[The work presented here is variously known as The Catechism of the Council of Trent, the Roman Catechism, or the Catechism of St. Pius V.
The first editions of the Catechism were printed without headings of any kind, and with hardly any break in the text beyond an occasional paragraph. This arrangement, however, appeared unsatisfactory to Pius V who therefore ordered that in subsequent editions the book should be divided into parts, chapters, and paragraphs. The divisions and headings in this text of the Catechism form no part of the original work and were supplied by the translators.
This translation used as its basis the Manutian text as reflected in the Maredsous edition of 1902, the fourth Roman edition of 1907 and the Turin edition of 1914. The purpose in the present version has been to reproduce the sense of the original as exactly as possible in clear, dignified, modern English.
The translation and preface are by John A. McHugh, O.P. and Charles J. Callan, O.P. (circa 1923).]
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Preface
ORIGIN
OF THE ROMAN CATECHISM
AUTHORITY
AND EXCELLENCE OF THE ROMAN CATECHISM
CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL
OF TRENT FOR PARISH PRIESTS
INTRODUCTORY
The Necessity Of
Religious Instruction
Need of an
Authoritative Catholic Catechism
The Nature of this
Work
The Ends of
Religious Instruction
Knowledge Of Christ
Observance Of The
Commandments
Love Of God
The Means Required
for Religious Instruction
Instruction Should
Be Accommodated To The Capacity Of The Hearer
Zeal
Study Of The Word
Of God
Division of this
Catechism
How This Work Is To
Be Used
PART I : THE
CREED
Faith
Necessity Of Faith
Unity Of Faith
The Creed
Division Of The
Creed
ARTICLE I : "I
BELIEVE IN GOD, THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH"
Meaning Of This
Article
"I
Believe"
Faith Excludes
Doubt
Faith Excludes
Curiosity
Faith Requires Open
Profession
"In God"
Knowledge Of God
More Easily Obtained Through Faith Than Through Reason
Knowledge Of God
Obtained Through Faith Is Clearer
Knowledge Of God
Obtained Through Faith Is More Certain
Knowledge Of God
Obtained Through Faith Is More Ample And Exalted
The Unity Of Nature
In God
The Trinity Of
Persons In God
"The
Father"
God Is Called
Father Because He Is Creator And Ruler
God Is Called
Father Because He Adopts Christians Through Grace
The Name Father
Also Discloses The Plurality Of Persons In God
The Doctrine Of The
Trinity
Practical
Admonitions Concerning The Mystery Of The Trinity
"Almighty"
Meaning Of The Term
Almighty"
Why Omnipotence
Alone Is Mentioned In The: Creed
Advantages Of Faith
In God’s Omnipotence
Not Three
Almighties But One Almighty
"Creator"
"Of Heaven and
Earth"
Creation Of The
World Of Spirits
Formation Of The
Universe
Production Of Man
"Of all Things
Visible and Invisible"
God Preserves,
Rules And Moves All Created Things
Creation Is The
Work Of The Three Persons
ARTICLE II :
"AND IN JESUS CHRIST, HIS ONLY SON, OUR LORD"
Advantages Of Faith
In This Article
Necessity Of Faith
In This Article
"Jesus"
"Christ"
"His Only
Son"
"Our
Lord"
Duties Owed To
Christ Our Lord
ARTICLE III :
"WHO WAS CONCEIVED BY THE HOLY GHOST, BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY"
Importance Of This
Article
First Part of this
Article:
"Who was
Conceived,'
"By the Holy
Ghost"
In The Incarnation
Some Things Were Natural, Others Supernatural
How To Profit By
The Mystery Of The Incarnation
Second Part Of This
Article: "Born Of The Virgin Mary"
The Nativity Of
Christ Transcends The Order Of Nature
Christ Compared to
Adam" Mary to Eve
Types and
Prophecies of the Conception and Nativity
Lessons which this
Article Teaches
Humility And
Poverty Of Christ
Elevation And
Dignity Of Man
Duty Of Spiritual
Nativity
ARTICLE IV :
"SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, WAS CRUCIFIED, DEAD, AND BURIED'"
Importance Of This
Article
First Part of this
Article: '"Suffered Under Pontius Pilate, was Crucified,,
"Suffered,"
"Under Pontius
Pilate"
"Was
Crucified"
Importance Of The
History Of The Passion
Figures And
Prophecies Of The Passion And Death Of The Saviour
Second Part Of This
Article: "Dead, And Buried"
Christ Really Died
Christ Died Freely
The Thought Of
Christ's Death Should Excite Our Love And Gratitude
Christ Was Really
Buried
Circumstances Of
Christ’s Burial
Useful
Considerations on the Passion
The Dignity Of The
Sufferer
Reasons Why Christ
Suffered
Christ Was
Delivered Over To Death By The Father And By Himself
The: Bitterness Of
Christ's Passion
Fruits Of Christ's
Passion
Christ’s Passion,
-- A Satisfaction, A Sacrifice, A Redemption An Example
Admonition
ARTICLE V : "HE
DESCENDED INTO HELL, THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD"
Importance Of This
Article
First Part of this
Article: "He Descended into Hell"
"Hell"
Different Abodes
Called Hell"
"He
Descended"
Why He Descended
into Hell
To Liberate The
Just
To Proclaim His
Power
Second Part of this
Article: "The Third Day He arose again from the Dead"
"He arose
Again"
"From the
Dead"
"The Third
Day"
"According to
the Scriptures"
Three Useful
Considerations on this Article
Necessity Of The
Resurrection
Ends Of The
Resurrection
Advantages Of The:
Resurrection
Signs Of Spiritual
Resurrection
ARTICLE VI :
"HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN, SITTETH AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD THE FATHER
ALMIGHTY"
Importance Of This
Article
First Part of this
Article: "He Ascended into Heaven"
"Into
Heaven"
"He
Ascended"
Second Part of this
Article: "Sitteth at the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty"
"At the Right
Hand"
"Sitteth"
Reflections on the
Ascension:
Its History
Greatness Of This
Mystery
Reasons Of The
Ascension
Results Of The
Ascension
Virtues Promoted By
The Ascension.
The Ascension
Benefits The Church And The Individual
ARTICLE VII :
"FROM THENCE HE SHALL COME TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD"
Meaning Of This
Article
"From Thence
He Shall Come"
"To Judge the
Living and the Dead"
Two Judgments
Reasons For General
Judgment
This Truth has
Rightly been made an Article of the Creed
Circumstances of
the Judgment:
The Judge
Signs Of The
General Judgment
The Sentence Of The
Just
The Sentence Of The
Wicked
Importance of Instruction
on this Article
ARTICLE VIII :
"I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST"
Importance Of This
Article
"Holy
Ghost"
"I Believe in
the Holy Ghost"
The Holy Ghost Is
Equal To The Father And The Son
The Holy Ghost Is
Distinct From The Father And The Son
"The
Lord"
"Life-Giver"
"Who
Proceedeth from the Father and the Son"
Certain Divine
Works are Appropriated to the Holy Ghost
Creation,
Government, Life
The Seven Gifts
Justifying Grace
ARTICLE IX : "I
BELIEVE IN THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH; THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS"
The Importance Of
This Article
First Part Of This
Article : "I Believe In The Holy Catholic Church
"Church"
Mysteries Which The
Word Church Comprises
Other Names Given
The Church In Scripture
The Parts of the
Church
The Members Of The
Church Militant
Those Who Are Not
Members Of The Church
Other Uses of the
Word "Church"
The Marks Of The
Church
"One'
Unity In Government
Unity In Spirit,
Hope And Faith
"Holy"
"Catholic"
Apostolic
Figures of the
Church
"I Believe the
Holy Catholic Church"
Second Part of this
Article: "The Communion of Saints"
Importance Of This
Truth
Meaning of
"The Communion of Saints"
Communion Of
Sacraments
Communion Of Good
Works
Those Who Share In
This Communion
Communion In Other
Blessings
ARTICLE X :
"THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS"
Importance Of This
Article
The Church Has the
Power of Forgiving Sins
Extent of this
Power:
All Sins That
Precede Baptism
All Sins Committed
After Baptism
Limitation of this
Power:
It Is Not Limited
As To Sins, Persons, Or Time
It Is Limited As To
Its Ministers And Exercise
Greatness of this
Power
Sin Can Be Forgiven
Only By The Power Of God
This Power
Communicated To None Before Christ
Sin Remitted
Through The Blood Of Christ
The Great Evil From
Which Forgiveness Delivers Man
Exhortation:
This Remedy To Be
Used
Abuse To Be Guarded
Against
ARTICLE XI :
"THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY"
Importance Of This
Article
"The
Resurrection of the Body"
The Fact of the
Resurrection:
Examples And Proofs
Derived From Scripture
Analogies From
Nature
Arguments Drawn
From Reason
All Shall Rise
The Body Shall Rise
Substantially the Same
Restoration Of All
That Pertains To The Nature And Adornment Of The Body
Restoration Of All
That Pertains To The Integrity Of The Body
The Condition of
the Risen Body Shall be Different
Immortality
The Qualities Of A
Glorified Body
Impassibility
Brightness
Agility
Subtility
Advantages of Deep
Meditation on this Article
ARTICLE XII :
"LIFE EVERLASTING"
Importance Of This
Article
"Life
Everlasting"
"Everlasting"
Life
Negative and
Positive Elements of Eternal Life
The Negative
The Positive
Essential Happiness
The Light Of Glory
The Beatific Vision
An Illustration Of
This Truth
Accessory Happiness
Glory
Honour
Peace
How to Arrive at
the Enjoyment of this Happiness
PART II : THE
SACRAMENTS
Importance Of
Instruction On The Sacraments
The Word
"Sacrament"
Definition of a
Sacrament
"A Sacrament
is a Sign"
Proof From Reason
Proof From
Scripture
"Sign of a
Sacred Thing" : Kind of Sign Meant Here
Natural Signs
Signs Invented By
Man,
Signs Instituted By
God
Kind of Sacred
Thing Meant Here
Other Sacred Things
Signified By The Sacraments
All The Sacraments
Signify Something Present, Something Past, Something Future:
A Sacrament
Sometimes Signifies The Presence Of More Than One Thing
Why the Sacraments
were Instituted
Constituent Parts
of the Sacraments
Ceremonies Used in
the Administration of the Sacraments
The Number Of The
Sacraments
Comparisons among
the Sacraments
The Author of the
Sacraments
The Ministers of
the Sacraments
Unworthiness Of The
Minister And Validity
Lawfulness Of
Administration
Effects of the
Sacraments
First Effect:
Justifying Grace
Second Effect:
Sacramental Character
How to Make
Instruction on the Sacraments Profitable
THE SACRAMENT OF
BAPTISM
Importance Of
Instruction On Baptism
Names of this
Sacrament
Definition Of
Baptism
Constituent
Elements Of Baptism
Matter of Baptism
Testimony Of
Scripture Concerning The Matter Of Baptism
Figures
Prophecies
Fitness
Chrism Added To
Water For Solemn Baptism
Form of Baptism
Words Of The Form
Essential And
Non-Essential Words Of The Form
Baptism In The Name
Of Christ
Administration of
Baptism
Institution Of
Baptism
Baptism Instituted
At Christ's Baptism
Baptism Made
Obligatory After Christ's Resurrection
Reflection
The Ministers of
Baptism
Bishops And Priests
The Ordinary Ministers
Deacons
Extraordinary Ministers Of Baptism
Ministers In Case
Of Necessity
The Sponsors at
Baptism
Why Sponsors Are
Required At Baptism
Antiquity Of This
Law
Affinity Contracted
By Sponsors
Duties Of Sponsors
Who May Not Be
Sponsors
Number Of Sponsors
Necessity of
Baptism
Infant Baptism:
It's Necessity
Infants Receive The
Graces Of Baptism
Baptism Of Infants
Should Not Be Delayed
Baptism Of Adults
They Should Not
Delay Their Baptism Unduly
Ordinarily They Are
Not Baptised At Once
In Case Of
Necessity Adults May Be: Baptised At Once
Dispositions for
Baptism
Intention
Faith
Repentance
Advantages To Be
Derived From These Reflections
Effects of Baptism
First Effect Of
Baptism: Remission Of Sin
Concupiscence Which
Remains After Baptism Is No Sin
Further Proof Of
The First Effect Of Baptism
The Second Effect
Of Baptism: Remission Of All Punishment Due To Sin
Baptism Does Not
Exempt From Penalties Of The Civil Law
Baptism Remits The
Punishment Due To Original Sin After Death
Baptism Does Not
Free Us From The Miseries Of Life
Baptism A Source Of
Happiness To The Christian Even In This Life
Third Effect Of
Baptism: Grace Of Regeneration
Fourth Effect Of
Baptism: Infused Virtues And Incorporation With Christ
Why The Practice Of
Virtue Is Difficult Even After Baptism
Fifth Effect Of
Baptism: Character Of Christian
Baptism Not To Be
Repeated
In Conditional
Baptism The Sacrament Is Not Repeated
Sixth Effect Of
Baptism: Opening The Gates Of Heaven
Effects Of Baptism
Foreshadowed In The Baptism Of Christ
Measure In Which
Those Effects Are Obtained
Ceremonies of
Baptism
Their Importance
Three Classes Of
Ceremonies In Baptism
Ceremonies That Are
Observed Before Coming To The Font: Consecration Of Baptismal Water
The Person To Be
Baptised Stands At The Church Door
Catechetical
Instruction
The Exorcism
The Salt
The Sign Of The
Cross
The Saliva
The Ceremonies
Observed After Coming To The Font
The Renunciation Of
Satan
The Profession Of
Faith
The Wish To Be
Baptised
The Ceremonies That
Follow Baptism: Chrism
The White Garment
The Lighted Candle
The Name Given In
Baptism
Recapitulation
THE SACRAMENT OF
CONFIRMATION
Importance Of
Instruction On Confirmation
Name of this
Sacrament
Confirmation is a
Sacrament
Confirmation is
Distinct from Baptism
Institution of
Confirmation
Component Parts of
Confirmation
The Matter
The Remote Matter
Of Confirmation Is Chrism
The Appropriateness
Of Chrism
Chrism To Be
Consecrated By The Bishop
The Form Of
Confirmation
Minister of
Confirmation
Sponsors at
Confirmation
The Subject of
Confirmation
All Should Be
Confirmed
The Proper Age For
Confirmation
Dispositions For
Receiving Confirmation
The Effects of
Confirmation
The Grace Of
Strength
Increase In Grace
Character Of
Soldier Of Christ
Ceremonies Of
Confirmation
The Anointing Of
The Forehead
The Sign Of The
Cross
Time When
Confirmation Should Be Conferred
The Slap On The
Cheek
The Pax
Admonition
THE SACRAMENT OF THE
EUCHARIST
Importance Of
Instruction On The Eucharist
Institution of the
Eucharist
Meaning of the Word
"Eucharist"
Other Names Of This
Sacrament
The Eucharist Is a
Sacrament Properly So Called
In What Respect The
Eucharist Is A Sacrament
How The Eucharist
Differs From All The Other Sacraments
The Eucharist Is
But One Sacrament
The Eucharist
Signifies Three Things
Constituent Parts
of the Eucharist
The Matter
The First Element
Of The Eucharist Is Bread
The Sacramental
Bread Must Be Wheaten
The Sacramental
Bread Should Be Unleavened
Unleavened Bread
Not Essential
Quantity Of The
Bread
The Second Element
Of The Eucharist Is Wine
Water Should Be
Mixed With The Wine
No Other Elements
Pertain To This Sacrament
Peculiar Fitness Of
Bread And Wine
Form Of The
Eucharist
Form To Be Used In
The Consecration Of The Bread
Not All The Words
Used Are Essential
Form To Be Used In
The Consecration Of The Wine
Explanation Of The
Form Used In The Consecration Of The Wine
Three Mysteries Of
The Eucharist
The Mystery of the
Real Presence
Proof From
Scripture
Proof From The
Teaching Of The Church
Testimony Of The
Fathers
Teaching Of The
Councils
Two Great Benefits
Of Proving The Real Presence
Faith Is
Strengthened
The Soul Is
Gladdened
Meaning of the Real
Presence
Christ Whole And
Entire Is Present In The Eucharist
Presence In Virtue
Of The Sacrament And In Virtue Of Concomitance
Christ Whole And
Entire Present Under Each Species
Christ Whole And
Entire Present In Every Part Of Each Species
The Mystery of
Transubstantiation
Proof From The
Dogma Of The Real Presence
Proof From The
Councils
Proof From
Scripture
Proof From The
Fathers
Why The Eucharist
Is Called Bread After Consecration
The Meaning of
Transubstantiation
Transubstantiation
A Total Conversion
A Consequence Of
Transubstantiation
The Mystery of the
Accidents without a Subject
Proof From The
Preceding Dogmas
Proof From The
Teaching Of The Church
Advantages Of This
Mystery
The Effects of the
Eucharist
The Eucharist
Contains Christ And Is The Food Of The Soul
The Eucharist Gives
Grace
The Grace Of The
Eucharist Sustains
The Grace Of The
Eucharist Invigorates And Delights
The Eucharist
Remits Venial Sins
The Eucharist
Strengthens Against Temptation
The Eucharist
Facilitates The Attainment Of Eternal Life
How The Effects Of
The Eucharist May Be Developed And Illustrated
Recipient of the
Eucharist
Threefold Manner Of
Communicating
Necessity Of
Previous Preparation For Communion
Preparation Of Soul
Preparation Of Body
The Obligation of
Communion
How Often Must
Communion Be Received?
The Church Desires
The Faithful To Communicate Daily
The Church
Commands; The Faithful To Communicate Once A Year
Who Are Obliged By
The Law Of Communion
The Rite of
Administering Communion
Why The Celebrant
Alone Receives Under Both Species
The Minister of the
Eucharist
Only Priests Have
Power To Consecrate And Administer The Eucharist
The Laity
Prohibited To Touch The Sacred Vessels
The Unworthiness Of
The Minister Does Not Invalidate The Sacrament
The Eucharist as a
Sacrifice
Importance Of
Instruction On The Mass
Distinction of
Sacrament and Sacrifice
The Mass Is a True
Sacrifice
Proof From The
Council Of Trent
Proof From
Scripture
Excellence of the
Mass
The Mass Is The
Same Sacrifice As That Of The Cross
The Mass A
Sacrifice Of Praise, Thanksgiving And Propitiation
The Mass Profits
Both The Living And The Dead
The Rites and
ceremonies of the Mass
THE SACRAMENT OF
PENANCE
Importance Of
Instruction On This Sacrament
Different Meanings
of the Word "Penance"
The Virtue of
Penance
Meaning Of Penance
Penance Proved To
Be A Virtue
The Steps Which
Lead Up To This Virtue
Fruits Of This
Virtue
Penance as a
Sacrament
Why Christ
Instituted This Sacrament
Penance Is a
Sacrament
This Sacrament May
Be Repeated
The Constituent
Parts of Penance
The Matter
The Form Of Penance
The Rites Observed
in the Sacrament of Penance
Effects of the
Sacrament of Penance
The Necessity of
the Sacrament of Penance
The Three Integral
Parts of Penance
Their Existence
Their Nature
Necessity Of These
Integral Parts
The First Part
of Penance
Contrition
The Meaning Of
Contrition
Contrition Is A
Detestation Of Sin
Contrition Produces
Sorrow
Names Of Sorrow For
Sin
Qualities of Sorrow
for Sin
It Should Be
Supreme
Sorrow For Sin
Should Be Intense
Sorrow For Sin
Should Be Universal
Conditions Required
for Contrition
Detestation Of Sin
Intention Of
Confession And Satisfaction
Purpose Of
Amendment
Reasons For These
Conditions
Forgiveness Of
Injuries
The Effects of
Contrition
Means of Arousing
True Contrition
The Second Part
of Penance
Confession
Necessity Of
Confession
Advantages Of
Confession
Definition Of
Confession
Confession
Instituted By Christ
Rites Added By The
Church
The Law of
Confession
Proof Of The
Obligation
The Age At Which
The Law Of Confession Obliges
At What Time The
Law Of Confession Obliges
The Qualities of
Confession
Confession Should
Be Entire
Sins Concealed
Sins Forgotten
Confession Should
Be Plain, Simple, Sincere
Confession Should
Be Prudent, Modest, Brief
Confession Should
Be Made Privately And Often
The Minister of the
Sacrament of Penance
The Usual Minister
The Minister In
Danger Of Death
Qualifications Of
The Minister
The Confessor Must
Observe The Seal Of Confession
Duties of the
Confessor towards Various Classes of Penitents
The Well Disposed
Should Be Exhorted To Thanksgiving And Perseverance
The Indisposed
Should Be Helped
Those Who Seek To
Excuse Their Sins Should Be Corrected
Those Who Are
Ashamed To Confess Their Sins Should Be Instructed
The Careless Should
Be Rebuked
The Unprepared Should
Be Dismissed Or Led To Good Disposition
The Pastor Should
Show The Wrong Of Human Respect
The Third Part
of Penance
Satisfaction
General Meaning Of
The Word "Satisfaction,"
Various Kinds Of
Satisfaction To God
Elements Of
Sacramental Satisfaction
Necessity Of
Satisfaction
Advantages of
Satisfaction
It Is Required By
God’s Justice And Mercy
Satisfaction Atones
To The Church
Satisfaction Deters
Others From Sin
By Satisfaction We
Are Made Like Unto Christ
Satisfaction Heals
The Wounds Of Sin
Satisfaction
Disarms The Divine Vengeance
Source of the
Efficacy of Satisfactory Works
Conditions for
Satisfaction
Works Of
Satisfaction Are Of Three Kinds
One Can Satisfy For
Another
Duties of the
Confessor as Regards Satisfaction
Restitution Must Be
Insisted On
Quantity And
Quality Of Penances Should Be Reasonable
Voluntary Works Of
Penance Should Be Recommended
Admonition
THE SACRAMENT OF
EXTREME UNCTION
Importance Of
Instruction On Extreme Unction
Names of this
Sacrament
Extreme Unction Is
a True Sacrament
Extreme Unction Is
But One Sacrament
Essential Parts of
Extreme Unction
The Matter Of
Extreme Unction
The Form Of Extreme
Unction
The Ceremonies Of
Extreme Unction
Institution of
Extreme Unction
The Subject of
Extreme Unction
The Subject Must Be
In Danger Of Death
The Danger Must
Arise From Sickness
The Person Anointed
Must Have Attained The Use Of Reason
Administration of
Extreme Unction
Dispositions for
the Reception of Extreme Unction
The Minister of
Extreme Unction
The Effects of
Extreme Unction
Admonition
THE SACRAMENT OF
HOLY ORDERS
Importance Of
Instruction On This Sacrament
Dignity of this
Sacrament
Requirements in
Candidates for Orders
Holiness,
Knowledge, Prudence
Divine Call
Right Intention
The Twofold Power
Conferred by this Sacrament
The Power Of Orders
Greatness Of This
Power
Names of this
Sacrament
Holy Orders Is a
Sacrament
Number of Orders
Tonsure
The Name
"Cleric"
Origin And Meaning
Of Tonsure
The Minor Orders
Porter
Reader
Exorcist
Acolyte
The Major Orders
Subdeacon
Deacon
Priest
Twofold Priesthood
The Internal
Priesthood
The External
Priesthood
Functions of the
Priesthood
Degrees of the
Priesthood
Priests
Bishops
Archbishops
Patriarchs
The Pope
The Minister of
Holy Orders
The Recipient of
Holy Orders
Qualifications for
the Priesthood
Holiness Of Life
Competent Knowledge
Canonical Fitness
Effects of Holy
Orders
Admonition
THE SACRAMENT OF
MATRIMONY
Importance Of
Instruction On This Sacrament
Nature and Meaning
of Marriage
Names Of This
Sacrament
Definition Of
Matrimony
Essence And Cause
Of Marriage
The Kind of Consent
Required in Matrimony
Mutual
External
Present
The Essence of
Marriage Constituted by the Consent
Twofold
Consideration of Marriage
Marriage As A
Natural Contract
Instituted By God
Marriage Is
Indissoluble By Divine Law
Marriage Not
Obligatory On All
The Motives And
Ends Of Marriage
Marriage Considered
as a Sacrament
Marriage Is A
Sacrament
Marriage before
Christ
It Was Not A
Sacrament
Before Christ
Marriage Had Fallen From Its Primitive Unity And Indissolubility
Christ Restored to
Marriage its Primitive Qualities
Unity Of Marriage
Indissolubility Of
Marriage
Advantages Of
Indissolubility
The Three Blessings
of Marriage
Offspring
Fidelity
Sacrament
The Duties of
Married People
Duties Of A Husband
Duties Of A Wife
The Law of the
Church on Marriage
The Rite To Be
Observed
The Impediments Of
Marriage
The Recipient of
Matrimony
Dispositions With
Which The Sacrament Is To Be Approached
Consent Of Parents
The Use Of Marriage
PART III : THE
DECALOGUE
Importance Of
Instruction On The Commandments
Motives for
Observing the Commandments
God Is The Giver Of
The Commandments
The Commandments
Were Proclaimed With Great Solemnity
The Observance Of
The Commandments Is Not Difficult
The Observance Of
The Commandments Is Necessary
The Observance Of
The Commandments Is Attended By Many Blessings
God's Goodness
Invites Us To Keep His Commandments
The Promulgation of
the Law
The People To Whom
The Law Was Given
Epitome Of Jewish
History
Lessons To Be Drawn
From Jewish History
The Time And Place
In Which The Law Was Promulgated
THE FIRST
COMMANDMENT : "I am the lord thy god, who brought thee out of the land
of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before
me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any
thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things
that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve
them. I am the lord thy god, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation of them that hate
me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my
commandments."
