The true religion and its dogmas

Contents

Part 5.

Chapter Paoi

Introduction 1

Chapter I. Eequirements Foe, The Study Of Eeligion

Causes of ignorance and error — The mental vision obscured by prejudices and passion — Influence of preconceived ideas on the Apostles themselves — What prevents Rationalists from admitting revelation — Attitude of Protestants towards the Catholic Church — Liberal Catholicism — Research after truth requires an unbiassed mind md an earnest will.

Many and different are the causes which may withhold man from the possession of truth. A more common one, yet perhaps less noticed than the others, lies in the inquirer's own dispositions. A clear and bright mirror reflects objects as they are ; but let this same mirror be dimmed by dust, it will obscure whatever is placed before it. So with our mind. Free from prejudices and passions, we can easily perceive the truth ; but when preconceived ideas have warped our intellect, or passions ruffled the smooth surface of our soul, or worldly interests spread their dense film over it, things are no longer represented as they are.

The True Religion.

Some glimpse of the truth may, indeed, be vouchsafed us, but its full light and purity must of necessity be wanting.

Let us confirm this by an example borrowed from the Gospel. On one occasion, especially, Our Lord spoke of His Passion to the Apostles, and they understood Him not. The Evangelist seems desirous of drawing attention to this fact, for he repeats it three times in the same verse, and almost in the same words : " They understood none of these things ; this word was hid from them ; they understood not the things that were said." - Here the difficulty could not have arisen from the incomprehensible nature of the subject, which was no hidden truth or profound mystery. Neither could it have come from our Lord's language. His words are clear ; He speaks not in parables ; He tells them plainly that He " shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked and spit upon, and after they have scourged Him, they will put Him to death." (Luke xix.) The difficulty came from the Apostles themselves, from the false ideas they entertained and the imperfect dispositions of their wills.

The Apostles had, in fact, formed an erroneous idea of the Messiah. They knew He was to be great, but they measured greatness by a worldly standard. He was to establish a Kingdom, but to them this conveyed only the notion of temporal power and material prosperity. He was to be glorious, but they could conceive of no glory except the perishable one derived from earthly enterprise, success, enthusiasm. Upon such a basis it was impossible to reconcile greatness with humiliation, power with contempt, or glory with the silence of the tomb. Consequently they understood none of the words spoken to them.

Their will was in fault as much as their intellect. The Apostles were loath to suffer. The love they bore their Master had not yet consumed all self-love, nor were their aspirations as yet centred, upon the unfading jo}'s of eternity. They shrank from suffering, and yet knew that they could not expect to gather laurels in the same world wherein their Saviour was to be crowned with thorns. They must perforce be content with trials and contradictions, mockery and contempt, pain and death, if they were to be followers of a Man of Sorrows, friends of a persecuted Lord, children of a crucified God. The conclusion was unavoidable, except by denying the principle on which it rested. And so they discarded from their minds the very idea of our Lord's sufferings; and when the details of His s

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coming Passion were unfolded before them, they understood nothing of what was said.

This we see often repeated in our day. We wonder, and with reason, that men otherwise morally estimable reject all revelation ; that others, Christians though they be, and wanting neither ability nor learning, are yet so unfair toward our Church ; and that Catholics themselves sometimes act and speak in a way that does not become the disciples of Christ and the children of God's own Church. The latent cause, in most cases, is one and the same. Men find it difficult to accept Christ's teaching, to understand His words, or to practise His religion ; and this on account of the dispositions of their own souls.

Some deny revelation altogether. Why ? Because it contains mysteries and teaches truths which are opposed to what they call their " profound convictions." But have they ever examined these convictions? Have they a correct idea of the nature of mysteries ? Do they realize man's position in this world? Ask them what they understand by a mystery. Their answer is well known : something contrary to reason. Ask them what idea they have of reason itself? They look upon it as 66 an independent faculty, the criterion of all truth." By those who accept these definitions, mysteries must be logically rejected. It is evident that there can be no truth above the comprehension of an independent mind, the criterion of all truth ; nor can anything be true which contradicts the evident principles of reason. The argument is correct in form ; but this alone cannot ensure the truth of the conclusion. Its supporters should examine the premises upon which it rests. If they would consent to analyze the convictions they take for axioms, they would perceive the contradictions involved ; how they imply either the deification of man, or the annihilation of God. If they assert that man's mind is restricted by no limitations, they transform man into God ; on the other hand, they destroy the very idea of God if they do not acknowledge in Him an infinite truth and perfection. Should they consider man, as he is, a finite being, and God as the Infinite, they would soon ascertain that a finite mind cannot fully understand an infinite perfection, and would therefore admit the existence of truths beyond the reach of human faculties. But, while they entertain different views, and look upon mysteries through so false and perverted a medium, they cannot understand Christ's teaching ; and His word is hidden from them.

