and the loss of so many millions of souls, to what shall we assign it ?

16 SECOND CONCLUSION.

Ill,

The answer at once presents itself, it is naturally suggested by the Apostle's words. It is drawn from the liberty of man.

We have said that the words of St. Paul would bear no explanation, if there was question of God's will, absolute and efficacious and to be carried out of necessity. In such a case no co-operation is asked apart from that of blind and inert causes. God commands the sun to give light, the rain to fall, the plant to bud forth ; and the sun shines, the rain falls, the plant buds, because neither the sun, the rain, nor the plant have any will which they can oppose to God's will. This is not the case with man. Man is free, and the fearful privilege of his liberty is precisely in this: he can at will co-operate with God's designs or resist them, fulfil or frustrate the Divine will. It is true, he shall never overcome the Almighty ; he shall never prevent God from attaining His own ends, even through man's resistance. But it is none the less true that he can refuse his co-operation with God's original design and render ineffective a very serious will of his Sovereign Lord.

Jesus Christ willed very seriously to touch the heart of Judas, when, in the Garden of Olives, He made him this affectionate reproach : Friend, whereto art thou come ? Dost thou betray the Son of Man man's freedom to resist. 17

with a kiss ? % But Judas was free to resist. He was pleased to use for his ruin the freedom which would have given its entire merit to his repentance. Here then our Saviour's desire was really frustrated. No doubt Judas could not prevent his treason's turning to the glory of his Master, nor its being as helpful to our own salvation as his conversion would have been. This is the triumph of Divine Wisdom. But Judas really put an obstacle in the way of the fulfilment of God's designs on himself.

Let us apply this, though in different measure, to all men. We shall then understand how it is possible that God should very seriously wish all men to be saved, and yet, after so many centuries, the greater number are still out of the way of salvation.

It is thus Augustine, Saint and Doctor, explains the Apostle's words : " Yes, God wishes all men to be saved, He wishes them all to come to the knowledge of the truth. But, however serious and sincere this will may be, it does not destroy the free will of those it seeks to save." 9 All men, without exception, at certain critical moments of their life," hear the voice of their Father resounding in the depths of their soul and calling them to Himself in heaven. But it will always be in their power to remain deaf to the call, and to refuse to allow them-

8 St. Matthew, xxvi. 50; St. Luke, xxii. 48.

18 god's mercy to all men.

selves to be led by it. 10 All shall have their day of salvation, but not all will profit by it. 11 All shall feel themselves drawn to truth and goodness, not all will give themselves up to God Who draws them. Most of all since the Incarnation of the Saviour, has light living and plentiful been shed over the world. St. Augustine tells us once again : " Since the Sun of Truth has risen above the horizon, no longer can man rightly cast off on the darkness which surrounds him the responsibility for his wanderings. ' ' 12

For the greater number of men, it is true, we cannot possibly find out the mysterious ways by which the Divine Mercy comes to them : their resistance wipes out every trace. Only at the great day of revelation shall we know the secrets of that inner striving of grace, of the work of God in souls that seemed the most forsaken by Him. He would be indeed rash and guilty who should bring forward, as an accusation against God's Mercy, the very resistance which men show to His endeavors, and the care they take to stifle His loving pleadings. Let a man be only sincere with himself, and he will see that if he is not a Christian and a perfect Christian it is not the fault of grace. Then let him judge others by him-

10 Compare St. John, xi. 45-6 : [of the Jews who witnessed the raising of Lazarus from the dead by Jesus, many believed in Him — but some of them went to the Pharisees, .]

11 II Corinthians, vi. 2.

12 In Psalm, xviii. 7.

VINDICATION OF GOD'S JUSTICE. 19

self, and not push his folly and injustice so far as to pretend to extenuate the known crime of his own rebellion by the supposed innocence of the rebellion of another.

This is the second teaching we can draw from the words of St. Paul. Strictly speaking, it is enough to solve our problem, and to vindicate God's Justice and reduce the unbeliever to silence.

2*

20 THIRD CONCLUSION.

IV

Yet, let us acknowledge it, this answer does not give entire satisfaction to the instincts of our faith. In the presence of the wonders of Calvary and the Passion of a God dead to save all men, the Christian heart remains filled with sadness at the sight of so many victims of ignorance and error and corruption. We ask ourselves once again how it is that the wishes of the Son of God expiring on the cross have been till now so imperfectly realized. How is it that so many souls created in the image of the Trinity and redeemed by the blood of the Saviour remain strangers to this plentiful redemption, and have not more abundant means of salvation ?

In this sorrowful perplexity let us again have recourse to God's Apostle. He will lead us to understand yet another condition which has been wanting until now to the entire fulfilment of the work of the Saviour. To realize it more faithfully would bring about the salvation of the world.

In fact, what is it he tells us? That we should pray for all our brethren, because God wishes the salvation of all. What other meaning can this have than that the fulfilment of God's merciful will does not depend solely on the free co-operation of those it seeks to save? It depends also on the zeal, the