"I am the Lord
thy God"
"Who Brought
thee out of the Land of Egypt, out of the House of Bondage"
"Thou shalt
not have Strange Gods before Me"
The Above Words
Contain A Command And A Prohibition
What They Command
What They Forbid
Importance Of This
Commandment
Sins Against This
Commandment
Veneration And
Invocation Of Angels And Saints Not Forbidden By This Commandment
It Is Lawful To
Honour And Invoke The Angels
It Is Lawful To
Honour And Invoke The Saints
Objections Answered
The Honour And
Invocation Of Saints Is Approved By Miracles
The Above Words Do
Not Forbid All Images
They Forbid Idols
And Representations Of The Deity
They Do Not Forbid
Representations Of The Divine Persons And Angels
They Do Not Forbid
Images Of Christ And The Saints
Usefulness Of
Sacred Images
How The Sanction
Contained In The Above Words Should Be Proposed
Mighty
Jealous
Zeal In The Service
Of God
"Visiting The
Iniquity," Etc.
"And Showing
Mercy, Etc.
"Of Them That
Hate Me"
Of Them That Love
Me
THE SECOND
COMMANDMENT : "Thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy god in vain"
Why This
Commandment Is Distinct From The First
Importance Of
Instruction On This Commandment
Positive Part of
this Commandment
Various Ways Of
Honouring God's Name
Public Profession
Of Faith
Respect For The
Word Of God
Praise And
Thanksgiving
Prayer
Oaths
Meaning Of An Oath
Oaths Are
Affirmatory And Promissory
Conditions Of A
Lawful Oath
First Condition:
Truth
Second Condition:
Judgment
Third Condition:
Justice
Lawfulness Of Oaths
An Objection
Against Oaths
Negative Part of
this Commandment
Various Ways In
Which Cod's Name Is Dishonoured: False Oaths
Unjust Oaths
Rash Oaths
Oaths By False Gods
Irreverent Speech
Neglect Of Prayer
Blasphemy
Sanction of this
Commandment
THIRD COMMANDMENT :
"Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day. Six days shalt thou
labour, and do all thy works; but on the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord
thy god; thou shalt do no work on it, neither thou nor thy son, nor thy
daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy beast, nor the
stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the lord made heaven and
earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh
day; wherefore the lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it."
Reasons For This
Commandment
Importance Of
Instruction On This Commandment
How The Third
Differs From The Other Commandments
How The Third Is
Like The Other Commandments
The Jewish Sabbath
Changed To Sunday By The Apostles
Four Parts Of This
Commandment
First Part of this
Commandment
"Remember"
Sabbath
"Keep
Holy"
Second Part of this
Commandment
"The Seventh
Day Is The Sabbath Of The Lord Thy God"
Other Festivals
Observed By The Jews
The Sabbath, Why
Changed To Sunday
Other Festivals
Observed By The Church
"Six Days
Shalt Thou Labour And Do All Thy Work"
Third Part of this
Commandment
Works Forbidden
Works Permitted
Why Animals Are Not
To Be Employed On The Sabbath
Works Commanded Or
Recommended
Motives for the
Observance of this Commandment
Reasonableness Of
This Duty
The Observance Of
This Commandment Brings Many Blessings
Neglect Of This
Commandment A Great Crime
THE FOURTH
COMMANDMENT : "Honour thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest be
long lived upon the land which the lord thy god will give thee."
Relative Importance
Of The Preceding And The Following Commandments
Importance Of
Instruction On The Fourth Commandment
The Two Tables Of
The Law
Explanation of the
Fourth Commandment: "Honour"
"Thy
Father"
Why Parents Should
Be Honoured
"And Thy
Mother"
Manner Of Honouring
Parents
Manner Of Honouring
Other Superiors
The Honour Due To
Bishops And Priests
The Honour Due To
Civil Rulers
'That Thou Mayest
be Long-lived," etc.
Reward Promised For
Observance Of This Commandment
Why This Reward Is
Not Always Conferred On Dutiful Children
Punishment For
Violation Of This Commandment
Duties of Parents
Towards their Children
Three Things To Be
Avoided By Parents
THE FIFTH
COMMANDMENT : "Thou shalt not kill"
Importance Of
Instruction On This Commandment
Two Parts Of This
Commandment
The Prohibitory
Part of this Commandment
Exceptions: The
Killing Of Animals
Execution Of
Criminals
Killing In A Just
War
Killing By Accident
Killing In
Self-Defence
Negative Part Of
This Commandment Forbids Murder And Suicide
Sinful Anger Is
Also Forbidden By The Fifth Commandment
Remedies Against
The Violation Of This Commandment
Positive Part of
this commandment
Love Of Neighbour
Inculcated
Charity To All
Commanded
Patience,
Beneficence And Mildness Commanded
Forgiveness Of
Injuries Commanded
How to Persuade Men
to Forgive Injuries
All We Have To
Endure Comes From God
Advantages Of
Forgiveness
Disadvantages Of
Revenge
Remedies Against
Hatred
THE SIXTH
COMMANDMENT : "Thou shalt not commit adultery"
The Position Of
This Commandment In The Decalogue Is Most Suitable
Importance Of
Careful Instruction On This Commandment
Two Parts Of This
Commandment
What this
Commandment Prohibits
Adultery Forbidden
Other Sins Against
Chastity Are Forbidden
Why Adultery Is
Expressly Mentioned
What this
Commandment Prescribes
Purity Enjoined
Reflections which
Help one to Practice Purity
Impurity Excludes
From Heaven
Impurity Is A
Filthy Sin
Adultery Is A Grave
Injustice
Adultery Is
Disgraceful
Impurity Severely
Punished
Impurity Blinds The
Mind And Hardens The Heart
means of practicing
purity
Avoidance Of
Idleness
Temperance
Custody Of The Eyes
Avoidance Of
Immodest Dress
Avoidance Of Impure
Conversation, Reading, Pictures
Frequentation Of
The Sacraments
Mortification
THE SEVENTH
COMMANDMENT : "Thou shalt not steal"
Importance Of
Instruction On This Commandment
This Commandment A
Proof Of The Love Of God Towards Us And A Claim On Our Gratitude
Two Parts Of This
Commandment
Negative Part of
this Commandment
Stealing Forbidden
Theft And Robbery
Forbidden
Various Names Given
To Stealing
Desire Of Stealing
Forbidden
Gravity Of The Sin
Of Stealing
The Chief Kinds Of
Stealing
Various Forms Of
Theft
Various Forms Of
Robbery
Positive Part of
this Commandment
Restitution
Enjoined
Who Are Held To
Restitution
Almsdeeds Enjoined
Inducements To Practice
Almsgiving
Ways Of Giving Alms
Frugality Is
Enjoined
Sanction Of This
Commandment
The Punishment Of
Its Violation
The Reward Of
Observing This Commandment
Excuses for
Stealing Refuted
The Plea Of Rank
And Position
The Plea Of Greater
Ease And Elegance
The Plea Of The
Other's Wealth
The Plea Of Force
Of Habit
The Plea Of
Favourable Opportunity
The Plea Of Revenge
The Plea Of
Financial Embarrassment
THE EIGHTH
COMMANDMENT : "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour"
Importance Of
Instruction On This Commandment
This Commandment
Should Call Forth Our Gratitude
Two Parts Of This
Commandment
Negative Part Of
This Commandment
"Against Thy
Neighbour"
False Testimony In
Favour Of A Neighbour Is Also Forbidden
"Thou Shalt Not
Bear False Witness"
All Falsehoods In
Lawsuits Are Forbidden
False Testimony Out
Of Court Is Forbidden
This Commandment
Forbids Detraction
Various Kinds Of
Detraction
This Commandment
Forbids Flattery
This Commandment
Forbids Lies Of All Kinds
This Commandment
Forbids Hypocrisy
Positive Part of
this Commandment
Judges Must Pass
Sentence According To Law And Justice
Witnesses Must Give
Testimony Truthfully
Lawyers And
Plaintiffs Must Be Guided By Love Of Justice
All Must Speak
Truthfully And With Charity
Inducements To
Truthfulness
How To Avoid Lying
Excuses for Lying
Refuted
The Plea Of
Prudence
The Plea Of Revenge
The Pleas Of
Frailty, Habit, And Bad. Example
The Pleas Of
Convenience, Amusement, And Advantage
THE NINTH AND TENTH
COMMANDMENTS : "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house: neither
shalt thou desire his wife, nor his servant, nor his hand-maid, nor his ox, nor
his ass, nor anything that is his."
Importance Of
Instruction On These Two Commandments
Why These Two
Commandments Are Explained Here Together
Necessity Of
Promulgating These Two Commandments
These Two
Commandments Teach God's Love For Us And Our Need Of Him
Two Parts Of These
Commandments
Negative Part
"Thou Shalt
Not Covet"
What Sort Of Concupiscence
Is Not Forbidden
What Sort Of
Concupiscence Is Here Prohibited
Two Kinds Of Sinful
Concupiscence
The Various Objects
We Are Forbidden To Covet
Thy Neighbour’s
House
"Nor His Ox,
Nor His Ass'
"Nor His
Servant
"Thy
Neighbour's"
Goods For Sale Not Included
Under This Prohibition
"His
Wife"
Positive Part
Detachment From
Riches Enjoined
The Desire Of
Heavenly And Spiritual Things Enjoined
Thoughts which Help
one to Keep these Commandments
Chief Ways in which
These two Commandments are Violated
PART IV : THE
LORD'S PRAYER
PRAYER
Importance Of
Instruction On Prayer
Necessity of Prayer
The Fruits of
Prayer
Prayer Honours God
Prayer Obtains What
We Request
Proof
Unwise And Indevout
Prayers Unheard
To Devout Prayer
And Dispositions God Grants More Than Is Asked
Prayer Exercises
And Increases Faith
Prayer Strengthens
Our Hope In God
Prayer Increases
Charity
Prayer Disposes The
Soul For Divine Blessings
Prayer Makes Us
Realise Our Own Needfulness
Prayer Is A
Protection Against The Devil
Prayer Promotes A
Virtuous Life
Prayer Disarms The
Divine Vengeance
The Parts Of Prayer
The Two Chief Parts
Of Prayer Petition And Thanksgiving
Degrees Of Petition
And Thanksgiving
The Highest Degree
Of Prayer: The Prayer Of The Just
The Second Degree
Of Prayer: The Prayer Of Sinners
The Third Degree Of
Prayer: The Prayer Of Unbelievers
The Lowest Degree
Of Prayer: The Prayer Of The Impenitent
What We Should Pray
For
Spiritual Goods
External Goods And
Goods Of Body
Goods Of The Mind
For Whom We Ought
to Pray
The Prayer Of
Petition Should Be Offered For All
Those For Whom We
Should Especially Offer Our Petitions: Pastors
Rulers Of Our
Country
The Just
Enemies And Those
Outside The Church
The Dead
Sinners
The Prayer Of
Thanksgiving Should Be Offered For All
Our Thanksgiving
Should Especially Be Offered: For The Saints
For The Blessed
Virgin Mary
To Whom We Should
Pray
To God
To The Saints
God And The Saints
Addressed Differently
Preparation for
Prayer
Humility
Sorrow For Sin
Freedom From
Violence, Anger, Hatred And Inhumanity
Freedom From Pride
And Contempt Of God's Word
Faith And
Confidence
Motives Of
Confidence In Prayer
Correspondence With
God's Will
Fraternal Charity
How to Pray Well
We Must Pray In
Spirit And In Truth
Mental Prayer
Vocal Prayer
Private And Public
Prayer
Those Who Do Nor
Pray In Spirit
Those Who Do Not
Pray In Truth
We Must Pray With
Perseverance
We Must Pray In The
Name Of Jesus Christ
We Must Pray With
Fervour, Uniting Petition To Thanksgiving
Fasting And
Almsdeeds Should Be Joined To Prayer
OPENING WORDS OF THE
LORD'S PRAYER
Importance Of
Instruction On These Words
"Father"
God Is Called
Father Because He Created Us
God Is Called
Father Because He Provides For Us
God's Care For Us
Is Seen In The Appointment Of Guardian Angels
How We Are Helped
By The Angels
God's Care For Us
Seen In The Love He Has Ever Shown To Man
God Is Called
Father Because He Has Granted Us Redemption
Duties We Owe Our
Heavenly Father
"Our"
Dispositions That
Should Accompany The Words, "Our Father": Fraternal Regard
Filial Confidence
And Piety
"Who art in
Heaven"
Meaning Of These
Words
Lessons Taught By
The Words, "Who Art In Heaven"
THE FIRST PETITION
OF THE LORD'S PRAYER : "HALLOWED BE THY NAME"
Why This Petition
Is Placed First
Object Of The First
Three Petitions
Hallowed Be Thy
Name
On Earth As It Is
In Heaven"
What Sanctification
of God's Name we should Pray For
That The Faithful
May Glorify Him
That Unbelievers
May Be Converted
That Sinners May Be
Converted
That God May Be
Thanked For His Favours
That The Church May
Be Recognised By All
What Sanctification
Of God's Name We Should Practice
THE SECOND PETITION
OF THE LORD'S PRAYER : "THY KINGDOM COME"
Importance Of
Instruction On This Petition
Greatness Of This
Petition
Necessity Of
Rightly Making This Petition
Motives For
Adopting The Necessary Means
"Thy
Kingdom"
The Kingdom Of
Nature
The Kingdom Of
Grace
The Kingdom Of
Glory
"Come"
We Pray For The Propagation
Of The Church
For The Conversion
Of Sinners
That Christ May
Reign Over All
Dispositions That
Should Accompany This Petition
We Should Prize
God's Kingdom Above All Things
We Must Realise
That We Are Exiles
We Must Labor To
Obtain God's Kingdom
Recapitulation
THE THIRD PETITION
OF THE LORD'S PRAYER : "THY WILL BE DONE"
The Relation Of
This Petition To The Previous One
Necessity Of This
Petition
Man’s Proneness To
Act Against God’s Will
Man’s Blindness
Concerning God’s Will
Man’s Weakness In
Fulfilling God’s Will
Remedy For These
Evils
Man's Passions
Rebel Against God's Will
"Thy
Will"
"Be Done"
We Ask That We May
Fulfil What God Desires Of Us
We Ask That We May
Not Yield To Our Own Inordinate Desires
We Ask That Our
Mistaken Requests Be Not Granted
We Ask That Even
Our Good Requests Be Granted Only When They Are According To God’s Will
We Ask That God May
Perfect In Us What His Grace Has Begun
We Ask That All May
Know God’s Will
"On Earth as
it is in Heaven"
This Petition
Contains an Act of Thanksgiving
The Dispositions
that should Accompany this Petition
A Sense Of Our Own
Weakness Of Will
Appreciation Of The
Dignity Of Doing God's Will
Resignation To
God’s Will
THE FOURTH PETITION
OF THE LORD'S PRAYER : "GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD"
The Relation Of The
Following Petitions To Those That Preceded
How To Pray For
Temporal Blessings
Means Of
Ascertaining Purity Of Intention In Offering This Petition
Necessity of the
Fourth Petition
Man Needs Many
Things For His Bodily Life
To Supply His
Bodily Wants Man Must Labor
Without God’s Help
Man’s Labor Is Vain
Inducements to Use
this Petition
"Bread"
We Ask For Temporal
Blessings
It Is Lawful To
Pray For Temporal Blessings
The Wants, Not The
Luxuries Of This Life Are Meant By The Word "Bread"
"Our"
"Daily"
"Give"
"us"
"This
Day"
The Spiritual Bread
Asked for in this Petition
The Word Of God Is
Our Spiritual Bread
Christ Is Our
Spiritual Bread, Especially In The Holy Eucharist
Why The Holy
Eucharist Is Called Our "Daily" Bread
Exhortations
THE FIFTH PETITION
OF THE LORD'S PRAYER : "AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS, AS WE FORGIVE OUR
DEBTORS"
The Importance Of
Explaining This Petition
Difference Between
This And The Preceding Petitions
Dispositions with
which this petition should be Offered
Acknowledgment Of
Sin
Sorrow For Sin
Motives For Sorrow
Over Sin: The Baseness Of Sin
The Consequences Of
Sin
Confidence In God's
Mercy
"Debts"
"Our"
"Forgive
Us"
"As we Forgive
our Debtors"
Necessity Of
Forgiveness
Reasons For
Forgiveness
This Petition
Should Not be Neglected
Those Unable To
Forget Injuries
Those Who Do Not
Love Their Enemies
How to Make this
Petition Fruitful
Penitential
Dispositions
Avoidance Of
Dangers Of Sin
Imitation Of
Fervent Penitents
Frequent Use Of The
Sacraments
Almsdeeds
The Spirit Of
Forgiveness
THE SIXTH PETITION
OF THE LORD'S PRAYER : "AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION."
Importance Of
Instruction On This Petition
Necessity of the
Sixth Petition
Human Frailty
The Assaults Of The
Flesh
The Temptations Of
The Devil
Audacity Of The
Demons
Number Of The
Demons
Malignity And Power
Of The Demons
Prayer Protects
Man's Weakness Against The Enemies Of His Soul
"Temptation"
"Lead us not
into Temptation"
Objects of the
Sixth Petition
What We Do Not Pray
For
What We Pray For In
This Petition
Dispositions which
should Accompany this Petition
Distrust Of Self
And Confidence In God
Remembrance Of The
Victory Of Christ And His Saints
Watchfulness
The Author of
victory over Temptation
The Rewards of
Victories over temptation
THE SEVENTH PETITION
OF THE LORD'S PRAYER : "BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL"
The Importance Of
Instruction On This Petition
Necessity Of This
Petition
How this Petition
should be Made
Our Chief Hope Of
Deliverance Should Be In God
We Must Confidently
Expect His Help
"From
Evil"
What We Do Not Pray
For
What We Do Pray For
"Deliver
Us"
Deliverance From
Satan Especially Asked For
Patience and Joy
under Continued Affliction
THE SEAL OF THE
LORD'S PRAYER
Necessity Of
Explaining The Conclusion Of The Lord's Prayer
fruits that Come at
the Conclusion of Prayer
Assurance That We
Have Been Heard
Fervour And
Illumination
Sweetness
Confidence And
Gratitude
Illustrations From
The Psalms
Meaning of the Word
"Amen"
First Explanation
Other Explanations
Of The Word "Amen"
Advantages of
Terminating our Prayer with this Word
ORIGIN OF THE
ROMAN CATECHISM
The Church at the Council of Trent, assembled
December 13, 1545, seeing the need of a uniform and comprehensive manual which
would supply parish priests with an official book of instruction for the
faithful, ordered the preparation of the work which has ever since been
variously known as the Catechism of the Council of Trent, the Catechism for
Parish Priests, the Roman Catechism, or the Catechism of Pius V. It was some
months, however, after the opening of the Council before mention was made of
any kind of catechism. This was during the fourth session, on April 5, 1546.