The True Religion.

The same method of reasoning is applicable to those Christians who reject Christ's teaching as presented by the Roman Catholic Church. Search for the source of their opposition ; ask why they condemn the Church, her doctrine and her practices. You will find that it is because many poor and ignorant people belong to it ; because some of its ministers have given occasion for scandal ; because they cannot reconcile some of its doctrines with their early religious or secular training ; because the Church constrains man's liberty by certain regulations. Do these and similar reasons furnish ground to justify their condemnation of the Church? Are they weighty enough to decide the most important of questions, the only one worthy of supreme attention ? Can they be relied upon to settle a point upon which our eternal destiny depends?

They claim to decide everything by the teaching of the Gospel. But can they point out the passage of Scripture in which the wealth, dignities, refinement, or worldly qualifications of its professors are given as the marks of the true religion, the religion of Him who despised the world, its vanities and glories, and came to preach to the poor? They are scandalized, perhaps, at what they hear or read about some of the Church's representatives. We join in their condemnation ; but do they expect the grace of the priesthood to destroy man's liberty, or render him impeccable ? Have they witnessed no scandals in their own denominations? Is the life of each of their ministers a model of temperance, purity, virtue? Judas w r as one of the twelve ; yet Judas fell. Must we, then, be astonished that some of the representatives of the Church have proved unworthy of their vocation, and have failed to follow the example of the far greater number among their brethren, whose lives have been immaculate, and whose actions glowed with the fervor of their love for God and men.

And from what source do those outside of the Church most frequently derive their ideas of her teaching, dogmas, and ceremonies? Often from the words of a servant, whose knowledge is barely sufficient to enable her to save her own soul, or from newspapers antagonistic to our cause ; from the declamations of preachers whose eloquence is much aided by their inventive powers ; from some partisan histoiy, in which men are misjudged, events falsified, and doctrines misrepresented; or even from the impudent calumnies of some who have left the church of their youth, — the church they once esteemed, loved, and recognized as the

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true Church of God, but which they deserted and scorned when their hearts became too corrupt, their lives too scandalous, their eyes too impure, to behold the beauty of her divine face, and share in the benediction of her love. Thanks be to God, the Catholic Church bears no resemblance to that creation of their fancy which they call by her venerable name ! Were our separated brethren to know our Church as she is, they would surely share in our enthusiasm; but while they behold her through the refracting medium of prejudice and passion, her beauty is for them but deformity, her loveliness is hidden from their eyes, they understand none of the eulogies she calls forth.

These remarks apply to Catholics as well, though not to the same extent. Brought in contact with theorists and sceptics of every grade, they do not protect themselves sufficiently against error. At times, likewise, their minds are clouded by the false ideas which drift in upon them, and, without adopting the abusive language of the enemies of religion, they insinuate almost as much, astonishing their fellow-christians by assertions which would never have been uttered, had a test been applied to what they also call their scientific convictions.

From these few remarks we may gather what dispositions we should bring to the study of religion. If in any other sphere of knowledge it is necessarj 7 " to keep our prejudices in abeyance, much more does it behoove us when we apply our mind to the study of religion. We do not say, however, that study alone, even with the right dispositions of mind and will, is capable of making men Christians, much less Catholics. Above all, God's grace is required ; but, as this divine assistance is promised to all, it will not be denied him who is sincere and earnest in his inquiries about religion. May this book fall in with men of such a stamp, men truly noble, over whose minds truth exercises a royal sway ; may it aid such in rising above vulgar prejudices and following the dictates of impartial reason.

CHAPTER XL

THE NECESSITY OF RELIGION.

The idea of God in man's mind — Atheism most repugnant to reason — Necessary connection between a personal Creator and the duties of religion — Religion claimed by the very needs of our hearts — No other than God can satisfy the cravings of our nature — Man's utter helplessness in misery — Duties of religion most essential, most universal, most consoling.