Eight days later the draft of a decree was read proposing that there be
published in Latin and in the vernacular a catechism to be compiled by capable
persons for children and uninstructed adults, "who are in need of milk
rather than solid food." The purpose of such a manual was to afford
instruction for beginners in the primary duties of a Christian life and to
prepare them for further and higher religious education. The idea met with
general approval, but as the Council was occupied with matters more pressing,
we hear nothing further about it until sixteen years later, in 1562. According
to some the question of the Catechism was brought up by St. Charles Borromeo
during the eighteenth session and a commission actually appointed on February
26, 1562. What is certain is that the Papal Legates, after a protracted
discussion, had named a committee before the end of that year; for on January
3, 1563, they informed the procurators of Charles IX and of Ferdinand I of the
existence of such a committee and assured them that work on the Catechism was
already under way. The principal members of this committee, besides its
president, Cardinal Seripandi, O. S. A., were Leonardo Marini, O. P.,
Archbishop of Lanciano, Egidio Foscarari, O. P., Bishop of Modena, Muzio
Calini, Bishop of Zara, and Francesco Foreiro, O.P. There were many other
collaborators, chief among whom were Michael Medina, a Franciscan, and
Christopher Sanctotisio, O. S. A., who assisted with the fourth and ninth
Articles of the Creed respectively; four French theologians to whom were
assigned the first four Commandments; the Dominicans, John de Luderna, Benedict
Herba, Eliseus Capys, and the Franciscan, Alphonsus Contreras, to whom were
given respectively the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth Commandments; a
theologian of Granada was entrusted with the last two Commandments of the
Decalogue. The following appear to have collaborated on the Sacraments: three
Flemish theologians, on Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist; Nicholas
Ormanetus, on the Sacrament of Penance; Peter Fernandez, O. P., on Matrimony;
Cosmas Damiani, Abbot of the Augustinian Canons Regular, on Orders; Arias
Montanus, on Extreme Unction. All those who had part in the work of the
Catechism were instructed to avoid in its composition the particular opinions
of individuals and schools, and to express the doctrine of the universal
Church, keeping especially in mind the decrees of the Council of Trent.
During the twenty-fourth session, the work on
the Catechism was brought to the attention of the Council itself, at a meeting
on September II, 1563. After various discussions a new plan was adopted.
Instead of a manual for children and uninstructed adults, it was decided to
prepare a much more extensive and more thorough work to be used by parish
priests in their instruction of the faithful. A final decree regarding such a
catechism was passed in a general meeting of November 2nd, of the same year,
wherein it was enjoined on all Bishops to see that the Catechism should be
faithfully translated into the vulgar tongue and expounded to the people by all
parish priests.
As the Council was about to close, the
Catechism committee, as it appears, were ordered to submit to the assembled
Fathers the work they had so far accomplished. This was done at the general
meetings between the 22nd and the 25th of November, and as the work was not
finished the Holy Father was requested to take charge of it and to see that the
Catechism was brought to completion and published. The manuscript was,
therefore, carried to Rome, and the work was continued with little delay.
Meanwhile Cardinal Seripandi died, and St. Charles Borromeo was appointed to
succeed him as president of the Catechism committee. On December 21, 1564,
Bishop Foscarari also died. To complete the work the new president enlisted the
services of several more theologians, such as Gabriel Paleotti and the
Portugese Statius.
In order that the literary style of the
Catechism might be in keeping with the sublimity of its doctrine, St. Charles
called to its service the greatest masters of the Latin tongue of that age.
These were Paulus Manutius, Giulio Pogiani, Cornelius Amaltheus, Silvius
Antonianus, and Pietro Galesini. When the work was finished a first revision of
the style was undertaken. The polishing of the first two parts was done by
Calini, who had already been engaged in the composition of the Catechism. The
third part was attended to by Galesini, and the fourth by Pogiani. This
revision seems to have been completed by the end of the year 1564. Early in the
following year, by order of St. Charles, who desired to secure absolute
uniformity in the style, a second literary revision of the entire work was made
by Pogiani.
Meanwhile Pius IV died and was succeeded on
January 17, 1566, by Pius V. One of the first acts of the new Pontiff was to
appoint a number of expert theological revisers to examine every statement in
the Catechism from the viewpoint of doctrine. Chief among these revisers were
Cardinal Sirlet and the two Dominicans, Thomas Manriquez and Eustachius
Locatelli. By July of that year the work on the Catechism was finished. But it
was not until the close of the year that it appeared under the title,
Catechismus ex decreto Concilii Tridentini ad Parochos Pii V Pont. Max. jussu
editus.
AUTHORITY AND
EXCELLENCE OF THE ROMAN CATECHISM
The Roman Catechism is unlike any other
summary of Christian doctrine, not only because it is intended for the use of
priests in their preaching, but also because it enjoys a unique authority among
manuals. In the first place, as already explained, it was issued by the express
command of the Ecumenical Council of Trent, which also ordered that it be
translated into the vernacular of different nations to be used as a standard
source for preaching. Moreover it subsequently received the unqualified
approval of many Sovereign Pontiffs. Not to speak of Pius IV who did so much to
bring the work to completion, and of St. Pius V under whom it was finished,
published and repeatedly commended, Gregory XIII, as Possevino testifies, so
highly esteemed it that he desired even books of Canon Law to be written in
accordance with its contents. In his Bull of June 14, 1761, Clement XIII said
that the Catechism contains a clear explanation of all that is necessary for
salvation and useful for the faithful, that it was composed with great care and
industry and has been highly praised by all, that by it in former times the
faith was strengthened, and that no other catechism can be compared with it. He
concluded then, that the Roman Pontiffs offered this work to pastors as a norm
of Catholic teaching and discipline so that there might be uniformity and
harmony in the instructions of all. Nor have the Sovereign Pontiffs in our own
days been less laudatory of the Catechism. Pope Leo XIII, in an Encyclical
Letter of September 8, 1899, to the Bishops and clergy of France, recommended
two books which all seminarians should possess and constantly read and study,
namely, the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas and "that golden book,"
the Catechismus ad Parochos. Regarding the latter work he wrote: "This
work is remarkable at once for the richness and exactness of its doctrine, and
for the elegance of its style; it is a precious summary of all theology, both
dogmatic and moral. He who understands it well, will have always at his service
those aids by which a priest is enabled to preach with fruit, to acquit himself
worthily of the important ministry of the confessional and of the direction of
souls, and will be in a position to refute the objections of unbelievers."
Likewise Pius X in his Encyclical Acerbo
nimis of April 15, 1905, declared that adults, no less than children, need
religious instruction, especially in these days. And hence he prescribed that
pastors and all who have care of souls should give catechetical instruction to
the faithful in simple language, and in a way suited to the capacity of their
hearers, and that for this purpose they should use the Catechism of the Council
of Trent Still more recently, on February 14, 1921, speaking in the name of
Benedict XV, Cardinal Gasparri, Papal Secretary of State, thus wrote to the
Archbishop of New York relative to the latter's Program for A Parochial Course
of Doctrinal Instructions, based on the Catechism: "It is superfluous to
add that the value of the work is enhanced by the fact that it has been planned
and executed in perfect harmony with the admirable Catechism of the Council of
Trent."
Besides the Supreme Pontiffs who have
extolled and recommended the Catechism, so many Councils have enjoined its use
that it would be impossible here to enumerate them all. Within a few years
after its first appearance great numbers of provincial and diocesan synods had
already made its use obligatory. Of these the Preface to the Paris edition of
1893 mentions eighteen held before the year 1595. In five different Councils
convened at Milan St. Charles Borromeo ordered that the Catechism should be
studied in seminaries, discussed in the conferences of the clergy, and
explained by pastors to their people on occasion of the administration of the
Sacraments. In short, synods repeatedly prescribed that the clergy should make
such frequent use of the Catechism as not only to be thoroughly familiar with
its contents, but almost have it by heart.
In addition to Popes, and Councils, many
Cardinals, Bishops and other ecclesiastics, distinguished for their learning
and sanctity, vied with one another in eulogizing the Catechism of Trent. Among
other things they have said that not since the days of the Apostles has there
been produced in a single volume so complete and practical a summary of
Christian doctrine as this Catechism, and that, after the Sacred Scriptures,
there is no work that can be read with greater safety and profit.
In particular, Cardinal Valerius, the friend
of St. Charles Borromeo, wrote of the Catechism: "This work contains all
that is needful for the instruction of the faithful; and it is written with
such order, clearness and majesty that through it we seem to hear holy Mother
the Church herself, taught by the Holy Ghost, speaking to us.... It was
composed by order of the Fathers of Trent under the inspiration of the Holy
Ghost, and was published by the authority of the Vicar of Christ."
Salmanticenses, the great Carmelite
commentators on St. Thomas, paid the following high tribute to the Catechism:
"The authority of this Catechism has always been of the greatest in the
Church, because it was composed by the command of the Council of Trent, because
its authors were men of highest learning, and because it was approved only
after the severest scrutiny by Popes Pius V and Gregory XIII, and has been
recommended in nearly all the Councils that have been held since the Council of
Trent."
Antonio Possevino, an illustrious Jesuit, and
the preceptor of St. Francis de Sales, said: "The Catechism of the Council
of Trent was inspired by the Holy Ghost."
In his immortal Apologia Cardinal Newman
writes: "The Catechism of the Council of Trent was drawn up for the
express purpose of providing preachers with subjects for their sermons; and, as
my whole work has been a defense of myself, I may here say that I rarely preach
a sermon but I go to this beautiful and complete Catechism to get both my matter
and my doctrine."
"Its merits," says Dr. Donovan,
"have been recognized by the universal Church. The first rank which has
been awarded the Imitation among spiritual books, has been unanimously given to
the Roman Catechism as a compendium of Catholic theology. It was the result of
the aggregate labors of the most distinguished of the Fathers of Trent, . . .
and is therefore stamped with the impress of superior worth."
Doctor John Hogan, the present Rector of the
Irish College in Rome, writes thus: "The Roman Catechism is a work of
exceptional authority. At the very least it has the same authority as a
dogmatic Encyclical, -- it is an authoritative exposition of Catholic doctrine
given forth, and guaranteed to be orthodox by the Catholic Church and her supreme
head on earth. The compilation of it was the work of various individuals; but
the result of their combined labors was accepted by the Church as a precious
abridgment of dogmatic and moral theology. Official documents have occasionally
been issued by Popes to explain certain points of Catholic teaching to
individuals, or to local Christian communities; whereas the Roman Catechism
comprises practically the whole body of Christian doctrine, and is addressed to
the whole Church. Its teaching is not infallible; but it holds a place between
approved catechisms and what is de tide."
We are enabled to realize from the foregoing
testimonies how invaluable is the treasure we possess in the Tridentine
Catechism. It is a Vade Mecum for every priest and ecclesiastical student. In
it the latter will find a recapitulation of all the more important and
necessary doctrines he has learned throughout his theological course; while to
the priest it is not only a review of his former studies, but an ever-present
and reliable guide in his work as pastor, preacher, counselor, and spiritual
director of souls. Moreover, to the educated layman, whether Catholic or
non-Catholic, who desires to study an authoritative statement of Catholic
doctrine, no better book could be recommended than this official manual; for in
its pages will be found the whole substance of Catholic doctrine and practice,
arranged in order, expounded with perspicuity, and sustained by argument at
once convincing and persuasive.
Finally, it can be said without fear of
exaggeration that there is no single-volume work which so combines solidity of
doctrine and practical usefulness with unction of treatment as does this truly
marvelous Catechism. From beginning to end it not only reflects the light of
faith, but it also radiates, to an unwonted degree, the warmth of devotion and
piety. In its exposition of the Creed and the Sacraments, while dealing with
the profoundest mysteries, it is full of thoughts and reflections the most
fervent and inspiring. The part on the Decalogue, which might well be called a
treatise on ascetical theology, teaches us in words burning with zeal both what
we are to avoid and what we are to do to keep the Commandments of God. In the
fourth, and last part o this beautiful work we have what is doubtless the most
sublime and heavenly exposition of the doctrine of prayer ever written.
The Roman Catechism is, therefore, a handbook
of dogmatic and moral theology, a confessor's guide, a book of exposition for
the preacher, and a choice directory of the spiritual life for pastor and flock
alike. With a view, consequently, to make it more readily available for these
high purposes among English-speaking peoples this new translation has been
prepared and is herewith respectfully submitted to its readers.
JOHN A. MCHUGH, O. P.
CHARLES J. CALLAN, O. P.
INTRODUCTORY
The Necessity Of Religious Instruction
Such is the nature of the human mind and
intellect that, although by means of diligent and laborious inquiry it has of
itself investigated and discovered many other things pertaining to a knowledge
of divine truths; yet guided by its natural lights it never could have known or
perceived most of those things by which is attained eternal salvation, the
principal end of man's creation and formation to the image and likeness of God.
It is true that the invisible things of God
from the creation of the world are, as the Apostle teaches, clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made: his eternal power also, and divinity.
But the mystery which hath been hidden from ages and generations so far
transcends the reach of man's understanding, that were it not made manifest by
God to His Saints, to whom He willed to make known by the gift of faith, the
riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ, man
could by no effort attain to such wisdom.
But, as faith comes by hearing, it is clear
how necessary at all times for the attainment of eternal salvation has been the
labour and faithful ministry of an authorised teacher; for it is written, how
shall they hear, without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be
sent?
And, indeed, never, from the very creation of
the world, has God, most merciful and benignant, been wanting to His own; but
at sundry times and in divers manners spoke to the fathers by the prophets, and
pointed out to them in a manner suited to the times and circumstances, a sure
and direct path to the happiness of heaven. But, as He had foretold that He
would give a teacher of justice to be the light of the Gentiles, that His
salvation might reach even to the ends of the earth, in these last days he hath
spoken to us by his Son, whom also by a voice from heaven, from the excellent
glory, He has commanded all to hear and to obey. Furthermore, the Son gave some
to be apostles, and some prophets, and others pastors and teachers, to announce
the word of life; that we might not be carried about like children tossed to
and fro with every wind of doctrine, but holding fast to the firm foundation of
the faith, we might be built together into an habitation of God in the Spirit.
Lest any should receive the Word of God from
the ministers of the Church, not as the word of Christ, which it really is, but
as the word of man, the same Saviour has ordained that their ministry should be
invested with so great authority that He says to them: He that hears you, hears
me; and he that despises you despises me. These words He spoke not only of
those to whom His words were addressed, but likewise of all who, by legitimate
succession, should discharge the ministry of the word, promising to be with
them all days even to the consummation of the world.
Need of an Authoritative Catholic
Catechism
But while the preaching of the divine Word
should never be interrupted in the Church, surely in these, our days, it
becomes necessary to labour with more than ordinary zeal and piety to nourish
and strengthen the faithful with sound and wholesome doctrine, as with the food
of life. For false prophets have gone forth into the world, to corrupt the
minds of the faithful with various and strange doctrines, of whom the Lord has
said: I did not send prophets, yet they ran; I spoke not to them, yet they
prophesied.
In this work, to such extremes has their
impiety, practiced in all the arts of Satan, been carried, that it would seem
almost impossible to confine it within any bounds; and did we not rely on the
splendid promises of the Saviour, who declared that He had built His Church on
so solid a foundation that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, we
should have good reason to fear lest, beset on every side by such a host of
enemies and assailed and attacked by so many machinations, it would, in these
days, fall to the ground.
For - to say nothing of those illustrious
States which heretofore professed, in piety and holiness, the true Catholic
faith transmitted to them by their ancestors, but are now gone astray wandering
from the paths of truth and openly declaring that their best claims to piety
are founded on a total abandonment of the faith of their fathers - there is no
region, however remote, no place, however securely guarded, no corner of
Christendom, into which this pestilence has not sought secretly to insinuate
itself.
For those who intended to corrupt the minds
of the faithful, knowing that they could not hold immediate personal
intercourse with all, and thus pour into their ears their poisoned doctrines,
adopted another plan which enabled them to disseminate error and impiety more
easily and extensively. Besides those voluminous works by which they sought the
subversion of the Catholic faith - to guard against which (volumes) required
perhaps little labour or circumspection, since their contents were clearly
heretical - they also composed innumerable smaller books, which, veiling their
errors under the semblance of piety, deceived with incredible facility the
unsuspecting minds of simple folk.
The Nature of this Work
The Fathers, therefore, of the General
Council of Trent, anxious to apply some healing remedy to so great and
pernicious an evil, were not satisfied with having decided the more important
points of Catholic doctrine against the heresies of our times, but deemed it
further necessary to issue, for the instruction of the faithful in the very
rudiments of faith, a form and method to be followed in all churches by those
to whom are lawfully entrusted the duties of pastor and teacher.
To works of this kind many, it is true, had
already given their attention, and earned the reputation of great piety and
learning. But the Fathers deemed it of the first importance that a work should
appear, sanctioned by the authority of the Council, from which pastors and all
others on whom the duty of imparting instruction devolves, may be able to seek
and find reliable matter for the edification of the faithful; that, as there is
one Lord, one faith, there may also be one standard and prescribed form of
propounding the dogmas of faith, and instructing Christians in all the duties
of piety.
As, therefore, the design of the work
embraces a variety of matters, it cannot be supposed that the Council intended
that in one volume all the dogmas of Christianity should be explained with that
minuteness of detail to be found in the works of those who profess to treat the
teaching and doctrines of religion in their entirety. Such a task would be one
of almost endless labour, and manifestly ill suited to attain the proposed end.
But, having undertaken to instruct pastors and such as have care of souls in
those things that belong peculiarly to the pastoral office and are accommodated
to the capacity of the faithful, the Council intended that such things only
should be treated of as might assist the pious zeal of pastors in discharging
the duty of instruction, should they not be very familiar with the more
abstruse questions of theology.
The Ends of Religious Instruction
Hence, before we proceed to develop in detail
the various parts of this summary of doctrine, our purpose requires that we
premise a few observations which the pastor should consider and bear in mind in
order to know to what end, as it were, all his plans and labours and efforts
are to be directed, and how this desired end may be more easily attained.
Knowledge Of Christ
The first thing is ever to recollect that all
Christian knowledge is reduced to one single head, or rather, to use the words
of the Apostle, this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. A teacher in the Church should,
therefore, use his best endeavours that the faithful earnestly desire to know
Jesus Christ, and him crucified, that they be firmly convinced, and with the
most heartfelt piety and devotion believe, that there is no other name under
heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved, for he is the propitiation for
our sins.
Observance Of The Commandments
But since by this we know that we have known
him, if we keep his commandments, the next consideration, and one intimately
connected with the preceding, is to press also upon the attention of the
faithful that their lives are not to be wasted in ease and indolence, but that
we are to walk even as he walked, and pursue with all earnestness, justice,
godliness, faith, charity, patience, mildness; for He gave himself for us, that
he might redeem us from all iniquity, and might cleanse to himself a people
acceptable, a pursuer of good works. These things the Apostle commands pastors
to speak and exhort.
Love Of God
But as our Lord and Saviour has not only
declared, but has also proved by His own example, that the Law and the Prophets
depend on love, and as, according to the Apostle, charity is the end of the
commandment, and the fulfilment of the law, it is unquestionably a chief duty
of the pastor to use the utmost diligence to excite the faithful to a love of
the infinite goodness of God towards us, that, burning with a sort of divine
ardour, they may be powerfully attracted to the supreme and all-perfect good,
to adhere to which is true and solid happiness, as is fully experienced by him
who can say with the Prophet: What have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I
desire upon earth?
This, assuredly, is that more excellent way
pointed out by the Apostle when he sums up all his doctrines and instructions
in charity, which never falleth away. For whatever is proposed by the pastor,
whether it be the exercise of faith, of hope, or of some moral virtue, the love
of our Lord should at the same time be so strongly insisted upon as to show
clearly that all the works of perfect Christian virtue can have no other
origin, no other end than divine love.
The Means Required for Religious
Instruction
But as in imparting instruction of any sort
the manner of communicating it is of highest importance, so in conveying
religious instruction to the people, the method should be deemed of the
greatest moment.
Instruction Should Be Accommodated To The
Capacity Of The Hearer
Age, capacity, manners and condition must be
borne in mind, so that he who instructs may become all things to all men, in
order that he may be able to gain all to Christ, prove himself a dutiful
minister and steward, and, like a good and faithful servant, be found worthy to
be placed by his Lord over many things The priest must not imagine that those
committed to his care are all on the same level, so that he can follow one
fixed and unvarying method of instruction to lead all in the same way to
knowledge and true piety; for some are as new-born infants, others are growing
up in Christ, while a few are, so to say, of full maturity. Hence the necessity
of considering who they are that have occasion for milk, who for more solid
food, and of affording to each such nourishment of doctrine as may give
spiritual increase, until we all meet in the unity of faith, and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of
the fullness of Christ. This the Apostle inculcates for all by his own example
when he says that he is a debtor to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, to the
wise and to the unwise, thus giving all who are called to this ministry to
understand that in announcing the mysteries of faith and the precepts of life,
the instruction is to be so accommodated to the capacity and intelligence of
the hearers, that, while the minds of the strong are filled with spiritual
food, the little ones be not suffered to perish with hunger, asking for bread,
while there is none to break it unto them.
Zeal
Nor should our zeal in communicating
Christian knowledge be relaxed because it has sometimes to be exercised in
expounding matters apparently humble and unimportant, and whose exposition is
usually irksome, especially to minds accustomed to the contemplation of the
more sublime truths of religion. If the Wisdom of the eternal Father descended
upon the earth in the meanness of our flesh to teach us the maxims of a
heavenly life, who is there whom the love of Christ does not constrain to
become little in the midst of his brethren, and, as a nurse fostering her
children, so anxiously to wish for the salvation of his neighbours as to be
ready, as the Apostle says of himself, to give them not only the gospel of God,
but even his own life.
Study Of The Word Of God
Now all the doctrines in which the faithful
are to be instructed are contained in the Word of God, which is found in
Scripture and tradition. To the study of these, therefore, the pastor should
devote his days and his nights, keeping in mind the admonition of St. Paul to
Timothy, which all who have the care of souls should consider as addressed to
themselves: Attend to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine, for all
Scripture divinely inspired is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to
instruct injustice, that the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good
work.
Division of this Catechism
The truths revealed by Almighty God are so
many and so various that it is no easy task to acquire a knowledge of them, or,
having done so, to remember them so well as to be able to explain them with
ease and readiness when occasion requires. Hence our predecessors in the faith
have very wisely reduced all the doctrines of salvation to these four heads:
The Apostles' Creed, the Sacraments, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's
Prayer.
The part on the Creed contains all that is to
be held according to Christian faith, whether it regard the knowledge of God,
the creation and government of the world, or the redemption of man, the rewards
of the good and the punishments of the wicked. The part devoted to the Seven
Sacraments teaches us what are the signs, and, as it were, the instruments of
grace. In the part on the Decalogue is described whatever has reference to the
law, whose end is charity. Finally, the Lord's Prayer contains whatever can be
the object of the Christian's desires, or hopes, or prayers. The exposition, therefore,
of these four parts, which are, as it were, the general heads of Sacred
Scripture, includes almost everything that a Christian should learn.
How This Work Is To Be Used
We therefore deem it proper to inform pastors
that, whenever they have occasion, in the ordinary discharge of their duty, to
expound any passage of the Gospel or any other part of Holy Scripture. they
will find its subject-matter treated under some one of the four heads already
enumerated, to which they recur, as to the source from which their instruction
is to be drawn.
Thus, if the Gospel of the first Sunday of
Advent is to be explained, There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon,
etc., whatever regards its explanation is contained under the Article of the
Creed, He shall come to judge the living and the dead; and by embodying the
substance of that Article in his exposition, the pastor will at once instruct
his people in the Creed and in the Gospel. Whenever, therefore, he has to
communicate instruction and expound the Scriptures, he will observe the same
rule of referring all to these four principal heads under which, as we
observed, the whole teaching and doctrine of Holy Scripture is contained. As
for order, however, he is free to follow that which he deems best suited to the
circumstances of persons and time.
PART
I : THE CREED
Faith
In preparing and instructing men in the
teachings of Christ the Lord, the Fathers began by explaining the meaning of
faith. Following their example, we have thought it well to treat first what
pertains to that virtue.
Though the word faith has a variety of
meanings in the Sacred Scriptures, we here speak only of that faith by which we
yield our entire assent to whatever has been divinely revealed.
Necessity Of Faith
That faith thus understood is necessary to
salvation no man can reasonably doubt, particularly since it is written:
Without faith it is impossible to please God. For as the end proposed to man as
his ultimate happiness is far above the reach of human understanding, it was
therefore necessary that it should be made known to him by God. This knowledge,
however, is nothing else than faith, by which we yield our unhesitating assent
to whatever the authority of our Holy Mother the Church teaches us to have been
revealed by God; for the faithful cannot doubt those things of which God, who
is truth itself, is the author. Hence we see the great difference that exists
between this faith which we give to God and that which we yield to the writers
of human history.
Unity Of Faith
Faith differs in degree; for we read in
Scripture these words: O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt; and Great
is thy faith; and Increase our faith. It also differs in dignity, for we read:
Faith without works is dead; and, Faith that worketh by charity. But although
faith is so comprehensive, it is yet the same in kind, and the full force of
its definition applies equally to all its varieties. How fruitful it is and how
great are the advantages we may derive from it we shall point out when
explaining the Articles of the Creed.
The Creed
Now the chief truths which Christians ought
to hold are those which the holy Apostles, the leaders and teachers of the
faith, inspired by the Holy Ghost' have divided into the twelve Articles of the
Creed. For having received a command from the Lord to go forth into the whole
world, as His ambassadors, and preach the Gospel to every creature, they
thought it advisable to draw up a formula of Christian faith, that all might
think and speak the same thing, and that among those whom they should have
called to the unity of the faith no schisms would exist, but that they should
be perfect in the same mind, and in the same judgment.
This profession of Christian faith and hope,
drawn up by themselves, the Apostles called a symbol; either because it was
made up of various parts, each of which was contributed by an Apostle, or
because by it, as by a common sign and watchword, they might easily distinguish
deserters from the faith and false brethren unawares brought in, adulterating
the word of God, from those who had truly bound themselves by oath to serve
under the banner of Christ.
Division Of The Creed
Christianity proposes to the faithful many
truths which, either separately or in general, must be held with an assured and
firm faith. Among these what must first and necessarily be believed by all is
that which God Himself has taught us as the foundation and summary of truth
concerning the unity of the Divine Essence, the distinction of Three Persons,
and the actions which are peculiarly attributed to each. The pastor should
teach that the Apostles, Creed briefly comprehends the doctrine of this
mystery.
For, as has been observed by our predecessors
in the faith, who have treated this subject with great piety and accuracy, the
Creed seems to be divided into three principal parts: one describing the First
Person of the Divine Nature, and the stupendous work of the creation; another,
the Second Person, and the mystery of man's redemption; a third, the Third
Person, the head and source of our sanctification; the whole being expressed in
various and most appropriate propositions. These propositions are called
Articles, from a comparison frequently used by the Fathers; for as the members
of the body are divided by joints (articuli), so in this profession of faith,
whatever is to be believed distinctly and separately from anything else is
rightly and suitably called an Article.
ARTICLE
I : "I BELIEVE IN GOD, THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND
EARTH"
Meaning Of This Article
The meaning of the above words is this: I
believe with certainty, and without a shadow of doubt profess my belief in God
the Father, the First Person of the Trinity, who by His omnipotence created
from nothing and preserves and governs the heavens and the earth and all things
which they contain; and not only do I believe in Him from my heart and profess
this belief with my lips, but with the greatest ardour and piety I tend towards
Him, as the supreme and most perfect good.
Let this serve as a brief summary of this
first Article. But since great mysteries lie concealed under almost every word,
the pastor must now give them a more careful consideration, in order that, as
far as God has permitted, the faithful may approach, with fear and trembling,
to contemplate the glory of His majesty.
"I Believe"
The word believe does not here mean to think,
to suppose, lo be of opinion; but, as the Sacred Scriptures teach, it expresses
the deepest conviction, by which the mind gives a firm and unhesitating assent
to God revealing His mysterious truths. As far, therefore, as regards use of
the word here, he who firmly and without hesitation is convinced of anything is
said to believe.
Faith Excludes Doubt
The knowledge derived through faith must not
be considered less certain because its objects are not seen; for the divine
light by which we know them, although it does not render them evident, yet
suffers us not to doubt them. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, hath himself shone in our hearts, that the gospel be not hidden to
us, as to those that perish.
Faith Excludes Curiosity
From what has been said it follows that he
who is gifted with this heavenly knowledge of faith is free from an inquisitive
curiosity. For when God commands us to believe He does not propose to us to
search into His divine judgments, or inquire into their reason and cause, but
demands an unchangeable faith, by which the mind rests content in the knowledge
of eternal truth. And indeed, since we have the testimony of the Apostle that
God is true; and every man a liar, and since it would argue arrogance and
presumption to disbelieve the word of a grave and sensible man affirming
anything as true, and to demand that he prove his statements by arguments or
witnesses, how rash and foolish are those, who, hearing the words of God
Himself, demand reasons for His heavenly and saving doctrines? Faith,
therefore, must exclude not only all doubt, but all desire for demonstration.
Faith Requires Open Profession
The pastor should also teach that he who
says, I believe, besides declaring the inward assent of the mind, which is an
internal act of faith, should also openly profess and with alacrity acknowledge
and proclaim what he inwardly and in his heart believes. For the faithful
should be animated by the same spirit that spoke by the lips of the Prophet
when he said: I believe; and therefore did I speak, and should follow the
example of the Apostles who replied to the princes of the people: We cannot but
speak the things which we have seen and heard. They should be encouraged by
these noble words of St. Paul: I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; and likewise by those
other words; in which the truth of this doctrine is expressly confirmed: With
the heart we believe unto justice; but with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
"In God"
From these words we may learn how exalted are
the dignity and excellence of Christian wisdom, and what a debt of gratitude we
owe to the divine goodness. For to us it is given at once to mount as by the
steps of faith to the knowledge of what is most sublime and desirable.
Knowledge Of God More Easily Obtained
Through Faith Than Through Reason
There is a great difference between Christian
philosophy and human wisdom. The latter, guided solely by the light of nature,
advances slowly by reasoning on sensible objects and effects, and only after
long and laborious investigation is it able at length to contemplate with
difficulty the invisible things of God, to discover and understand a First
Cause and Author of all things. Christian philosophy, on the contrary, so
quickens the human mind that without difficulty it pierces the heavens, and,
illumined with divine light, contemplates first, the eternal source of light,
and in its radiance all created things: so that we experience with the utmost
pleasure of mind that we have been called, as the Prince of the Apostles says,
out of darkness into his admirable light, and believing we rejoice with joy
unspeakable.
Justly, therefore, do the faithful profess
first to believe in God, whose majesty, with the Prophet Jeremias, we declare
incomprehensible. For, as the Apostle says, He dwells in light inaccessible,
which no man hath seen, nor can see; as God Himself, speaking to Moses, said:
No man shall see my face and live. The mind cannot rise to the contemplation of
the Deity, whom nothing approaches in sublimity, unless it be entirely
disengaged from the senses, and of this in the present life we art naturally
incapable.
Knowledge Of God Obtained Through Faith Is
Clearer
But while this is so, yet God, as the Apostle
says, left not himself without testimony, doing good from heaven, giving rains
and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. Hence it is
that the philosophers conceived no mean idea of the Divinity, ascribed to Him
nothing corporeal, gross or composite. They considered Him the perfection and
fullness of all good, from whom, as from an eternal, inexhaustible fountain of
goodness and benignity, flows every perfect gift to all creatures. They called
Him the wise, the author and lover of truth, the just, the most beneficent, and
gave Him also many other appellations expressive of supreme and absolute
perfection. They recognised that His immense and infinite power fills every
place and extends to all things
These truths the Sacred Scriptures express
far better and much more clearly, as in the following passages: God is a
spirit; Be ye perfect, even as also your heavenly Father is perfect; All things
are naked and open to his eyes; O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of
the knowledge of God! God is true; I am the way, the truth, and the life; Thy
right hand is full of justice; Thou openest thy hand, and fillest with blessing
every living creature; and finally: Whither shall go from thy spirit? or
whither shall I flee from thy face? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there; if
I descend into hell, thou art there. If I take my wings early in the morning,
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, etc., and Do I not fill heaven and
earth, saith the Lord?
Knowledge Of God Obtained Through Faith Is
More Certain
These great and sublime truths regarding the
nature of God, which are in full accord with Scripture, the philosophers were
able to learn from an investigation of God's works. But even here we see the
necessity of divine revelation if we reflect that not only does faith, as we
have already observed, make known clearly and at once to the rude and
unlettered, those truths which only the learned could discover, and that by
long study; but also that the knowledge obtained through faith is much more
certain and more secure against error than if it were the result of
philosophical inquiry.
Knowledge Of God Obtained Through Faith Is
More Ample And Exalted
But how much more exalted must not that
knowledge of the Deity be considered, which cannot be acquired in common by all
from the contemplation of nature, but is peculiar to those who are illumined by
the light of faith ?
This knowledge is contained in the Articles
of the Creed, which disclose to us the unity of the Divine Essence and the
distinction of Three Persons, and show also that God Himself is the ultimate
end of our being, from whom we are to expect the enjoyment of the eternal
happiness of heaven, according to the words of St. Paul: God is a rewarder of
them that seek Him. How great are these rewards, and whether they are such that
human knowledge could aspire to their attainment, we learn from these words of
Isaias uttered long before those of the Apostle: From the beginning of the
world they have not heard, nor perceived with the ears: the eye hath not seen
besides thee, O God, what things thou hast prepared for them that wait for
thee.
The Unity Of Nature In God
From what is said it must also be confessed
that there is but one God, not many gods. For we attribute to God supreme
goodness and infinite perfection, and it is impossible that what? is supreme
and most perfect could be common to many. If a being lack anything that
constitutes supreme perfection, it is therefore imperfect and cannot have the
nature of God.
The unity of God is also proved from many
passages of Sacred Scripture. It is written: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God
is one Lord; again the Lord commands: Thou shalt not have strange gods before
me; and further He often admonishes us by the Prophet: I am the first, and I am
the last, and besides me there is no God. The Apostle also openly declares: One
Lord, one faith, one baptism.
It should not, however, excite our surprise
if the Sacred Scriptures sometimes give the name of God to creatures. For when
they call the Prophets and judges gods, they do not speak according to the
manner of the Gentiles, who, in their folly and impiety, formed to themselves
many gods; but express, by a manner of speaking then in use, some eminent
quality or function conferred on such persons by the gift of God.
The Trinity Of Persons In God
The Christian faith, therefore, believes and
professes, as is declared in the Nicene Creed in confirmation of this truth,
that God in His Nature, Substance and Essence is one.- But soaring still
higher, it so understands Him to be one that it adores unity in trinity and
trinity in unity. Of this mystery we now proceed to speak, as it comes next in
order in the Creed.
"The Father"
As God is called Father for more reasons than
one, we must first determine the more appropriate sense in which the word is
used in the present instance.
God Is Called Father Because He Is Creator
And Ruler
Even some on whose darkness the light of
faith never shone conceived God to be an eternal substance from whom all things
have their beginning, and by whose Providence they are governed and preserved
in their order and state of existence. Since, therefore, he to whom a family
owes its origin and by whose wisdom
derived from human things these persons gave
the name Father to God, whom they acknowledge to be the Creator and Governor of
the universe. The Sacred Scriptures also, when they wish to show that to God
must be ascribed the creation of all things, supreme power and admirable
Providence, make use of the same name. Thus we read: Is not he thy Father, that
hath possessed thee, and made thee and created thee? And: Have we not all one
Father? hath not one God created us?
God Is Called Father Because He Adopts
Christians Through Grace
But God, particularly in the New Testament,
is much more frequently, and in some sense peculiarly, called the Father of
Christians, who have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear; but have
received the spirit of adoption of sons (of God), whereby they cry: Abba
(Father). For the Father hath bestowed upon us that manner of charity that we
should be called, and be the sons of God, and if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed
of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, who is the first-born amongst many
brethren, and is not ashamed to call us brethren. Whether, therefore, we look
to the common title of creation and Providence, or to the special one of
spiritual adoption, rightly do the faithful profess their belief that God is
their Father.
The Name Father Also Discloses The
Plurality Of Persons In God
But the pastor should teach that on hearing
the word Father, besides the ideas already unfolded, the mind should rise to
more exalted mysteries. Under the name Father, the divine oracles begin to
unveil to us a mysterious truth which is more abstruse and more deeply hidden
in that inaccessible light in which God dwells, and which human reason and
understanding could not attain to, nor even conjecture to exist.
This name implies that in the one Essence of
the Godhead is proposed to our belief, not only one Person, but a distinction
of persons; for in one Divine Nature there are Three Persons-the Father,
begotten of none; the Son, begotten of the Father before all ages; the Holy
Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the likewise, from all eternity
The Doctrine Of The Trinity
In the one Substance of the Divinity the
Father is the First Person, who with His Only-begotten Son, and the Holy Ghost,
is one God and one Lord, not in the singularity of one Person, but in the
trinity of one Substance. These Three Persons, since it would be impiety to
assert that they are unlike or unequal in any thing, are understood to be
distinct only in their respective properties. For the Father is unbegotten, the
Son begotten of the Father, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from both. Thus we
acknowledge the Essence and the Substance of the Three Persons to be the same
in such wise that we believe that in confessing the true and eternal God we are
piously and religiously to adore distinction in the Persons, unity in the
Essence, and equality in the Trinity.
Hence, when we say that the Father is the
First Person, we are not to be understood to mean that in the Trinity there is
anything first or last, greater or less. Let none of the faithful be guilty of
such impiety, for the Christian religion proclaims the same eternity, the same
majesty of glory in the Three Persons. But since the Father is the Beginning without
a beginning, we truly and unhesitatingly affirm that He is the First Person,
and as He is distinct from the Others by His peculiar relation of paternity, so
of Him alone is it true that He begot the Son from eternity. For when in the
Creed we pronounce together the words God and Father, it means that He was
always both God and Father.
Practical Admonitions Concerning The
Mystery Of The Trinity
Since nowhere is a too curious inquiry more
dangerous, or error more fatal, than in the knowledge and exposition of this,
the most profound and difficult of mysteries, let the pastor teach that the
terms nature and person used to express this mystery should be most
scrupulously retained; and let the faithful know that unity belongs to essence,
and distinction to persons.
But these are truths which should not be made
the subject of too subtle investigation, when we recollect that he who is a
searcher of majesty shall be overwhelmed by glory. We should be satisfied with
the assurance and certitude which faith gives us that we have been taught these
truths by God Himself, to doubt whose word is the extreme of folly and misery.
He has said: Teach ye all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and again, there are three who give
testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three
are one.
Let him, however, who by the divine bounty
believes these truths, constantly beseech and implore God and the Father, who
made all things out of nothing, and ordereth an things sweetly, who gave us
power to become the sons of God, and who made known to the human mind the
mystery of the Trinity -- let him, I say, pray unceasingly that, admitted one
day into the eternal tabernacles, he may be worthy to see how great is the
fecundity of the Father, who contemplating and understanding Himself, begot the
Son like and equal to Himself, how a love of charity in both, entirely the same
and equal, which is the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son,
connects the begetter and the begotten by an eternal and indissoluble bond; and
that thus the Essence of the Trinity is one and the distinction of the Three
Persons perfect.
"Almighty"
The Sacred Scriptures, in order to mark the
piety and devotion with which the most holy name of God is to be adored,
usually express His supreme power and infinite majesty in a variety of ways;
but the pastor should, first of all, teach that almighty power is most
frequently attributed to Him. Thus He says of Himself: I am the almighty Lord
and again, Jacob when sending his sons to Joseph thus prayed for them: May my
almighty God make him favourable to you. In the Apocalypse also it is written:
The Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the almighty; and in
another place the last day is called the great day of the almighty God.
Sometimes the same attribute is expressed in many words; thus: No word shall be
impossible with God; Is the hand of the Lord unable? Thy power is at hand when
thou wiIt, and so on.
Meaning Of The Term Almighty"
From these various modes of expression it is
clearly perceived what is comprehended under this single word almighty. By it
we understand that there neither exists nor can be conceived in thought or
imagination anything which God cannot do. For not only can He annihilate all
created things, and in a moment summon from nothing into existence many other
worlds, an exercise of power which, however great, comes in some degree within
our comprehension; but He can do many things still greater, of which the human
mind can form no conception.
But though God can do all things, yet He
cannot lie, or deceive, or be deceived; He cannot sin, or cease to exist, or be
ignorant of anything. These defects are compatible with those beings only whose
actions are imperfect; but God, whose acts are always most perfect, is said to
be incapable of such things, simply because the capability of doing them
implies weakness, not the supreme and infinite power over all things which God
possesses. Thus we so believe God to be omnipotent that we exclude from Him
entirely all that is not intimately connected and consistent with the
perfection of His nature.
Why Omnipotence Alone Is Mentioned In The:
Creed
The pastor should point out the propriety and
wisdom of having omitted all other names of God in the Creed, and of having
proposed to us only that of almighty as the object of our belief. For by
acknowledging God to be omnipotent, we also of necessity acknowledge Him to be
omniscient, and to hold all things in subjection to His supreme authority and
dominion. When we do not doubt that He is omnipotent, we must be also convinced
of everything else regarding Him, the absence of which would render His
omnipotence altogether unintelligible.
Besides, nothing tends more to confirm our
faith and animate our hope than a deep conviction that all things are possible
to God; for whatever may be afterwards proposed as an object of faith, however
great, however wonderful, however raised above the natural order, is easily and
without hesitation believed, once the mind has grasped the knowledge of the
omnipotence of God. Nay more, the greater the truths which the divine oracles
announce, the more willingly does the mind deem them worthy of belief. And
should we expect any favour from heaven, we are not discouraged by the
greatness of the desired benefit, but are cheered and confirmed by frequently
considering that there is nothing which an omnipotent God cannot effect.
Advantages Of Faith In God’s Omnipotence
With this faith, then, we should be specially
fortified whenever we are required to render any extraordinary service to our
neighbour or seek to obtain by prayer any favour from God. Its necessity in the
one case we learn from the Lord Himself, who, when rebuking the incredulity of
the Apostles, said: If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say
to this mountain: Remove from hence thither, and it shall remove; and nothing
shall be impossible to you; and in the other case, from these words of St.
James: Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a
wave of the sea, which is moved and carried about by the wind. Therefore let
not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
This faith brings with it also many
advantages and helps. It forms us, in the first place, to all humility and
lowliness of mind, according to these words of the Prince of the Apostles: Be
you humbled therefore under the mighty hand of God. It also teaches us not to
fear where there is no cause of fear, but to fear God alone, in whose power we
ourselves and all that we have are placed; for our Saviour says: I will shew
you whom you shall fear; fear ye him, who after he hath killed, hath power to
cast into hell. This faith is also useful to enable us to know and exalt the infinite
mercies of God towards us. For he who reflects on the omnipotence of God,
cannot be so ungrateful as not frequently to exclaim: He that is mighty, hath
done great things to me.
Not Three Almighties But One Almighty
When, however, in this Article we call the
Father almighty, let no one be led into the error of thinking that this
attribute is so ascribed to Him as not to belong also to the Son and the Holy
Ghost. As we say the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Ghost is God, and
yet there are not three Gods but one God; so in like manner we confess that the
Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Ghost almighty, and yet
there are not three almighties but one almighty.
The Father, in particular, we call almighty,
because He is the Source of all being; as we also attribute wisdom to the Son,
because He is the eternal Word of the Father; and goodness to the Holy Ghost,
because He is the love of both. These, however, and similar appellations, may
be given indiscriminately to the Three Persons, according to the teaching of
Catholic faith.
"Creator"
The necessity of having previously imparted
to the faithful a knowledge of the omnipotence of God will appear from what we
are now about to explain with regard to the creation of the world. The wondrous
production of so stupendous a work is more easily believed when all doubt
concerning the immense power of the Creator has been removed.