One of the first truths instilled into us at the dawn of our intelligence is, assuredly, that of God's existence. In childhood we lisped this belief at our mother's knee, and its mysterious language awoke in our hearts vague but potent feelings, such as words could ill express. We grew older : our intellect, coming forth from its infancy, delighted in the contemplation of nature ; it considered the world of matter and the world of mind; it questioned all beings as to their Author; and thereupon from them all was heard in divinely harmonious accord the echo of our childhood's faith, There is a God.

Such is the belief of all men, at all times, and in all regions ; and if any have professed to hold

The Necessity of Religion.

a contrary opinion, their words have belied their thoughts. In the recesses of their own minds there has ever been a latent protest against their blasphemies, a remorse in the depth of their consciences, and, above all, a frightful void in the solitude of their hearts. To these men, as to all others, reason must continually repeat : Here are effects ; there must, then, be a supreme cause, a prime mover from which all motion begins, a force whence all other forces derive their origin, a truth upon which all truths are founded, a perfection which is the source of all perfections, — in a word, there must be a Creator, and this Creator the universal voice of mankind calls God. This idea is too deeply rooted in man to be torn from him. It may be buried for a time beneath the refuse of vice ; but, sooner or later, it will force its way back to light, and stand again before him in all its reality.

As we do not write these pages for atheists, let us turn away from their blasphemies. For our part, we admit the existence of this supreme cause, this creator of all; it is our most profound conviction, as rational beings. But does not this admission involve the acknowledgment that Religion is our duty? For what conception do we form of this creative Being? Can we suppose

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that when God, by an act of His infinite power, sends forth rational creatures into space and time, He tells them that they owe Him nothing ; that they are not bound to acknowledge the Author of their existence ; that they are dispensed with showing Him sentiments of gratitude and love ; that they must rely upon no other but themselves ; that, in a word, they are independent as He himself is independent? Creation with such a sequel would be an absurdity and the greatest of misfortunes. Alas ! what would bscome of man bereft of God ! To whom would he look for consolation in sorrow ; how satisfy his thirst for happiness ! No, we cannot live without God. As the flower to the sun, so our soul turns continually to Him. The act of creation does not banish us from His heart. He is ever attracting us toward Himself. He still remains our Father, and continually invites us to look up to Him with filial love.

Disastrous to man, such disregard of His own work would, moreover, be impossible to God. In creating the world, God may well establish such an order among beings He draws from nothingness that one may exist for another ; but He must necessarily intend them all for Himself, and direct them all finally to His glory. To this every creature must tend. And as glory consists in nothing

The Necessity of Religion.

but knowledge and love ; as knowledge and love are acts of intellectual beings ; as, among all the creatures which compose this world, man alone is endowed with an intelligent nature, man is called to preside over all, to govern all, to make all converge toward the same end. He is to be the high-priest of creation, to bring back to God all that His love has drawn forth from His power. After he himself has glorified God's greatness, beauty, power, man is to lend a voice to all nature, that she may exalt and glorify Him in her turn; or, rather, taking all beings into union with himself, he is to chant with them a hymn of glory and adoration to the Supreme Power, the Infinite Goodness, the Eternal Love. Such is the essential end of man, his most indispensable duty, the reason of his existence. Man is made to know God, to honor God, to love God. He is made for religion ; for religion is nothing else than the knowledge we have of God, the honor we render Him, the love of a heart which springs upward toward Him. Such is the necessity of intercourse between God and man, a necessity that we can infer from our hearts' needs as well.

We have already observed that in the inmost recesses of our bosoms, at the very heart of our life, we experience a craving that pleasure fails to satisfy; a want as sacred as it is imperative; a supreme need which, in default of all other testimony, would suffice to prove that religion is necessary for man. Nothing short of God can satisfy the yearning of our nature. In childhood and youth golden dreams flit before our fancy ; present ancf future are decked in the gayest colors ; the world glitters before our eyes with all the brightness that the dawn of a fair day spreads over the horizon : and yet, when we look out from the secret bow r er of our hearts, this brightness serves to show but more clearly the abyss which our dreams and hopes seek, but are unable to fill. We reach manhood : there is change of scene, but not of condition. Man rushes forward with courage and energy in his chosen career; honors, dignities, wealth, seem to fascinate and intoxicate him with enthusiasm : but even then, — and then more than at other times, — a voice rises from the heart of hearts within him, warning him of the emptiness of that which the world displays before his gaze, sometimes even giving him up, it may be, to a sadness he knows not how to define. Shall we speak of old age ? We know but too well what must be the feelings of a man bending over his own grave, when, after having drained the cup of

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this world's joys, he no longer sees anything that can charm his last days. What, then, is the cause of this condition of man? Whence comes it that at no age can he, if left to himself, find peace and happiness? It is because man is made for God, — his mind to know Him, his heart to love Him, his whole being to serve Him ; and so long as he does not prostrate himself before God, and raise his soul to heaven, quiet and blessedness fly from him, and the whole world seems wrapped in funereal gloom. " Our heart knows no rest until it finds rest in Thee," exclaims St. Augustin. How striking, then, the testimony which conscience bears to religion !