For God formed the world not from materials
of any sort, but created it from nothing, and that not by constraint or
necessity, but spontaneously, and of His own free will. Nor was He impelled to
create by any other cause than a desire to communicate His goodness to
creatures. Being essentially happy in Himself He stands not in need of
anything, as David expresses it: I have said to the Lord, thou art my God, for
thou hast no need of my goods.
As it was His own goodness that influenced
Him when He did all things whatsoever He would, so in the work of creation He
followed no external form or model; but contemplating, and as it were
imitating, the universal model contained in the divine intelligence, the
supreme Architect, with infinite wisdom and power-attributes peculiar to the
Divinity -- created all things in the be ginning. He spoke and they were made:
he commanded and they were created.
"Of Heaven and Earth"
The words heaven and earth include all things
which the heaven's and the earth contain; for besides the heavens, which the
Prophet has called the works of his fingers, He also gave to the sun its
brilliancy, and to the moon and stars their beauty; and that they might be for
signs, and for seasons, and for days and years. He so ordered the celestial
bodies in a certain and uniform course, that nothing varies more than their
continual revolution, while nothing is more fixed than their variety.
Creation Of The World Of Spirits
Moreover, He created out of nothing the
spiritual world and Angels innumerable to serve and minister to Him; and these
He enriched and adorned with the admirable gifts of His grace and power.
That the devil and the other rebel angels
were gifted from the beginning of their creation with grace, clearly follows
from these words of the Sacred Scriptures: He (the devil) stood not in the
truth. On this subject St. Augustine says: In creating the Angels He endowed
them with good will, that is, with pure love that they might adhere to Him,
giving them existence and adorning them with grace at one and the same time.
Hence we are to believe that the holy Angels were never without good will, that
is, the love of God.
As to their knowledge we have this testimony
of Holy Scripture: Thou, my Lord, O king, art wise, according to the wisdom of
an angel of God, to understand all things upon earth.' Finally, the inspired
David ascribes power to them, saying that they are mighty in strength, and
execute his word; and on this account they are often called in Scripture the
powers and the armies of the Lord.
But although they were all endowed with
celestial gifts, very many, having rebelled against God, their Father and
Creator, were hurled from those high mansions of bliss, and shut up in the
darkest dungeon of earth, there to suffer for eternity the punishment of their
pride. Speaking of them the Prince of the Apostles says: God spared not the
angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn by infernal ropes to the lower
hell, unto torments, to be reserved unto judgment.
Formation Of The Universe
The earth also God commanded to stand in the
midst of the world, rooted in its own foundation, and made the mountains
ascend, and the plains descend into the place which he had founded for them.
That the waters should not inundate the earth, He set a bound which they shall
not pass over; neither shall they return to cover the earth. He next not only
clothed and adorned it with trees and every variety of plant and flower, but
filled it, as He had already filled the air and water, with innumerable kinds
of living creatures.
Production Of Man
Lastly, He formed man from the slime of the
earth, so created and constituted in body as to be immortal and impassible,
not, however, by the strength of nature, but by the bounty of God. Man's soul
He created to His own image and likeness; gifted him with free will, and
tempered all his motions and appetites so as to subject them, at all times, to
the dictates of reason. He then added the admirable gift of original
righteousness, and next gave him dominion over all other animals. By referring
to the sacred history of Genesis the pastor will easily make himself familiar
with these things for the instruction of the faithful.
"Of all Things Visible and
Invisible"
What we have said, then, of the creation of
the universe is to be understood as conveyed by the words heaven and earth, and
is thus briefly set forth by the Prophet: Thine are the heavens, and thine is
the earth: the world and the fullness thereof thou hast founded. Still more
briefly the Fathers of the Council of Nice expressed this truth by adding in
their Creed these words: of all things visible and invisible. Whatever exists
in the universe, whatever we confess to have been created by God, either falls
under the senses and is included in the word visible, or is an object of mental
perception and intelligence and is expressed by the word invisible.
God Preserves, Rules And Moves All Created
Things
We are not, however, to understand that God
is in such wise the Creator and Maker of all things that His works, when once
created and finished, could thereafter continue to exist unsupported by His
omnipotence. For as all things derive existence from the Creator's supreme
power, wisdom, and goodness, so unless preserved continually by His Providence,
and by the same power which produced them, they would instantly return into
their nothingness. This the Scriptures declare when they say: How could
anything endure if thou wouldst not? or be preserved, if not called by thee?
Not only does God protect and govern all
things by His Providence, but He also by an internal power impels to motion and
action whatever moves and acts, and this in such a manner that, although He
excludes not, He yet precedes the agency of secondary causes. For His invisible
influence extends to all things, and, as the Wise Man says, reaches from end to
end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly. This is the reason why the
Apostle, announcing to the Athenians the God whom, not knowing, they adored,
said: He is not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and move, and
are.
Creation Is The Work Of The Three Persons
Let so much suffice for the explanation of
the first Article of the Creed. It may not be superfluous, however, to add that
creation is the common work of the Three Persons of the Holy and undivided
Trinity, -- of the Father, whom according to the doctrine of the Apostles we
here declare to be Creator of heaven and earth; of the Son, of whom the
Scripture says, all things were made by him; and of the Holy Ghost, of whom it
is written: The spirit of God moved over the waters, and again, By the word of
the Lord the heavens were established; and all the power of them by the spirit
of his mouth.
ARTICLE
II : "AND IN JESUS CHRIST, HIS ONLY SON, OUR LORD"
Advantages Of Faith In This Article
That wonderful and superabundant are the
blessings which flow to the human race from the belief and profession of this
Article we learn from these words of St. John: Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God; and also from the
words of Christ the Lord, proclaiming the Prince of the Apostles blessed for
the confession of this truth: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and
blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. For this
Article is the most firm basis of our salvation and redemption.
But as the fruit of these admirable blessings
is best known by considering the ruin brought on man by his fall from that most
happy state in which God had placed our first parents, let the pastor be
particularly careful to make known to the faithful the cause of this common
misery and calamity.
When Adam had departed from the obedience due
to God and had violated the prohibition, of every tree of paradise thou shalt
eat: But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat, for in
what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death, he fell into
the extreme misery of losing the sanctity and righteousness in which he had
been placed, and of becoming subject to all those other evils which have been
explained more fully by the holy Council of Trent.
Wherefore, the pastor should not omit to
remind the faithful that the guilt and punishment of original sin were not
confined to Adam, but justly descended from him, as from their source and
cause, to all posterity. The human race, having fallen from its elevated
dignity, no power of men or Angels could raise it from its fallen condition and
replace it in its primitive state. To remedy the evil and repair the loss it
became necessary that the Son of God, whose power is infinite, clothed in the
weakness of our flesh, should remove the infinite weight of sin and reconcile
us to God in His blood.
Necessity Of Faith In This Article
The belief and profession of this our
redemption, which God declared from the beginning, are now, and always have
been, necessary to salvation. In the sentence of condemnation pronounced
against the human race immediately after the sin of Adam the hope of redemption
was held out in these words, which announced to the devil the loss he was to
sustain by man's redemption: I will put enmities between thee and the woman,
and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait
f or her heel.
The same promise God again often confirmed
and more distinctly manifested to those chiefly whom He desired to make special
objects of His favour; among others to the Patriarch Abraham, to whom He often
declared this mystery, but more explicitly when, in obedience to His command,
Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Because, said God, thou
hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy only-begotten son f or my sake; I
win bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the
sand that is by the sea shore. Thy seed shall possess the gates of their
enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because
thou hast obeyed my voice. From these words it was easy to infer that He who
was to deliver mankind from the ruthless tyranny of Satan was to be descended
from Abraham; and that while He was the Son of God, He was to be born of the
seed of Abraham according to the flesh.
Not long after, to preserve the memory of
this promise, God renewed the same covenant with Jacob, the grandson of
Abraham. When in a vision Jacob saw a ladder standing on earth, and its top
reaching to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending by it, as
the Scriptures testify, he also heard the Lord, who was leaning on the ladder,
say to him: I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the
land, wherein thou sleepest, I will give to thee and to thy seed. And thy seed
shall be as the dust of the earth. Thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to
the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and thy seed all the
nations of the earth shall be blessed.
Nor did God cease afterwards to excite in the
posterity of Abraham and in many others, the expectation of a Saviour, by
renewing the recollection of the same promise; for after the establishment of
the Jewish State and religion it became better known to His people. Types
signified and men foretold what and how great blessings the Saviour and
Redeemer, Christ Jesus, was to bring to mankind. And indeed the Prophets, whose
minds were illuminated with light from above, foretold the birth of the Son of
God, the wondrous works which He wrought while on earth, His doctrine,
character, life, death, Resurrection, and the other mysterious circumstances
regarding Him, and all these they announced to the people as graphically as if
they were passing before their eyes. With the exception that one has reference
to the future and the other to the past, we can discover no difference between
the predictions of the Prophets and the preaching of the Apostles, between the
faith of the ancient Patriarchs and that of Christians.
But we are now to speak of the several parts
of this Article.
"Jesus"
Jesus is the proper name of the God-man and
signifies Saviour: a name given Him not accidentally, or by the judgment or
will of man, but by the counsel and command of God. For the Angel announced to
Mary His mother: Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth
a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He afterwards not only commanded
Joseph, who was espoused to the Virgin, to call the child by that name, but
also declared the reason why He should be so called. Joseph, son of David, said
the Angel, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is
conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son and thou
shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall save his people from their sins.
In the Sacred Scriptures we meet with many
who were called by this name. So, for example, was called the son of Nave, who
succeeded Moses, and, by special privilege denied to Moses, conducted into the
land of promise the people whom Moses had delivered from Egypt; and also the
son of Josedech, the priest. But how much more appropriate it is to call by
this name our Saviour, who gave light, liberty and salvation, not to one people
only, but to all men, of all ages to men oppressed, not by famine, or Egyptian
or Babylonian bondage, but sitting in the shadow of death and fettered by the
galling chains of sin and of the devil who purchased for them a right to the
inheritance of heaven and reconciled them to God the Father! In those men who
were designated by the same name we see foreshadowed Christ the Lord, by whom
the blessings just enumerated were poured out on the human race.
All other names which according to prophecy
were to be given by divine appointment to the Son of God, are comprised in this
one name Jesus; for while they partially signified the salvation which He was
to bestow upon us, this name included the force and meaning of all human
salvation.
"Christ"
To the name Jesus is added that of Christ,
which signifies the anointed. This name is expressive of honour and office, and
is not peculiar to one thing only, but common to many; for in the Old Law
priests and kings, whom God, on account of the dignity of their office,
commanded to he anointed, were called christs. For priests commend the people
to God by unceasing prayer, offer sacrifice to Him, and turn away His wrath
from mankind. Kings are entrusted with the government of the people; and to
them principally belong the authority of the law, the protection of innocence
and the punishment of guilt. As, therefore, both these functions seem to
represent the majesty of God on earth, those who were appointed to the royal or
sacerdotal office were anointed with oil. Furthermore, since Prophets, as the
interpreters and ambassadors of the immortal God, have unfolded to us the
secrets of heaven and by salutary precepts and the prediction of future events
have exhorted to amendment of life, it was customary to anoint them also.
When Jesus Christ our Saviour came into the
world, He assumed these three characters of Prophet, Priest and King, and was
therefore called Christ, having been anointed for the discharge of these
functions, not by mortal hand or with earthly ointment, but by the power of His
heavenly Father and with a spiritual oil; for the plenitude of the Holy Spirit
and a more copious effusion of all gifts than any other created being is
capable of receiving were poured into His soul. This the Prophet clearly
indicates when he addresses the Redeemer in these words: Thou hast loved
justice, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with
the oil of gladness above thy fellows. The same is also more explicitly
declared by the Prophet Isaias: The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the
Lord hath anointed me: he hath sent me to preach to the meek.
Jesus Christ, therefore, was the great
Prophet and Teacher, from whom we have learned the will of God and by whom the
world has been taught the knowledge of the heavenly Father. The name prophet
belongs to Him preeminently, because all others who were dignified with that
name were His disciples, sent principally to announce the coming of that
Prophet who was to save all men.
Christ was also a Priest, not indeed of the
same order as were the priests of the tribe of Levi in the Old Law, but of that
of which the Prophet David sang: Thou art a priest for ever according to the
order of Melchisedech. This subject the Apostle fully and accurately develops
in his Epistle to the Hebrews.
Christ not only as God, but also as man and
partaker of our nature, we acknowledge to be a King. Of Him the Angel
testified: He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom
there shall be no end. This kingdom of Christ is spiritual and eternal, begun
on earth but perfected in heaven. He discharges by His admirable Providence the
duties of King towards His Church, governing and protecting her against the
assaults and snares of her enemies, legislating for her and imparting to her
not only holiness and righteousness, but also the power and strength to
persevere. But although the good and the bad are found within the limits of
this kingdom, and thus all men by right belong to it, yet those who in
conformity with His commands lead unsullied and innocent lives, experience beyond
all others the sovereign goodness and beneficence of our King. Although
descended from the most illustrious race of kings, He obtained this kingdom not
by hereditary or other human right, but because God bestowed on Him as man all
the power, dignity and majesty of which human nature is capable. To Him,
therefore, God delivered the government of the whole world, and to this His
sovereignty, which has already commenced, all things shall be made fully and
entirely subject on the day of judgment.
"His Only Son"
In these words, mysteries more exalted with
regard to Jesus are proposed to the faithful as objects of their belief and
contemplation; namely, that He is the Son of God, and true God, like the Father
who begot Him from eternity. We also confess that He is the Second Person of
the Blessed Trinity, equal in all things to the Father and the Holy Ghost; for
in the Divine Persons nothing unequal or unlike should exist, or even be
imagined to exist, since we acknowledge the essence, will and power of all to
be one. This truth is both clearly revealed in many passages of Holy Scripture
and sublimely announced in the testimony of St. John: In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
But when we are told that Jesus is the Son of
God, we are not to understand anything earthly or mortal in His birth; but are
firmly to believe and piously to adore that birth by which, from all eternity,
the Father begot the Son, a mystery which reason cannot fully conceive or
comprehend, and at the contemplation of which, overwhelmed, as it were, with
admiration, we should exclaim with the Prophet: Who shall declare his
generation? On this point, then, we are to believe that the Son is of the same
nature, of the same power and wisdom, with the Father, as we more fully profess
in these words of the Nicene Creed: And in one Lord Jesus Christ, his
Only-begotten Son, born of the Father before all ages, God of God, light of
light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial to the Father, by
whom all things were made.
Among the different comparisons employed to
elucidate the mode and manner of this eternal generation that which is borrowed
from the production of thought in our mind seems to come nearest to its
illustration, and hence St. John calls the Son the Word. For as our mind, in
some sort understanding itself, forms an image of itself, which theologians
express by the term word, so God, as far as we may compare human things to
divine, understanding Himself, begets the eternal Word. It is better, however,
to contemplate what faith proposes, and in the sincerity of our souls to
believe and confess that Jesus Christ is true God and true Man, as God,
begotten of the Father before all ages, as Man, born in time of Mary, His
Virgin Mother.
While we thus acknowledge His twofold
Nativity; we believe Him to be one Son, because His divine and human natures
meet in one Person. As to His divine generation He has no brethren or coheirs,
being the Only-begotten Son of the Father, while we mortals are the work of His
hands. But if we consider His birth as man, He not only calls many by the name
of brethren, but treats them as such, since He admits them to share with Him
the glory of His paternal inheritance. They are those who by faith have
received Christ the Lord, and who really, and by works of charity, show forth
the faith which they profess in words. Hence the Apostle calls Christ, the
first-born amongst many brethren.
"Our Lord"
Of our Saviour many things are recorded in
Sacred Scripture. Some of these, it is evident, apply to Him as God and some as
man, because from His two natures He received the different properties which
belong to both. Hence we say with truth that Christ is Almighty, Eternal,
Infinite, and these attributes He has from His Divine Nature; again, we say of
Him that He suffered, died, and rose again, which are properties manifestly
that belong to His human nature.
Besides these terms, there are others common
to both natures; as when in this Article of the Creed we say our Lord. If,
then, this name applies to both natures, rightly is He to be called our Lord.
For as He, as well as the Father, is the eternal God, so is He Lord of all
things equally with the Father; and as He and the Father are not the one, one
God, and the other, another God, but one and the same God, so likewise He and
the Father are not the one, one Lord, and the other, another Lord.
As man, He is also for many reasons
appropriately called our Lord. First, because He is our Redeemer, who delivered
us from sin, He deservedly acquired the power by which He truly is and is
called our Lord. This is the doctrine of the Apostle:
He humbled himself,
becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause
God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names:
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those that are in heaven,
on earth, and under the earth: and that every tongue should confess that the
Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. And of Himself He said,
after His Resurrection: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.
He is also called Lord because in one Person
both natures, the human and the divine, are united; and even though He had not
died for us, He would have yet deserved, by this admirable union, to be
constituted common Lord of all created things, particularly of the faithful who
obey and serve Him with all the fervour of their souls.
Duties Owed To Christ Our Lord
It remains, therefore, that the pastor remind
the faithful that: from Christ we take our name and are called Christians; that
we cannot be ignorant of the extent of His favours, particularly since by His
gift of faith we are enabled to understand all these things. We, above all
others, are under the obligation of devoting and consecrating ourselves
forever, like faithful servants, to our Redeemer and our Lord.
This indeed, we promised at the doors of the
church when about to be baptised; for we then declared that we renounced the
devil and the world, and gave ourselves unreservedly to Jesus Christ. But if to
be enrolled as soldiers of Christ we consecrated ourselves by so holy and
solemn a profession to our Lord, what punishments should we not deserve if after
our entrance into the Church, and after having known the will and laws of God
and received the grace of the Sacraments, we were to form our lives upon the
precepts and maxims of the world and the devil, just as though when cleansed in
the waters of Baptism, we had pledged our fidelity to the world and to the
devil, and not to Christ the Lord and Saviour!
What heart so cold as not to be inflamed with
love by the kindness and good will exercised toward us by so great a Lord, who,
though holding us in His power and dominion as slaves ransomed by His blood,
yet embraces us with such ardent love as to call us not servants, but friends
and brethren? This, assuredly, supplies the most just, and perhaps the
strongest, claim to induce us always to acknowledge, venerate, and adore Him as
our Lord.
ARTICLE
III : "WHO WAS CONCEIVED BY THE HOLY GHOST, BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY"
Importance Of This Article
From what has been said in the preceding
Article, the faithful can understand that in bringing us from the relentless
tyranny of Satan into liberty, God has conferred a singular and surpassing
blessing on the human race. But if we place before our eyes also the plan and
means by which He deigned chiefly to accomplish this, then, indeed, we shall
see that there is nothing more glorious or magnificent than this divine
goodness and beneficence towards us.
First Part of this Article:
"Who was Conceived,'
The pastor, then, should enter on the
exposition of this third Article by developing the grandeur of this mystery, which
the Sacred Scriptures very frequently propose for our consideration as the
principal source of our eternal salvation. Its meaning he should teach to be
that we believe and confess that the same Jesus Christ, our only Lord, the Son
of God, when He assumed human flesh for us in the womb of the Virgin, was not
conceived like other men, from the seed of man, but in a manner transcending
the order of nature, that is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; so that the same
Person, remaining God as He was from eternity, became man, what He was not
before.
That such is the meaning of the above words
is clear from the Creed of the Holy Council of Constantinople, which says: Who
for us men, and for our salvation,, came down from heaven, and became incarnate
by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. The same truth we also
find unfolded by St. John the Evangelist, who imbibed from the bosom of the
Lord and Saviour Himself the knowledge of this most profound mystery. For when
he had declared the nature of the Divine Word as follows: In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, he concluded: And
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
The Word, which is a Person of the Divine
Nature, assumed human nature in such a manner that there should be one and the
same Person in both the divine and human natures. Hence this admirable union
preserved the actions and properties of both natures; and as Pope St. Leo the
Great said: The lowliness of the inferior nature was not consumed in the glory
of the superior, nor did the assumption of the inferior lessen the glory of the
superior.
"By the Holy Ghost"
As an explanation of the words in which this
Article is expressed is not to be omitted, the pastor should teach that when we
say that the Son of God was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, we do not
mean that this Person alone of the Holy Trinity accomplished the mystery of the
Incarnation. Although the Son only assumed human nature, yet all the Persons of
the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, were authors of this
mystery.
It is a principle of Christian faith that
whatever God does outside Himself in creation is common to the Three Persons,
and that one neither does more than, nor acts without another. But that one emanates
from another, this only cannot be common to all; for the Son is begotten of the
Father only, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son. Anything,
however, which proceeds from them extrinsically is the work of the Three
Persons without difference of any sort, and of this latter description is the
Incarnation of the Son of God.
Of those things, nevertheless, that are
common to all, the Sacred Scriptures-often attribute some to one person, some
to another. Thus, to the Father they attribute power over all things ; to the
Son, wisdom; to the Holy Ghost, love. Hence, as the mystery of the Incarnation
manifests the singular and boundless love of God towards us, it is therefore in
some sort peculiarly attributed to the Holy Ghost.
In The Incarnation Some Things Were
Natural, Others Supernatural
In this mystery we perceive that some things
were done which transcend the order of nature, some by the power of nature.
Thus, in believing that the body of Christ was formed from the most pure blood
of His Virgin Mother we acknowledge the operation of human nature, this being a
law common to the formation of all human bodies, that they should be formed
from the blood of the mother.
But what surpasses the order of nature and
human comprehension is, that as soon as the Blessed Virgin assented to the
announcement of the Angel in these words, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be
it done unto me according to thy word, the most sacred body of Christ was
immediately formed, and to it was united a rational soul enjoying the use of
reason; and thus in the same instant of time He was perfect God and perfect
man. That this was the astonishing and admirable work of the Holy Ghost cannot
be doubted; for according to the order of nature the rational soul is united to
the body only after a certain lapse of time.
Again -- and this should overwhelm us with
astonishment -- as soon as the soul of Christ was united to His body, the
Divinity became united to both; and thus at the same time His body was formed
and animated, and the Divinity united to body and soul.
Hence, at the same instant He was perfect God
and perfect man, and the most Holy Virgin, having at the same moment conceived
God and man, is truly and properly called Mother of God and man. This the Angel
signified to her when he said: Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and
shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great,
and shall be called the Son of the Most High. The event verified the prophecy
of Isaias: Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son. Elizabeth also
declared the same truth when" being filled with the Holy Ghost, she
understood the Conception of the Son of God, and said: Whence is this to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
As the body of Christ was formed of the pure
blood of the immaculate Virgin without the aid of man, as we have already said,
and by the sole operation of the Holy Ghost, so also, at the moment of His
Conception, His soul was enriched with an overflowing fullness of the Spirit of
God, and a superabundance of all graces. For God gave not to Him, as to others
adorned with holiness and grace, His Spirit by measure, as St. John testifies
but poured into His soul the plenitude of all graces so abundantly that of his
fullness we all have received.
Although possessing that Spirit by which holy
men attain the adoption of sons of God, He cannot, however, be called the
adopted son of God; for since He is the Son of God by nature, the grace, or
name of adoption, can on no account be deemed applicable to Him.
How To Profit By The Mystery Of The
Incarnation
These truths comprise the substance of what
appears to demand explanation regarding the admirable mystery of the
Conception. To reap from them abundant fruit for salvation the faithful should
particularly recall, and frequently reflect, that it is God who assumed human
flesh; that the manner in which He became man exceeds our comprehension, not to
say our powers of expression; and finally, that He vouchsafed to become man in
order that we men might be born again as children of God. When to these
subjects they shall have given mature consideration, let them, in the humility
of faith, believe and adore all the mysteries contained in this Article, and
not indulge a curious inquisitiveness by investigating and scrutinising them --
an attempt scarcely ever unattended with danger.
Second Part Of This Article: "Born Of
The Virgin Mary"
These words comprise another part of this
Article. In its exposition the pastor should exercise considerable diligence,
because the faithful are bound to believe that Jesus the Lord was not only
conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, but was also born of the Virgin Mary.
The words of the Angel who first announced the happy tidings to the world
declare with what joy and delight of soul this mystery of our faith should be
meditated upon. Behold, said the Angel, I bring you good tidings of great
joy" that shall be to all the people. The same sentiments are clearly
conveyed in the song chanted by the heavenly host: Glory to God in the highest;
and on earth peace to men of good will. Then began the fulfilment of the
splendid promise made by God to Abraham" that in his seed all the nations
of the earth should one day be blessed; for Mary" whom we truly proclaim
and venerate as Mother of God, because she brought forth Him who is at once God
and man, was descended from King David.
The Nativity Of Christ Transcends The
Order Of Nature
But as the Conception itself transcends the
order of nature, so also the birth of our Lord presents to our contemplation
nothing but what is divine.
Besides, what is admirable beyond the power
of thoughts or words to express, He is born of His Mother without any
diminution of her maternal virginity, just as He afterwards went forth from the
sepulchre while it was closed and sealed, and entered the room in which His
disciples were assembled, the doors being shut; or, not to depart from
every-day examples, just as the rays of the sun penetrate without breaking or
injuring in the least the solid substance of glass, so after a like but more
exalted manner did Jesus Christ come forth from His mother's womb without
injury to her maternal virginity. This immaculate and perpetual virginity
forms, therefore, the just theme of our eulogy. Such was the work of the Holy
Ghost, who at the Conception and birth of the Son so favoured the Virgin Mother
as to impart to her fecundity while preserving inviolate her perpetual
virginity.
Christ Compared to Adam" Mary to Eve
The Apostle sometimes calls Jesus Christ the
second Adam, and compares Him to the first Adam; for as in the first all men
die, so in the second all are made alive: and as in the natural order Adam was
the father of the human race, so in the supernatural order Christ is The author
of grace and of glory.
The Virgin Mother we may also compare to Eve,
making the second Eve, that is, Mary, correspond to the first, as we have
already shown that the second Adam, that is, Christ, corresponds to the first
Adam. By believing the serpent, Eve brought malediction and death on mankind,
and Mary, by believing the Angel, became the instrument of The divine goodness
in bringing life and benediction to the human race. From Eve we are born
children of wrath; from Mary we have received Jesus Christ, and through Him are
regenerated children of grace. To Eve it was said: In sorrow shalt thou bring
forth children. Mary was exempt from this law, for preserving her virginal
integrity inviolate she brought forth Jesus the Son of God without
experiencing, as we have already said, any sense of pain.
Types and Prophecies of the Conception and
Nativity
The mysteries of this admirable Conception
and Nativity being, therefore, so great and so numerous, it accorded with the
plan of divine Providence to signify them by many types and prophecies. Hence
the holy Fathers understood many things which we meet in the Sacred Scriptures
to refer to these mysteries, particularly that gate of the sanctuary which
Ezechiel saw closed; the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, which became
a great mountain and filled the universe, of which we read in Daniel; the rod
of Aaron, which alone budded of all the rods of the princes of Israel; and the
bush which Moses saw burr without being consumed.'
The holy Evangelist describes in detail the history
of the birth of Christ; but, as the pastor can easily recur to the Sacred
Volume, it is unnecessary for us to say more on the subject.
Lessons which this Article Teaches
The pastor should labor to impress deeply on
the minds and hearts of the faithful these mysteries, which were written for
our learning; first, that by the commemoration of so great a benefit they may
make some return of gratitude to God, its author, and next, in order to place
before their eyes, as a model for imitation, this striking and singular example
of humility.
Humility And Poverty Of Christ
What can be more useful, what better
calculated to subdue the pride and haughtiness of the human heart, than to
reflect frequently that God humbles Himself in such a manner as to assume our
frailty and weakness, in order to communicate to us His glory; that God becomes
man, and that He at whose nod, to use the words of Scripture, the pillars of
heaven tremble and are affrighted bows His supreme and infinite majesty to
minister to man; that He whom the Angels adore in heaven is born on earth !
When such is the goodness of God towards us, what, I ask, should we not do to
testify our obedience to His will? With what willingness and alacrity should we
not love, embrace, and perform all the duties of humility ?
The faithful should also consider the
salutary lessons which Christ at His birth teaches before He begins to speak.
He is born in poverty; He is born a stranger under a roof not His own; He is
born in a lonely crib; He is born in the depth of winter ! For St. Luke writes
as follows: And it came to pass, that when they were there, her days were
accomplished, that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her
first-born, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger;
because there was no room for them in the inn. Could the Evangelist have
described under more humble terms the majesty and glory that filled the heavens
and the earth ? He does not say, there was no room in the inn, but there was no
room for him who says, the world is mine, and the fullness thereof. As another
Evangelist has expressed it: He came unto his own, and his own received him
not.
Elevation And Dignity Of Man
When the faithful have placed these things
before their eyes, let them also reflect that God condescended to assume the
lowliness and frailty of our flesh in order to exalt man to the highest degree
of dignity. This single reflection, that He who is true and perfect God became
man, supplies sufficient proof of the exalted dignity conferred on the human
race by the divine bounty; since we may now glory that the Son of God is bone
of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, a privilege not given to Angels, for
nowhere, says the Apostle, doth he take hold of the Angels: but of the seed of
Abraham he taketh hold.
Duty Of Spiritual Nativity
We must also take care lest to our great
injury it should happen that just as there was no room for Him in the inn at
Bethlehem, in which to be born, so likewise now, after He has been born in the
flesh, He should find no room in our hearts in which to be born spiritually.
For since He is most desirous of our salvation, this spiritual birth is the
object of His most earnest solicitude.
As, then, by the power of the Holy Ghost, and
in a manner superior to the order of nature, He was made man and was born, was
holy and even holiness itself, so does it become our duty to be born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God; to walk as new creatures in
newness of spirit, and to preserve that holiness and purity of soul which so
much becomes men regenerated by the Spirit of God. Thus shall we reflect some
faint image of the holy Conception and Nativity of the Son of God, which are
the objects of our firm faith, and believing which we revere and adore the
wisdom of God in a mystery which is hidden.
ARTICLE
IV : "Suffered Under Pontius Pilate, Was Crucified, Dead, And
Buried'"
Importance Of This Article
How necessary is a knowledge of this Article,
and how assiduous the pastor should be in stirring up in the minds of the
faithful the frequent recollection of our Lord's Passion" we learn from
the Apostle when he says that he knows nothing but Jesus Christ and him
crucified.' The pastor, therefore, should exercise the greatest care and pains
in giving a thorough explanation of this subject" in order that the
faithful" being moved by the remembrance of so great a benefit" may
give themselves entirely to the contemplation of the goodness and love of God
towards us.
First Part of this Article:
'"Suffered Under Pontius Pilate, was Crucified,,
The first part of this Article (of the second
we shall treat hereafter) proposes for our belief that when Pontius Pilate
governed the province of Judea" under Tiberius Caesar" Christ the
Lord was nailed to a cross. Having been seized" mocked, outraged and
tortured in various forms" He was finally crucified.
"Suffered,"
It cannot be a matter of doubt that His
soul" as to its inferior part" was sensible of these torments; for as
He really assumed human nature" it is a necessary consequence that He
really, and in His soul, experienced a most acute sense of pain. Hence these
words of the Saviour: My soul is sorrowful even unto death.
Although human nature was united to the Divine
Person, He felt the bitterness of His Passion as acutely as if no such union
had existed" because in the one Person of Jesus Christ were preserved the
properties of both natures" human and divine; and therefore what was
passible and mortal remained passible and mortal; while what was impassible and
immortal, that is, His Divine Nature, continued impassible and immortal.
"Under Pontius Pilate"
Since we find it here so diligently recorded
that Jesus Christ suffered when Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judea, the
pastor should explain the reason. By fixing the time, which we find also done
by the Apostle Paul, so important and so necessary an event is rendered more
easily ascertainable by all. Furthermore those words show that the Saviour's
prediction was really verified: They shall deliver him to the Gentiles, to be
mocked and scourged and crucified.
"Was Crucified"
The fact that He suffered death precisely on
the wood of the cross must also be attributed to a particular counsel of God,
which decreed that life should return by the way whence death had arisen The
serpent who had triumphed over our first parents by the wood (of a tree) was
vanquished by Christ on the wood of the cross.
Many other reasons which the Fathers have
discussed in detail might be adduced to show that it was fit that our Redeemer
should suffer death on the cross rather than in any other way. But, as the
pastor will show" it is enough for the faithful to believe that this kind
of death was chosen by the Saviour because it appeared better adapted and more
appropriate to the redemption of the human race; for there certainly could be
none more ignominious and humiliating. Not only among the Gentiles was the
punishment of the cross held accursed and full of shame and infamy, but even in
the Law of Moses the man is called accursed that hangeth on a tree.
Importance Of The History Of The Passion
Furthermore, the pastor should not omit the
historical part of this Article, which has been so carefully set forth by the
holy Evangelists; so that the faithful may be acquainted with at least the
principal points of this mystery, that is to say, such as seem more necessary
to confirm the truth of our faith. For it is on this Article, as on their
foundation, that the Christian faith and religion rest; and if this truth be
firmly established, all the rest is secure. Indeed, if one thing more than
another presents difficulty to the mind and understanding of man, assuredly it
is the mystery of the cross, which, beyond all doubt, must be considered the
most difficult of all; so much so that only with great difficulty can we grasp
the fact that our salvation depends on the cross, and on Him who for us was
nailed thereon. In this, however, as the Apostle teaches, we may well admire
the wonderful Providence of God; for, seeing that in the wisdom of God, the
world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching,
to save them that believe. It is no wonder, then, that the Prophets, before the
coming of Christ, and the Apostles, after His death and Resurrection, labored
so strenuously to convince mankind that He was the Redeemer of the world, and
to bring them under the power and obedience of the Crucified.
Figures And Prophecies Of The Passion And
Death Of The Saviour
Since, therefore, nothing is so far above the
reach of human reason as the mystery of the cross, the Lord immediately after
the fall ceased not, both by figures and prophecies, to signify the death by
which His Son was to die.
To mention a few of these types. First of
all, Abel, who fell a victim of the envy of his brother, Isaac who was
commanded to be offered in sacrifice, the lamb immolated by the Jews on their
departure from Egypt, and also the brazen serpent lifted up by Moses in the
desert, were all figures of the Passion and death of Christ the Lord.
As to the Prophets, how many there were who
foretold Christ's Passion and death is too well known to require development
here. Not to speak of David, whose Psalms embrace all the principal mysteries
of Redemption, the oracles of Isaias in particular are so clear and graphic
that he might be said rather to have recorded a past than predicted a future
event. a
Second Part Of This Article: "Dead,
And Buried"
Christ Really Died
The pastor should explain that these words
present for our belief that Jesus Christ, after He was crucified, really died
and was buried. It is not without just reason that this is proposed to the
faithful as a separate object of belief, since there were some who denied His
death upon the cross. The Apostles, therefore, were justly of opinion that to
such an error should be opposed the doctrine of faith contained in this
Article, the truth of which is placed beyond the possibility of doubt by the
united testimony of all the Evangelists, who record that Jesus yielded up the
ghost.
Moreover as Christ was true and perfect man,
He of course was capable of dying. Now man dies when the soul is separated from
the body. When, therefore, we say that Jesus died, we mean that His soul was
disunited from His body. We do not admit, however, that the Divinity was
separated from His body. On the contrary, we firmly believe and profess that
when His soul was dissociated from His body, His Divinity continued always
united both to His body in the sepulchre and to His soul in limbo. It became
the Son of God to die, that, through death, he might destroy him who had the
empire of death that is the devil, and might deliver them, who through the fear
of death were all their lifetime subject to servitude.
Christ Died Freely
It was the peculiar privilege of Christ the
Lord to have died when He Himself decreed to die, and to have died not so much
by external violence as by internal assent. Not only His death, but also its
time and place, were ordained by Him. For thus Isaias wrote: He was offered
because it was his own will. The Lord before His Passion, declared the same of
Himself: I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No man taketh it away
from me: but I lay it down of myself, and I have power to lay it down: and I
have power to take it again. As to the time and place of His death, He said,
when Herod insidiously sought His life: Go and tell that fox: Behold I cast out
devils, and do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am consummated.
Nevertheless I must walk today and to-morrow, and the day following, because it
cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.'' He therefore offered
Himself not involuntarily or by compulsion but of His own free will. Going to
meet His enemies He said: I am he; and all the punishments which injustice and
cruelty inflicted on Him He endured voluntarily.
The Thought Of Christ's Death Should
Excite Our Love And Gratitude
When we meditate on the sufferings and all
the torments of the Redeemer, nothing is better calculated to stir our souls
than the thought that He endured them thus voluntarily. Were anyone to endure
all kinds of suffering for our sake, not because he chose them but simply
because he could not escape them, we should not consider this a very great
favour; but were he to endure death freely, and for our sake only, having had
it in his power to avoid it, this indeed would be a benefit so overwhelming as
to deprive even the most grateful heart, not only of the power of returning but
even of feeling due thanks. We may hence form an idea of the transcendent and
intense love of Jesus Christ towards us, and of His divine and boundless claims
to our gratitude.
Christ Was Really Buried
When we confess that He was buried, we do not
make this, as it were, a distinct part of the Article, as if it presented any
new difficulty which is not implied in what we have said of His death; for if
we believe that Christ died, we can also easily believe that He was buried. The
word buried was added in the Creed, first, that His death might be rendered
more certain, for the strongest argument of a person's death is the proof that
his body was buried; and, secondly, to render the miracle of His Resurrection
more authentic and illustrious.
It is not, however, our belief that the body
of Christ alone was interred. The above words propose, as the principal object
of our belief, that God was buried; as according to the rule of Catholic faith
we also say with the strictest truth that God died, and that God was born of a
virgin. For as the Divinity was never separated from His body which was laid in
the sepulchre, we truly confess that God was buried.
Circumstances Of Christ’s Burial
As to the manner and place of His burial,
what the holy Evangelists record on these subjects will be sufficient for the
pastor. There are, however, two things which demand particular attention; the
one, that the body of Christ was in no degree corrupted in the sepulchre,
according to the prediction of the Prophet: Thou wilt not give thy holy one to
see corruption; the other, and it regards the several parts of this Article,
that burial, Passion, and also death, apply to Christ Jesus not as God but as
man. To suffer and die are incidental to human nature only; yet they are also
attributed to God, since, as is clear, they are predicated with propriety of
that Person who is at once perfect God and perfect man.
Useful Considerations on the Passion
When the faithful have once attained the
knowledge of these things, the pastor should next proceed to explain those
particulars of the Passion and death of Christ which may enable them if not to
comprehend, at least to contemplate, the immensity of so stupendous a mystery.
The Dignity Of The Sufferer
And first we must consider who it is that
suffers all these things. His dignity we cannot express in words or even
conceive in mind. Of Him St. John says, that He is the Word which was with God.
And the Apostle describes Him in sublime terms, saying that this is He -whom
God hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world, who
being the brightness of his glory, and the figure of his substance, and
upholding all things by the word of his power, making purgation of sins.
sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on high. In a word, Jesus Christ, the
God-man, suffers ! The Creator suffers for His creatures, the Master for His
servant. He suffers by whom the Angels, men, the heavens, and the elements were
made; in whom, by whom, and of whom, are all things.
It cannot, therefore, be a matter of surprise
that while He agonised under such an accumulation of torments the whole frame
of the universe was convulsed; for as the Scriptures inform us, the earth
quaked, and the rocks were rent, there was darkness over all the earth; and the
sun was obscured. If, then, even mute and inanimate nature sympathised with the
sufferings of her Creator, let the faithful consider with what tears they, the
living stones of this edifice, should manifest their sorrow.
Reasons Why Christ Suffered
The reasons why the Saviour suffered are also
to be explained, that thus the greatness and intensity of the divine love
towards us may the more fully appear. Should anyone inquire why the Son of God
underwent His most bitter Passion, he will find that besides the guilt
inherited from our first parents the principal causes were the vice's and
crimes which have been perpetrated from the beginning of the world to the
present day and those which will be committed to the end of time. In His
Passion and death the Son of God, our Saviour, intended to atone for and blot
out the sins of all ages, to offer for them to his Father a full and abundant
satisfaction.
Besides, to increase the dignity of this
mystery, Christ not only suffered for sinners, but even for those who were the
very authors and ministers of all the torments He endured. Of this the Apostle
reminds us in these words addressed to the Hebrews: Think diligently upon him
that endured such opposition from sinners against himself; that you be not
wearied, fainting in your minds. In this guilt are involved all those who fall
frequently into sin; for, as our sins consigned Christ the Lord to the death of
the cross, most certainly those who wallow in sin and iniquity crucify to
themselves again the Son of God, as far as in them lies, and make a mockery of
Him. This guilt seems more enormous in us than in the Jews, since according to
the testimony of the same Apostle: If they had known it, they would never have
crucified the Lord of glory; while we, on the contrary, professing to know Him,
yet denying Him by our actions, seem in some sort to lay violent hands on him.
Christ Was Delivered Over To Death By The
Father And By Himself
But that Christ the Lord was also delivered
over to death by the Father and by Himself, the Scriptures bear witness. For in
Isaias (God the Father) says For the wickedness of my people have I struck him.
And a little before the same Prophet filled with the Spirit of God, cried out,
as he saw the Lord covered with stripes and wounds: All we like sheep have gone
astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on
him the iniquity of us all. But of the Son it is written: If he shall lay down
his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed. This the Apostle expresses in
language still stronger when, in order to show how confidently we, on our part,
should trust in the boundless mercy and goodness of God, he says: He that
spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not
also, with him, given us all things? a
The: Bitterness Of Christ's Passion
The next subject of the pastor's instruction
is the bitterness of the Redeemer's Passion. If we bear m mind that his sweat
became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground, and this, at the sole
anticipation of the torments and agony which He was about to endure, we must at
once perceive that His sorrows admitted of no increase. For if the very idea of
impending evils was overwhelming, and the sweat of blood shows that it was,
what are we to suppose their actual endurance to have been ?
That Christ our Lord suffered the most
excruciating torments of mind and body is certain. In the first place, there
was no part of His body that did not experience the most agonising torture. His
hands and feet were fastened with nails to the cross; His head was pierced with
thorns and smitten with a reed; His face was befouled with spittle and buffeted
with blows; His whole body was covered with stripes.
Furthermore men of all ranks and conditions
were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. Gentiles and
Jews were the advisers, the authors, the ministers of His Passion: Judas
betrayed Him, Peter denied Him, all the rest deserted Him.
And while He hangs from the cross are we not
at a loss which to deplore, His agony, or His ignominy, or both? Surely no
death more shameful, none more cruel, could have been devised than this. It was
the punishment usually reserved for the most guilty and atrocious malefactors,
a death whose slowness aggravated the exquisite pain and torture I
His agony was increased by the very
constitution and frame of His body. Formed by the power of the Holy Ghost, it
was more perfect and better organised than the bodies of other men can be, and
was therefore endowed with a superior susceptibility and a keener sense of all
the torments which it endured.
And as to His interior anguish of soul, that
too was no doubt extreme; for those among the Saints who had to endure torments
and tortures were not without consolation from above, which enabled them not
only to bear their sufferings patiently, but in many instances, to feel, in the
very midst of them, filled with interior joy. I rejoice, says the Apostle, in
my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings
of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the church;' and in another
place: I am filled with comfort, I exceedingly abound with joy in all our
tribulations. Christ our Lord tempered with no admixture of sweetness the
bitter chalice of His Passion but permitted His human nature to feel as acutely
every species of torment as if He were only man, and not also God.
Fruits Of Christ's Passion
It only remains now that the pastor carefully
explain the blessings and advantages which flow from the Passion of Christ. In
the first place, then, the Passion of our Lord was our deliverance from sin;
for, as St. John says, He hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own
blood. He hath quickened you together with him, says the Apostle, forgiving you
all offences, blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us,
which was contrary to us. And he hath taken the same out of the way, fastening
it to the cross.
In the next place He has rescued us from the
tyranny of the devil, for our Lord Himself says: Now is the judgment of the
world; now shall the prance of this world be cast out. And I if I be lifted up
from the earth, will draw all things to myself.
Again He discharged the punishment due to our
sins. And as no sacrifice more pleasing and acceptable could have been offered
to God, He reconciled us to the Father, appeased His wrath, and made Him
favourable to us.