We have been giving our attention to the worldly-prosperous man, living as he does in the midst of honors, dignities, pleasures ; what shall we say of him when troubled by sorrow ? at the hour of great sufferings? under the weight of those griefs which crush out the life from him? In the day of those calamities which seem to infect the strongest courage, what power, save that of religion, can spread the oil of peace over the surging waters of bitterness? How slight is the support our poor reason can afford ! We may say, and repeat it over again, and have it proclaimed thousands of times, that: —

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"Not the rage of the million commanding things evil, Not the doom frowning near in the brows of the tyrant,

Shakes the upright and resolute man

In his solid completeness of soul ;

If in fragments were shattered the world, Him its ruin would strike undismayed.

All this is beautiful, very beautiful, in the majestic poetry of Horace, but it is only poetry. Experience shows us a far different spectacle, and we have only to look at the public prints to discover what becomes of man when, without the aid of religion, he is brought face to face with misery. Often he seeks to remedy one evil by another and a greater, and puts an end to the life which seems too heavy a burden to be longer borne. It is religion alone that can sustain man in his misfortunes ; not any kind of religion, but the religion that has a prayer, an altar, a priesthood, a positive, well defined, and infallible teaching. Such and only such a religion can relieve man from the crushing weight of his sufferings. Teaching him to bow before his Creator, she reveals a distant vision of his eternal home ; and in the name of God, whom she declares to him, in the name of the heaven to which she directs his gaze, in the name of the eternity of which she excites his hopes and fears, she commands him to banish the grief which is preying upon his life. And man nerves himself to action once more : a new energy springs up in his soul ; a new courage supports his weakness ; a new life is , infused into his whole being. He rises transformed, resigned to suffer, sometimes even blessing his sufferings, because he sees in them a means of coming nearer to God. Such divine effects can only be believed through experience, and those who are strangers to all religious sentiment can never realize how often tears have been dried, sorrows dissipated, despair calmed, at the foot of the altar. Out on the open ocean the waves are lashed and torn by the fury of fierce winds ; but let them glide within the sheltering arms of the land-locked harbor, and they sink into repose. Thus the human soul, agitated by suffering and sorrow, finds a sweet calm beneath the shelter of the divine sanctuary. God is all things to the soul, but He is, above all, its refuge. Woe to him who seeks any other ! He will be stranded upon hidden reefs, and become the victim of an irreparable shipwreck.

We may infer from these remarks that the practice of religion is for man a duty and a necessity. It is a duty, and the first of duties, because, among all the relations of man, none can precede that which connects him with God. It is

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the most essential of duties, for God Himself could not have created man without requiring from him the homage of his intelligence and his heart. It is the most universal of duties; it extends to all men, at all times, under all conditions. And this duty is glorious for man, since it ennobles him ; it is profitable, because its accomplishment secures his well-being; it is consoling, because it teaches him to regard God as his Father. Supported under the weight of his own weakness, protected in danger, comforted in grief, attached to a better world by bonds which only he himself can sever, man does not, says a profound thinker, exhaust his power in a stern resistance to misfortune, but meets it with a serene and gentle resignation born of submission and confidence. Through the sombre clouds heaped round him, he sees the luminous ray which, descending from heaven, shines through and dissipates the gloom. The religious man alone, deserted by the whole world, still finds a consoler; submitted to life-long sufferings, he still retains the grasp of hope. Earth has its heroes, religion its martyrs.

Chapter III. Ee As Ok And Revelation

War against revelation waged by rationalism — Man is said to find in himself every requisite for his development — Power of reason; its limits — Revelation does not undervalue man's intellectual powers — It checks the abuse of them — The history of past generations a proof of man's powerlessness as to religious systems — Present condition of rationalism — Its theory as to the future disproved by reason itself — Necessity of revealed religion.