Finally, by taking away our sins He opened to
us heaven, which was closed by the common sin of mankind. And this the Apostle
pointed out when he said: We have confidence in the entering into the holies by
the blood of Christ. Nor are we without a type and figure of this mystery in
the Old Law. For those who were prohibited to return into their native country
before the death of the high-priest typified that no one, however just and holy
may have been his life, could gain admission into the celestial country until
the eternal High-priest, Christ Jesus, had died, and by His death immediately
opened heaven to those who, purified by the Sacraments and gifted with faith,
hope, and charity, become partakers of His Passion.
Christ’s Passion, -- A Satisfaction, A
Sacrifice, A Redemption An Example
The pastor should teach that all these
inestimable and divine blessings flow to us from the Passion of Christ. First,
indeed, because the satisfaction which Jesus Christ has in an admirable manner
made to God the Father for our sins is full and complete. The price which He
paid for our ransom was not only adequate and equal to our debts, but far exceeded
them.
Again, it (the Passion of Christ) was a
sacrifice most acceptable to God, for when offered by His Son on the altar of
the cross, it entirely appeased the wrath and indignation of the Father. This
word (sacrifice) the Apostle uses when he says: Christ hath loved us, and hath
delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of
sweetness.
Furthermore, it was a redemption, of which
the Prince of the Apostles says: You were not redeemed with corruptible things
as gold or silver, from your vain conversation of the tradition of your
fathers: but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and
undefiled. While the Apostle teaches: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law, being made a curse for us.
Besides these incomparable blessings, we have
also received another of the highest importance; namely, that in the Passion
alone we have the most illustrious example of the exercise of every virtue. For
He so displayed patience, humility, exalted charity, meekness, obedience and
unshaken firmness of soul, not only in suffering for justice, sake, but also in
meeting death, that we may truly say on the day of His Passion alone, our
Saviour offered, in His own Person, a living exemplification of all the moral
precepts inculcated during the entire time of His public ministry.
Admonition
This exposition of the saving Passion and
death of Christ the Lord we have given briefly. Would to God that these
mysteries were always present to our minds, and that we learned to suffer, die,
and be buried together with our Lord; so that from henceforth, having cast
aside all stain of sin, and rising with Him to newness of life, we may at
length, through His grace and mercy, be found worthy to be made partakers of
the celestial kingdom and glory !
ARTICLE
V : "HE DESCENDED INTO HELL, THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE
DEAD"
Importance Of This Article
To know the glory of the burial of our Lord
Jesus Christ, of which we last treated, is highly important; but of still
higher importance is it to the faithful to know the splendid triumphs which He
obtained by having subdued the devil and despoiled the abodes of hell. Of these
triumphs, and also of His Resurrection, we are now about to speak.
Although the latter presents to us a subject
which might with propriety be treated under a separate and distinct head, yet
following the example of the holy Fathers, we have deemed it fitting to unite
it with His descent into hell.
First Part of this Article: "He
Descended into Hell"
In the first part of this Article, then, we
profess that immediately after the death of Christ His soul descended into
hell, and dwelt there as long as His body remained in the tomb; and also that
the one Person of Christ was at the same time in hell and in the sepulchre. Nor
should this excite surprise; for, as we have already frequently said, although
His soul was separated from His body, His Divinity was never parted from either
His soul or His body.
"Hell"
As the pastor, by explaining the meaning of
the word hell in this place may throw considerable light on the exposition of
this Article, it is to be observed that by the word hell is not here meant the
sepulchre, as some have not less impiously than ignorantly imagined; for in the
preceding Article we learned that Christ the Lord was buried, and there was no
reason why the Apostles, in delivering an Article of faith, should repeat the
same thing in other and more obscure terms.
Hell, then, here signifies those secret
abodes in which are detained the souls that have not obtained the happiness of
heaven. In this sense the word is frequently used in Scripture. Thus the
Apostle says: At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those that are in
heaven, on earth, and in hell; and in the Acts of the Apostles St. Peter says
that Christ the Lord is again risen, having loosed the sorrows of hell.
Different Abodes Called Hell"
These abodes are not all of the same nature,
for among them is that most loathsome and dark prison in which the souls of the
damned are tormented with the unclean spirits in eternal and inextinguishable
fire. This place is called gehenna, the bottomless pit, and is hell strictly
so-called.
Among them is also the fire of purgatory, in
which the souls of just men are cleansed by a temporary punishment, in order to
be admitted into their eternal country, into which nothing defiled entereth.
The truth of this doctrine, founded, as holy Councils declare,' on Scripture,
and confirmed by Apostolic tradition, demands exposition from the pastor, all
the more diligent and frequent, because we live in times when men endure not
sound doctrine.
Lastly, the third kind of abode is that into
which the souls of the just before the coming of Christ the Lord, were
received, and where, without experiencing any sort of pain, but supported by
the blessed hope of redemption, they enjoyed peaceful repose. To liberate these
holy souls, who, in the bosom of Abraham were expecting the Saviour, Christ the
Lord descended into hell.
"He Descended"
We are not to imagine that His power and
virtue only, and not also His soul, descended into hell; but we are firmly to
believe that His soul itself, really and substantially, descended thither,
according to this conclusive testimony of David: Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell.
But although Christ descended into hell, His
supreme power was in no degree lessened, nor was the splendour of His sanctity
obscured by any blemish. His descent served rather to prove that whatever had
been foretold of His sanctity was true; and that, as He had previously
demonstrated by so many miracles, He was truly the Son of God.
This we shall easily understand by comparing
the causes of the descent of Christ with those of other men. They descended as
captives; He as free and victorious among the dead, to subdue those demons by
whom, in consequence of guilt, they were held in captivity. Furthermore all
others descended, either to endure the most acute torments, or, if exempt from
other pain, to be deprived of the vision of God, and to be tortured by the
delay of the glory and happiness for which they yearned; Christ the Lord
descended, on the contrary, not to suffer, but to liberate the holy and the
just from their painful captivity, and to impart to them the fruit of His
Passion. His supreme dignity and power, therefore, suffered no diminution by
His descent into hell.
Why He Descended into Hell
To Liberate The Just
Having explained these things, the pastor
should next proceed to teach that Christ the Lord descended into hell, in order
that having despoiled the demons, He might liberate from prison those holy
Fathers and the other just souls, and might bring them into heaven with
Himself. This He accomplished in an admirable and most glorious manner; for His
august presence at once shed a celestial lustre upon the captives and filled
them with inconceivable joy and delight. He also imparted to them that supreme
happiness which consists in the vision of God, thus verifying His promise to the
thief on the cross: This day thou shalt be with me in paradise.
This deliverance of the just was long before
predicted by Osee in these words: O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will
be thy bite; ' and also by the Prophet Zachary: Thou also by the blood of thy
testament hast sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit, wherein is no water;
and lastly, the same is expressed by the Apostle in these words: Despoiling the
principalities and powers, he hath exposed them confidently in open show,
triumphing over them in himself.
But the better to understand the efficacy of
this mystery we should frequently call to mind that not only the just who were
born after the coming of our Lord, but also those who preceded Him from the
days of Adam, or who shall be born until the end of time, obtain their
salvation through the benefit of His Passion. Wherefore before His death and
Resurrection heaven was closed against every child of Adam. The souls of the
just, on their departure from this life, were either borne to the bosom of
Abraham; or, as is still the case with those who have something to be washed
away or satisfied for, were purified in the fire of purgatory.
To Proclaim His Power
Another reason why Christ the Lord descended
into hell is that there, as well as in heaven and on earth, He might proclaim
His power and authority, and that every knee should bow, of those that are in
heaven, on earth, and under the earth.
And here, who is not filled with admiration
and astonishment when he contemplates the infinite love of God for man! Not
satisfied with having undergone for our sake a most cruel death, He penetrates
the inmost recesses of the earth to transport into bliss the souls whom He so
dearly loved and whose liberation from thence He had achieved.
Second Part of this Article: "The
Third Day He arose again from the Dead"
We now come to the second part of the
Article, and how indefatigable should be the labours of the pastor in its
exposition we learn from these words of the Apostle: Be mindful that the Lord
Jesus Christ is risen again from the dead. This command no doubt was addressed
not only to Timothy, but to all others who have care of souls.
The meaning of the Article is this: Christ
the Lord expired on the cross, on Friday at the ninth hour, and was buried on
the evening of the same day by His disciples, who with the permission of the
governor, Pilate, laid the body of the Lord, taken down from the cross, in a
new tomb, situated in a garden near at hand. Early on the morning of the third
day after His death, that is, on Sunday, His soul was reunited to His body, and
thus He who was dead during those three days arose, and returned again to life,
from which He had departed when dying.
"He arose Again"
By the word Resurrection, however, we are not
merely to understand that Christ was raised from the dead, which happened to
many others, but that He rose by His own power and virtue, a singular
prerogative peculiar to Him alone. For it is incompatible with nature and was
never given to man to raise himself by his own power, from death to life. This
was reserved for the almighty power of God, as we learn from these words of the
Apostle: Although he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power
of God. This divine power, having never been separated, either from His body in
the grave, or from His soul in hell, there existed a divine force both within
the body, by which it could be again united to the soul, and within the soul,
by which it could again return to the body. Thus He was able by His own power to
return to life and rise from the dead.
This David, filled with the spirit of God,
foretold in these words: His right hand hath wrought for him salvation, and his
arm is holy. Our Lord confirmed this by the divine testimony of His own mouth
when He said: I lay down my life that I may take it again . . . and I have
power to lay it down: and I have power to take it up again. To the Jews He also
said, in corroboration of His doctrine: Destroy this temple, and in three days
I will raise it up. Although the Jews understood Him to have spoken thus of
that magnificent Temple built of stone, yet as the Scripture testifies in the
same place, he spoke of the temple of his body. We sometimes, it is true, read
in Scripture that He was raised by the Father; but this refers to Him as man,
just as those passages on the other hand, which say that He rose by His own
power relate to Him as God.
"From the Dead"
It is also the peculiar privilege of Christ
to have been the first who enjoyed this divine prerogative of rising from the
dead, for He is called in Scripture the first-begotten from the dead, and also
the first-born of the dead. The Apostle also says: Christ is risen from the
dead, the first-fruits of them that sleep: for by a man came death, and by a
man the resurrection of the dead. And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all
shall be made alive. But every one in his own order: the first-fruits Christ,
then they that are of Christ.
These words of the Apostle are to be
understood of a perfect resurrection, by which we are raised to an immortal
life and are no longer subject to the necessity of dying. In this resurrection
Christ the Lord holds the first place; for if we speak of resurrection; that
is, of a return to life, subject to the necessity of again dying, many were
thus raised from the dead before Christ, all of whom, however, were restored to
life to die again. But Christ the Lord, having subdued and conquered death, so
arose that He could die no morel according to' this most clear testimony:
Christ rising again from the dead, dieth now no more, death shall no more have
dominion over him.
"The Third Day"
In explanation of the additional words of the
Article, the third day, the pastor should inform the people that they must not
think our Lord remained in the grave during the whole of these three days. But
as He lay in the sepulchre one full day, a part of the preceding and a part of
the following day, He is said, with strictest truth, to have lain in the grave
for three days, and on the third day to have risen again from the dead.
To prove that He was God He did not delay His
Resurrection to the end of the world; while, on the other hand, to convince us
that He was truly man and really died, He rose not immediately, but on the
third day after His death, a space of time sufficient to prove the reality of
His death.
"According to the Scriptures"
Here the Fathers of the first Council of
Constantinople added the words, according to the Scriptures, which they took
from St. Paul. These words they embodied with the Creed, because the same
Apostle teaches the absolute necessity of the mystery of the Resurrection when
he says: If Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your
faith is also vain . . . for you are yet in your sins. Hence,, admiring our
belief of this Article St. Augustine says: It is no great thing to believe that
Christ died. This the pagans, Jews, and all the wicked believe; in a word, all
believe that Christ died. But that He rose from the dead is the belief of the
Christians. To believe that He rose again, this we deem of great moment.
Hence it is that our Lord very frequently
spoke to His disciples of His Resurrection, and seldom or never of His Passion
without adverting to His Resurrection. Thus, when He said: The son of man . . .
shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and scourged, and spit
upon; and after they have scourged him, they will put him to death; He added:
and the third day he shall rise again.' Also when the Jews called upon Him to
give an attestation of the truth of His doctrine by some miraculous sign He
said: A sign shall not be given to them, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For
as Jonas was in the whales belly three days and three nights: so shall the son
of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
Three Useful Considerations on this
Article
To understand still better the force and
meaning of this Article, there are three things which we must consider and
understand: first, why the Resurrection was necessary; secondly, its end and
object; thirdly, the blessings and advantages of which it is to us the source.
Necessity Of The Resurrection
With regard to the first, it was necessary
that Christ should rise again in order to manifest the justice of God; for it
was most congruous that He who through obedience to God was degraded, and
loaded with ignominy, should by Him be exalted. This is a reason assigned by
the Apostle when he says to the Philippians: He humbled himself, becoming
obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also
hath exalted him. He rose also to confirm our faith, which is necessary for
justification; for the Resurrection of Christ from the dead by His own power
affords an irrefragable proof that He was the Son of God. Again the
Resurrection nourishes and sustains our hope. As Christ rose again, we rest on
an assured hope that we too shall rise again; the members must necessarily
arrive at the condition of their head. This is the conclusion which St. Paul seems
to draw when he writes to the Corinthians and to the Thessalonians.' And Peter,
the Prince of the Apostles, says: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy hath regenerated us unto a
lively nope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto the
inheritance incorruptible.
Finally, the Resurrection of our Lord, as the
pastor should inculcate, was necessary to complete the mystery of our salvation
and redemption. By His death Christ liberated us from sin; by His Resurrection,
He restored to us the most important of those privileges which we had forfeited
by sin. Hence these words of the Apostle: He was delivered up for our sins, and
rose again for our justification. That nothing, therefore, may be wanting to
the work of our salvation, it was necessary that as He died, He should also
rise again.'
Ends Of The Resurrection
From what has been said we can perceive what
important advantages the Resurrection of Christ the Lord has conferred on the
faithful. In the Resurrection we acknowledge God to be immortal, full of glory,
the conqueror of death and the devil; and all this we are firmly to believe and
openly to profess of Christ Jesus.
Again, the Resurrection of Christ effects for
us the resurrection of our bodies not only because it was the efficient cause
of this mystery, but also because we all ought to arise after the example of
the Lord. For with regard to the resurrection of the body we have this
testimony of the Apostle: By a man came death, and by a man the resurrection of
the dead. In all that God did to accomplish the mystery of our redemption He
made use of the humanity of Christ as an effective instrument, and hence His
Resurrection was, as it were, an instrument for the accomplishment of our resurrection.
It may also be called the model of ours,
inasmuch as His Resurrection was the most perfect of all. And as His body,
rising to immortal glory, was changed, so shall our bodies also, before frail
and mortal, be restored and clothed with glory and immortality. In the language
of the Apostle: We look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform
the body of our lowness, made like to the body of his glory.
The same may be said of a soul dead in sin.
How the Resurrection of Christ is proposed to such a soul as the model of her
resurrection the same Apostle shows in these words: As Christ is risen from the
dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. For if
we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in
the likeness of his resurrection. Again a little further on he says: Knowing
that Christ rising again from the dead, dieth now no more, death shall no more
have dominion over him. For in that he died to sin, he died once; but in that he
liveth, he liveth unto God: so do you also reckon, that you are dead to sin,
but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus.
Advantages Of The: Resurrection
From the Resurrection of Christ, therefore,
we should draw two lessons: the one, that after we have washed away the stains
of sin, we should begin to lead a new life, distinguished by integrity,
innocence, holiness, modesty, justice, beneficence and humility; the other,
that we should so persevere in that newness of life as never more, with the
divine assistance, to stray from the paths of virtue on which we have once
entered.
Nor do the words of the Apostle prove only
that the Resurrection of Christ is proposed as the model of our resurrection;
they also declare that it gives us power to rise again, and imparts to us
strength and courage to persevere in holiness and righteousness, and in the
observance of the Commandments of God. For as His death not only furnishes us
with an example, but also supplies us with strength to die to sin, so also His
Resurrection invigorates us to attain righteousness, so that thenceforward
serving God in piety and holiness, we may walk in the newness of life to which
we have risen. By His Resurrection, our Lord accomplished this especially that
we, who before died with Him to sin and to the world, should rise also with Him
to a new order and manner of life.
Signs Of Spiritual Resurrection
The principal signs of this resurrection from
sin which should be noted are taught us by the Apostle. For when he says: If
you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is
sitting at the right hand of God, he distinctly tells us that they who desire
to possess life, honour, repose and riches, there chiefly where Christ dwells,
have truly risen with Christ.
When he adds: Mind the things that are above,
not the things that are upon the earth, he gives, as it were, another sign by
which we may ascertain if we have truly risen with Christ. As a relish for food
usually indicates a healthy state of the body, so with regard to the soul, if a
person relishes whatever things are true, whatever modest, whatever just,
whatever holy, and experiences within him the sweetness of heavenly things,
this we may consider a very strong proof that such a one has risen with Christ
Jesus to a new and spiritual life.
ARTICLE
VI : "HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN, SITTETH AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD THE FATHER
ALMIGHTY"
Importance Of This Article
Filled with the Spirit of God, and
contemplating the blessed and glorious Ascension of our Lord, the Prophet David
exhorts all to celebrate that splendid triumph with the greatest joy and
gladness: Clap your hands, all ye nations: shout unto God with he voice of
joy.... God is ascended with jubilee.
The pastor will hence learn that this mystery
should be explained with the greatest diligence; and that he should take care
that the people not only perceive it with faith and understanding, but that
they also strive as far as possible, with the Lord's help to reflect it in
their lives and actions.
First Part of this Article: "He
Ascended into Heaven"
With regard, then, to the exposition of this
sixth Article, which has reference principally to this divine mystery, we shall
begin with its first part, and point out its force and meaning.
"Into Heaven"
This, then, the faithful must believe without
hesitation, that Jesus Christ, having fully accomplished the work of
Redemption, ascended as man, body and soul, into heaven; for as God He never
forsook heaven, filling as He does all places with His Divinity.
"He Ascended"
The pastor is also to teach that He ascended
by His own power, not being taken up by the power of another, as was Elias, who
was carried to heaven in a fiery chariot; or, as the Prophet Habacuc, or
Philip, the deacon, who were borne through the air by the divine power, and
traversed great distances.
Neither did He ascend into heaven solely by
the exercise of His supreme power as God, but also by virtue of the power which
He possessed as man. Although human power alone was insufficient to accomplish
this, yet the virtue with which the blessed soul of Christ was endowed was
capable of moving the body as it pleased, and His body, now glorified, readily
obeyed the behest of the soul that moved it. Hence, we believe that Christ
ascended into heaven as God and man by His own power.
Second Part of this Article: "Sitteth
at the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty"
The words He sitteth at the right hand of the
Father form the second part of this Article. In these words we observe a figure
of speech; that is, a use of words in other than their literal sense, as
frequently happens in Scripture, when, accommodating its language to human
ideas, it attributes human affections and human members to God, who, spirit as
He is, admits of nothing corporeal.
"At the Right Hand"
As among men he who sits at the right hand is
considered to occupy the most honourable place, so, transferring the same idea
to celestial things, to express the glory which Christ as man has obtained
above all others, we confess that He sits at the right hand of the Father.
"Sitteth"
To sit does not imply here position and
posture of body, but expresses the firm and permanent possession of royal and
supreme power and glory which He received from the Father, and of which the
Apostle says: Raising him up from the dead, and setting him on his right hand
in the heavenly places, above all principality, and power, and virtue, and
domination, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in
that which is to come; and he hath subjected all things under his feet. These
words manifestly imply that this glory belongs to our Lord in so special and
exclusive a manner that it cannot apply to any other created being. Hence in
another place the Apostle testifies: To which of the angels said he at any
time: Sit on my right hand.
Reflections on the Ascension:
Its History
The pastor should explain the sense of the
Article more at length by detailing the history of the Ascension, of which the
Evangelist St. Luke has left us an orderly description in the Acts of the
Apostles.
Greatness Of This Mystery
In this exposition he should observe, in the
first place, that all other mysteries refer to the Ascension as to their end
and find in it their perfection and completion; for as all the mysteries of
religion commence with the Incarnation of our Lord, so His sojourn on earth
terminates with His Ascension.
Moreover the other Articles of the Creed
which regard Christ the Lord show His great humility and lowliness. Nothing can
be conceived more humble, nothing more lowly, than that the Son of God assumed
our weak human nature, and suffered and died for us. But nothing more
magnificently, nothing more admirably, proclaims His sovereign glory and divine
majesty than what is contained in the present and in the preceding Article, in
which we declare that He rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sits at
the right hand of God the Father.
Reasons Of The Ascension
When the pastor has explained these truths,
he should next accurately show why Christ the Lord ascended into heaven.
First of all, He ascended because the
glorious kingdom of the highest heavens, not the obscure abode of this earth,
presented a suitable dwelling place for Him whose body, rising from the tomb,
was clothed with the glory of immortality.
He ascended, however, not only to possess the
throne of glory and the kingdom which He had merited by His blood, but also to
attend to whatever regards our salvation.
Again, He ascended to prove thereby that His
kingdom is not of this world. For the kingdoms of this world are earthly and
transient, and are based upon wealth and the power of the flesh; but the
kingdom of Christ is not, as the Jews expected, earthly, but spiritual and
eternal. Its resources and riches, too, are spiritual, as He showed by placing
His throne in the heavens, where they are counted richer and wealthier who seek
most earnestly the things that are of God, according to these words of St.
James: Hath not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs of
the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him?
He also ascended into heaven in order to
teach us to follow Him thither in mind and heart. For as by His death and
Resurrection He bequeathed to us an example of dying and rising again in spirit,
so by His Ascension He teaches and instructs us that though dwelling on earth,
we should raise ourselves in desire to heaven, confessing that we are pilgrims
and strangers on the earth, seeking a country and that we are fellow-citizens
with the saints, and the domestics of God, for, says the same Apostle, our
conversation is in heaven
Results Of The Ascension
The extent and greatness of the unutterable
blessings which the bounty of God has showered on us were long before, as the
Apostle interprets, sung by the inspired David: Ascending on high, he led
captivity captive: He gave gifts to men.' For on the tenth day He sent down the
Holy Ghost, with whose power and plenitude He filled the multitude of the
faithful then present, and so fulfilled that splendid promise: It is expedient
to you that I go: for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I
go, I will send him to you.