For a century past, a very singular phenomenon has been, more than ever before, thrusting itself into prominent notice. From one end of the world to the other, in schools, in speeches, in books, in reviews, in newspapers, we hear words echoed and re-echoed, striving, each and all, to elevate into honor the insurrection of reason against revealed religion ; and this in the name of science and philosophy. The faith of nineteen centuries, which has made the intellectual life of nations, scattered hosts upon hosts of darkness, crowned man with so much glory, and raised his heart to the highest level of the moral life, appears in this age, to the spirit of innovation, as a yoke to be slipped, a barrier to be removed, before the

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mind can enter upon that career of progress which is alone deemed worthy of our nature. According to this view, we need but reason to formulate a religion worthy of God and of man. All else, they tell us, is due solely to the imagination of self-styled believers ; man finds in himself every requisite for his own nobility ; he has no need of the dreams of half-enlightened intellects.

A full and lengthy confutation of this theory may be perused in the writings of many authors. Even prescinding from the able treatment of such men as Frayssinous, Lacordaire, and Felix, whose conferences are a lasting monument to the glory of religion, it would be sufficient to take up the work of James Balmes on Protestantism and Catholicity, in which, assuredly, enough is brought forth to silence the enemies of Revelation. However, as our subject requires us to touch upon this question, we do not hesitate to indite these few pages, in which it shall be our aim to prove succinctly that human reason, left to itself, has never been able, and never will be able, to produce a religion capable of ennobling our nature ; and from this fact we will deduce the necessity of Revelation.

And first, we are not of those who undervalue the power of our natural faculties, and refuse to

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man that which constitutes one of his chief embellishments, the power, all his own, of knowing truth. Far from us be those declamations, says Fr. Felix, which, " in the name of God and of the human race, demand the dethronement of reason"; we proclaim not that " this queen reigns only over ruins, and bears no sceptre but that of nothingness." We admit, and should admit, the native power of our intelligence when she consents to remain in her own sphere ; and did not the history of the world, the authority of sages, and our own experience, suffice to convince us of this truth, revelation itself is ready to defend reason against the foolish and imprudent aggressions of certain philosophers. But, if we do not undervalue reason to the pretended advantage of revelation, neither can we be so arrogant as to repeat with other philosophers that reason is enough to illumine our every sphere of truth ; to instruct us in all our duties ; to found a religion worthy of God's greatness and man's dignity. For, although we do not deny that human reason can boast of having dared much, explored much, even discovered much, we must not, for all that, refuse to confess that man's genius has always failed in the attempt to formulate religious systems.

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It is unnecessary to summon before the tribunal of reason each and eveiy nation of the world. We may pass by the barbarous and uncultivated, and, regarding attentively the two most polished races of antiquity, judge of the need of divine revelation by the facts they display to our examination. Greece is the first to come before us. We behold her great in all things else ; great in her philosophy, — the schools of Athens claimed the empire of thought ; great in her eloquence, — the names of her renowned orators are in the mouths of all 5 great in her poetry, — the chefs d'oeuvres of the Greek stage will always take the first rank in the history of literature ; but, notwithstanding this, philosophers, poets, orators, all alike failed from a religious point of view ; they were powerless to reform the belief of the people ; nowhere were they the authors of light. And Rome, the world's mistress, Rome, in the day of her glory and grandeur, with her magistrates and her orators, her philosophers and her warriors, her poets and her artists, her we see bowing before gods whose very names we are loath to repeat, and surrendering herself to the most degrading and most infamous forms of worship. Nor will it avail that there were men whose worship was not so sensual. Granted ; but the

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aberrations of such, both in doctrine and life, serve to show still more strikingly the necessity of revelation.

Religion is nothing else but the sum of the duties which bind man to God. Now, to discover, to determine, to define, these duties, what is needed? There is needed an accurate knowledge of Him to whom they are offered, and him who offers them. Will you say that these men's ideas of both God and man were just, worthy, elevated? For them God was not a living person, a directing guide, a smiling friend, a loving father, a watchful protector, a provident master. This was not their God. The God whom they presented to the adoration of humanity was with some, Matter; with others, Nature; with most, an unknown being. With those who had conceived the highest idea of the Divinity, God was the artificer of the world ; but an artificer too perfect to debase himself so far as to guide mankind, and too blessed to be touched by our misfortunes and miseries. And man, who walked the same earth with them, what was he ? Whence came he ? Whither tended the aspirations of his soul ? These great minds, affrighted at the task set before them, were wont to flit from one error to another; now they considered him on a level with matter,