He also ascended into heaven, according to
the Apostle, that he may appear in the presence of God f or us, and discharge for
us the office of advocate with the Father. My little children, says St. John,
these things I write to you, that you may not sin. But if any man sin, we have
an. advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just: and he is the propitiation
for our sins. There is nothing from which the faithful should derive greater
joy and gladness of soul than from the reflection that Jesus Christ is
constituted our advocate and the mediator of our salvation with the Eternal
Father, with whom His influence and authority are supreme.
Finally, by His Ascension He has prepared for
us a place, as He had promised, and has entered, as our head, in the name of us
all, into the possession of the glory of heaven." Ascending into heaven,
He threw open its gates, which had been closed by the sin of Adam; and, as He
foretold to His disciples at His Last Supper, secured to us a way by which we
may arrive at eternal happiness. In order to give an open proof of this by its
fulfilment, He introduced with Himself into the mansions of eternal bliss the
souls of the just whom He had liberated from hell.
Virtues Promoted By The Ascension.
A series of important advantages followed in
the train of this admirable profusion of celestial gifts. In the first place,
the merit of our faith was considerably augmented; because faith has for its
object those things which fall not under the senses, but are far raised above
the reach of human reason and intelligence. If, therefore, the Lord had not
departed from us, the merit of our faith would not be the same; for Christ the
Lord has said: Blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed
In the next place, the Ascension of Christ
into heaven contributes much to confirm our hope. Believing that Christ, as
man, ascended into heaven, and placed our nature at the right hand of God the
Father, we are animated with a strong hope that we, as members, shall also
ascend thither, to be there united to our Head, according to these words of our
Lord Himself: Father, I will that where I am, they also whom thou hast given me
may be with me
Another most important advantage is that He
has taken our affections to heaven and inflamed them with the Spirit of God;
for most truly has it been said that where our treasure is, there also is our
heart. And, indeed, were Christ the Lord still dwelling on earth, the
contemplation of His human nature and His company would absorb all our
thoughts, and we should view the author of such blessings only as man, and
cherish towards Him a sort of earthly affection. But by His Ascension into
heaven He has spiritualised our affection and has made us venerate and love as
God Him whom, on account of His absence, we see only in thought. This we learn
in part from the example of the Apostles, who while our Lord was personally
present with them, seemed to judge of Him in some measure in a human light; and
in part from these words of our Lord Himself: It is expedient to you that I go.
The imperfect affection with which they loved Christ Jesus when present had to
be perfected by divine love, and that by the coming of the Holy Ghost; and
therefore He immediately subjoins: If I go not, the Paraclete will not come to
you.
The Ascension Benefits The Church And The
Individual
Besides, He thus enlarged His household on
earth, that is, His Church, which was to be governed by the power and guidance
of the Holy Spirit. He left Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, as its chief
pastor and supreme head upon earth; moreover he gave some apostles, and some
prophets, and other some evangelists, and other some pastors and doctors. Thus
seated at the right hand of the Father He continually bestows different gifts
on different men; for as the Apostle testifies: To every one of us is given
grace, according to the measure of the giving of Christ.
Finally, what we have already taught of the
mystery of His death and Resurrection the faithful should deem not less true of
His Ascension. For although we owe our Redemption and salvation to the Passion
of Christ, whose merits opened heaven to the just, yet His Ascension is not only
proposed to us as a model, which teaches us to look on high and ascend in
spirit into heaven, but it also imparts to us a divine virtue which enables us
to accomplish what it teaches.
ARTICLE VII : "FROM THENCE HE SHALL COME
TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD"
Meaning Of This Article
For the glory and adornment of His Church
Jesus Christ is invested with three eminent offices and functions: those of
Redeemer, Mediator, and Judge. Since in the preceding Articles it was shown
that the human race was redeemed by His Passion and death, and since by His
Ascension into heaven it is manifest that He has undertaken the perpetual
advocacy and patronage of our cause, it remains that in this Article we set
forth His character as Judge. The scope and intent of the Article is to declare
that on the last day Christ the Lord will judge the whole human race.
"From Thence He Shall Come"
The Sacred Scriptures inform us that there
are two comings of the Son of God: the one when He assumed human flesh for our
salvation in the womb of a virgin; the other when He shall come at the end of
the world to judge all mankind. This latter coming is called in Scripture the
day of the Lord. The day of the Lord, says the Apostle, shall come, as a thief
in the night; and our Lord Himself says: Of that day and hour no one knoweth.
"To Judge the Living and the
Dead"
In proof of the (last) judgment it is enough
to adduce the authority of the Apostle: We must all appear before the
judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the
body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil. There are numerous
passages of Sacred Scripture which the pastor will find in various places and
which not only establish the truth of the dogma, but also place it in vivid
colours before the eyes of the faithful. And if, from the beginning of the
world that day of the Lord, on which He was clothed with our flesh, was sighed
for by all as the foundation of their hope of deliverance; so also, after the
death and Ascension of the Son of God, we should make that other day of the
Lord the object of our most earnest desires, looking for the blessed hope and
coming of the glory of the great God.'
Two Judgments
In explaining this subject the pastor should
distinguish two different occasions on which everyone must appear in the
presence of the Lord to render an account of all his thoughts, words and
actions, and to receive immediate sentence from his Judge.
The first takes place when each one of us
departs this life; for then he is instantly placed before the judgment-seat of
God, where all that he has ever done or spoken or thought during life shall be
subjected to the most rigid scrutiny. This is called the particular judgment.
The second occurs when on the same day and in
the same place all men shall stand together before the tribunal of their Judge,
that in the presence and hearing of all human beings of all times each may know
his final doom and sentence. The announcement of this judgment will constitute
no small part of the pain and punishment of the wicked; whereas the good and
just will derive great reward and consolation from the fact that it will then
appear what each one was in life. This is called the general judgment.
Reasons For General Judgment
It is necessary to show why, besides the
particular judgment of each individual, a general one should also be passed
upon all men.
Those who depart this life sometimes leave
behind them children who imitate their conduct, dependents, followers and
others who admire and advocate their example, language and actions. Now by all
these circumstances the rewards or punishments of the dead must needs be
increased, since the good or bad influence of example, affecting as it does the
conduct of many, is to terminate only with the end of the world. Justice
demands that in order to form a proper estimate of all these good or bad
actions and words a thorough investigation should be made. This, however, could
not be without a general judgment of all men.
Moreover, as the character of the virtuous
frequently suffers from misrepresentation, while that of the wicked obtains the
commendation of virtue, the justice of God demands that the former recover, in
the public assembly and judgment of all men, the good name of which they had
been unjustly deprived before men.
Again, as the just and the wicked performed
their good and evil actions in this life not without the cooperation of the
body, it necessarily follows that these actions belong also to the body as to
their instrument. It was, therefore, altogether suitable that the body should
share with the soul the due rewards of eternal glory or punishment. But this
can only be accomplished by means of a general resurrection and of a general
judgment.
Next, it is important to prove that in
prosperity and adversity, which are sometimes the promiscuous lot of the good
and of the bad, everything is done and ordered by an all-wise and all-just
Providence. It was, therefore, necessary not only that rewards should await the
just and punishments the wicked, in the life to come, but that they should be
awarded by a public and general judgment. Thus they will become better known
and will be rendered more conspicuous to all; and in atonement for the
unwarranted murmurings, to which on seeing the wicked abound in wealth and
flourish in honours even the Saints themselves, as men, have sometimes given
expression, a tribute of praise will be offered by all to the justice and
Providence of God. My feet, says the Prophet, were almost moved, my steps had
well nigh slipped, because I had a zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the
prosperity of sinners; and a little after: Behold! these are sinners and yet
abounding in the world, they have obtained riches; and I said, Then have I in
vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent; and I have
been scourged all the day, and my chastisement hath been in the morning. This
has been the frequent complaint of many, and a general judgment is therefore
necessary, lest perhaps men may be tempted to say that God walketh about the
poles of heaven, and regards not the earth.
This Truth has Rightly been made an
Article of the Creed
Wisely, therefore, has this truth been made
one of the twelve Articles of the Christian Creed, so that should any begin to
waver in mind concerning the Providence and justice of God they might be
reassured by this doctrine.
Besides, it was right that the just should be
encouraged by the hope, the wicked appalled by the terror, of a future
judgment; so that knowing the justice of God the former should not be
disheartened, while the latter through fear and expectation of eternal
punishment might be recalled from the paths of vice. Hence, speaking of the
last day, our Lord and Saviour declares that a general judgment will one day
take place, and He describes the signs of its approach, that seeing them, we
may know that the end of the world is at hand. At His Ascension also, to
console His Apostles, overwhelmed with grief at His departure, He sent Angels,
who said to them: This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so
come, as you have seen him going into heaven
Circumstances of the Judgment:
The Judge
That the judgment of the world has been
assigned to Christ the Lord, not only as God, but also as man, is declared in
Scripture. Although the power of judging is common to all the Persons of the
Blessed Trinity, yet it is specially attributed to the Son, because to Him also
in a special manner is ascribed wisdom. But that as man, He will judge the
world, is taught by our Lord Himself when He says: As the Father hath life in
himself, so he hath given to the Son also, to have life in himself; and he hath
given him power to do judgment, because he is the son of man.
There is a peculiar propriety in Christ the
Lord sitting in judgment; for sentence is to be pronounced on mankind, and they
are thus enabled to see their Judge with their eyes and hear Him with their
ears, and so learn their judgment through the medium of the senses.
Most just is it also that He who was most
iniquitously condemned by the judgment of men should Himself be afterwards seen
by all men sitting in judgment on all. Hence when the Prince of the Apostles
had expounded in the house of Cornelius the chief dogmas of Christianity, and
had taught that Christ was suspended from a cross and put to death by the Jews
and rose the third lay to life, he added: And he commanded us to preach to the
people, and to testify that this is he, who was appointed of God, to be the
judge of the living and the dead.
Signs Of The General Judgment
The Sacred Scriptures inform us that the
general judgment will be preceded by these three principal signs: the preaching
of the Gospel throughout the world, a falling away from the faith, and the
coming of Antichrist. This gospel of the kingdom, says our Lord, shall be
preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then shall the
consummation come. The Apostle also admonishes us that we be not seduced by
anyone, as if the day of the Lord were at hand; for unless there come a revolt
first, and the man of sin be revealed, the judgement will not come.
The Sentence Of The Just
The form and procedure of this judgment the
pastor will easily learn from the prophecies of Daniel, the writings of the
Evangelists and the doctrine of the Apostle. The sentence to be pronounced by
the judge is here deserving of more than ordinary attention.
Looking with joyful countenance on the just
standing on His right, Christ our Redeemer will pronounce sentence on them with
the greatest benignity, in these words: Come ye blessed of my Father, possess
the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. That nothing can
be conceived more delightful to the ear than these words, we shall understand
if we only compare them with the condemnation of the wicked; and call to mind,
that by them the just are invited from labor to rest, from the vale of tears to
supreme joy, from misery to eternal happiness, the reward of their works of
charity.
The Sentence Of The Wicked
Turning next to those who shall stand on His
left, He will pour out His justice upon them in these words: Depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared f or the devil and his angels.
The first words, depart from me, express the
heaviest punishment with which the wicked shall be visited, their eternal
banishment from the sight of God, unrelieved by one consolatory hope of ever
recovering so great a good. This punishment is called by theologians the pain
of loss, because in hell the wicked shall be deprived forever of the light of
the vision of God.
The words ye cursed, which follow, increase
unutterably their wretched and calamitous condition. If when banished from the
divine presence they were deemed worthy to receive some benediction, this would
be to them a great source of consolation. But since they can expect nothing of
this kind as an alleviation of their misery, the divine justice deservedly
pursues them with every species of malediction, once they have been banished.
The next words, into everlasting fire,
express another sort of punishment, which is called by theologians the pain of
sense, because, like lashes, stripes or other more severe chastisements, among
which fire, no doubt, produces the most intense pain, it is felt through the
organs of sense. When, moreover, we reflect that this torment is to be eternal,
we can see at once that the punishment of the damned includes every kind of
suffering.
The concluding words, which was prepared f or
the devil and his angels, make this still more clear. For since nature has so
provided that we feel miseries less when we have companions and sharers in them
who can, at least in some measure, assist us by their advice and kindness, what
must be the horrible state of the damned who in such calamities can never
separate themselves from the companionship of most wicked demons ? And yet most
justly shall this very sentence be pronounced by our Lord and Saviour on those
sinners who neglected all the works of true mercy, who gave neither food to the
hungry, nor drink to the thirsty, who refused shelter to the stranger and
clothing to the naked, and who would not visit the sick and the imprisoned.
Importance of Instruction on this Article
These are thoughts which the pastor should
very often bring to the attention of his people; for the truth which is
contained in this Article will, if accepted with faithful dispositions, be most
powerful in bridling the evil inclinations of the heart and in withdrawing men
from sin. Hence we read in Ecclesiasticus: In all thy works remember thy last
end, and thou shalt never sin.' And indeed there is scarcely anyone so given
over to vice as not to be recalled to virtue by the thought that he must one
day render an account before an all-just Judge, not only of all his words and
actions, but even of his most secret thoughts, and must suffer punishment
according to his deserts.
On the other hand, the just man will be more
and more encouraged to lead a good life. Even though his days be passed in
poverty, ignominy and suffering, he must be gladdened exceedingly when he looks
forward to that day when, the conflicts of this wretched life being over, he
shall be declared victorious in the hearing of all men, and shall be admitted into
his heavenly country to be crowned with divine honours that shall never fade.
It only remains, then, for the pastor to
exhort the faithful to lead holy lives and practice every virtue, that thus
they may be enabled to look forward with confidence to the coming of that great
day of the Lord -- nay, as becomes children, even to desire it most fervently.
ARTICLE
VIII : "I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST"
Importance Of This Article
Hitherto we have expounded, as far as the
nature of the subject seemed to require, what pertains to the First and Second
Per sons of the Holy Trinity. It now remains to explain what the Creed contains
with regard to the Third Person, the Holy Ghost.
On this subject the pastor should omit
nothing that study and industry can effect; for on this Article, no less than
on those that preceded, ignorance or error would be unpardonable in a
Christian. Hence, the Apostle did not permit some among the Ephesians to remain
in ignorance with regard to the Person of the Holy Ghost. Having asked if they
had received the Holy Ghost, and having received for answer that they did not
so much as know that there was a Holy, Ghost, he at once demanded: In whom,
therefore, were you baptised? to signify that a distinct knowledge of this
Article is most necessary to the faithful.
From such knowledge they derive special
fruit. For, considering attentively that whatever they have, they possess
through the bounty and beneficence of the Holy Spirit, they begin to think more
modestly and humbly of themselves, and to place all their hopes in the
protection of God, which for a Christian is the first step towards consummate
wisdom and supreme happiness.
"Holy Ghost"
The exposition of this Article, therefore,
should begin with the force and meaning here attached to the words Holy Ghost.
This appellation is equally true when applied to the Father and the Son, since
both are spirit, both holy, and we confess that God is a Spirit; this name may
also be applied to Angels, and the souls of the just. Care must be taken, therefore,
that the faithful be not led into error by the ambiguity of the words.
The pastor, then, should teach that by the
words Holy Ghost in this Article is understood the Third Person of the Blessed
Trinity, a sense in which they are used, sometimes in the Old, and frequently
in the New Testament. Thus David prays: Take not thy Holy Spirit from me; and
in the Book of Wisdom we read: Who shall know thy thoughts, except thou give
wisdom, and send thy Holy Spirit from above? And in another place it is said: He
created her in the Holy Ghost.' We are also commanded, in the New Testament to
be baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
We read that the most holy Virgin conceived of the Holy Ghost; and we are sent
by St. John to Christ, who baptizeth us in the Holy Ghost.' There are many
other passages in which the words Holy Ghost occur.
No one should be surprised that a proper name
is not given to the Third, as to the First and Second Persons. The Second
Person is designated by a proper name, and called Son, because, as has been
explained in the preceding Articles, His eternal birth from the Father is
properly called generation. As, therefore, that birth is expressed by the word
generation, so the Person, emanating from that generation, is properly called
Son, and the Person, from whom he emanates, Father.
But as the production of the Third Person has
no proper name, but is called spiration and procession, the Person produced is,
consequently, designated by no proper name. His emanation has no proper name
simply because we are obliged to borrow from created objects the names given to
God and know no other created means of communicating nature and essence than
that of generation. Hence we cannot discover a proper name to express the manner
in which God communicates Himself entire, by the force of His love. Wherefore
we call the Third Person Holy Ghost, a name, however, peculiarly appropriate to
Him who infuses into us spiritual life, and without whose holy inspiration we
can do nothing meritorious of eternal life.
"I Believe in the Holy Ghost"
The Holy Ghost Is Equal To The Father And
The Son
The people, when once acquainted with the
meaning of His name, should first of all be taught that the Holy Ghost is
equally God with the Father and the Son, equally omnipotent and eternal,
infinitely perfect, the supreme good, infinitely wise, and of the same nature
as the Father and the Son.
All this is obviously enough implied by the
force of the word in, when we say: I believe in the Holy Ghost; for this
preposition is prefixed to each Person of the Trinity in order to express the
exact nature of our faith.
The Divinity of the Holy Ghost is also
clearly established by many passages of Scripture. When, in the Acts of the
Apostles, St. Peter says, Ananias, Why hast thou conceived this thing in thy
heart? he immediately adds: Thou hast not lied to men, but to God, calling Him
God to whom he had just before given the name Holy Ghost.
The Apostle, also, writing to the
Corinthians, interprets what he says of God as said of the Holy Ghost. There
are, he says, diversities of operations, but the same God, who worketh all in
all; but, he continues, all these things one and the same Spirit worketh,
dividing to every one according as he will.
In the Acts of the Apostles also what the
Prophets attribute to God alone, St. Paul ascribes to the Holy. Ghost. Thus
Isaias had said: I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send? . .
. And he said: Go, and thou shalt say to this people: Blind the heart of this
people, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with
their eyes, and hear with their ears. Having cited these words, the Apostle
adds: Well did the Holy Ghost speak to our fathers, by Isaias the prophet.
Again, the Sacred Scriptures join the Person
of the Holy Ghost to those of the Father and the Son, as, for example, when
Baptism is commanded to be administered in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost. There is thus no room left us of doubting the truth
of this mystery. For if the Father is God, and the Son God, we must admit that
the Holy Ghost, who is united with Them in the same degree of honour, is also
God.
Besides, baptism administered in the name of
any creature can be of no effect. Were you baptised in the name of Paul? says
the Apostle, to show that such baptism could have availed nothing to salvation.
Since, therefore, we are baptised in the name of the Holy Ghost, we must acknowledge
the Holy Ghost to be God.
This same order of the Three Persons, which
proves the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, is also found in the Epistle of St.
John: There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and
the Holy Ghost, and these three are one; and also in that noble eulogy of the
Holy Trinity, with which the Divine Praises and the Psalms are concluded: Glory
be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
Finally, what most strongly confirms this
truth is the fact that Holy Scripture assigns to the Holy Ghost whatever
attributes we believe proper to God. Wherefore to Him is ascribed the honour of
temples, as when the Apostle says: Know you not that your members are the
temple of the Holy Ghost? Scripture also attributes to Him the power to
sanctify, to vivify, to search the depths of God, to speak by the Prophets, and
to be present in all places, all of which can be attributed to God alone.
The Holy Ghost Is Distinct From The Father
And The Son
The pastor should also accurately explain to
the faithful that the Holy Ghost is not only God, but that we must also confess
that He is the Third Person of the Divine Nature, distinct from the Father and
the Son, and produced by Their will.
To say nothing of other testimonies of Scripture,
the form of Baptism, taught by our Redeemer,' shows most clearly that the Holy
Ghost is the Third Person, self-existent in the Divine Nature and distinct from
the other Persons. It is a doctrine taught also by the Apostle when he says:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the
communication of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.
This same truth is still more explicitly
declared in these words added to this Article of the Creed by the Fathers of
the First Council of Constantinople to refute the impious folly of Macedonius:
And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, who proceedeth from the
Father, and the Son; who together with the Father and the Son, is adored and
glorified; who spoke by the prophets.
"The Lord"
By confessing the Holy Ghost to be Lord they
declare how far He excels the Angels, who are the noblest spirits created by
God; for they are all, says the Apostle, ministering spirits, sent to minister
for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation.
"Life-Giver"
They also designate the Holy Ghost the giver
of life because the soul lives more by its union with God than the body is
nourished and sustained by its union with the soul. Since then, the Sacred
Scriptures ascribe to the Holy Ghost this union of the soul with God, it is
clear that He is most rightly called the giver of life.
"Who Proceedeth from the Father and
the Son"
With regard to the words immediately
succeeding: who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, the faithful are to be
taught that the Holy Ghost proceeds by an eternal procession from the Father
and the Son, as from one principle. This truth is proposed for our belief by
the Creed of the Church, from which no Christian may depart, and is confirmed
by the authority of the Sacred Scriptures and of Councils.
Christ the Lord, speaking of the Holy Ghost,
says: He shall glorify me, because he shall receive of mine. We also find that
the Holy Ghost is sometimes called in Scripture the Spirit of Christ,
sometimes, the Spirit of the Father; that He is one time said to be sent by the
Father, another time, by the Son, -- all of which clearly signifies that He
proceeds alike from the Father and the Son. He, says St. Paul, who has not the
Spirit of Christ belongs not to him. In his Epistle to the Galatians he also
calls the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Christ: God hath sent the Spirit of his Son
into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, He is
called the Spirit of the Father: It is not you that speak, but the Spirit of
your Father that speaketh in you.
Our Lord said, at His Last Supper: When the
Paraclete cometh whom I will send you, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from
the Father, he shall give testimony of me. On another occasion, that the Holy
Ghost will be sent by the Father, He declares in these words: whom the Father
will send in my name. Understanding these words to denote the procession of the
Holy Ghost, we come to the inevitable conclusion that He proceeds from both
Father and Son.
The above are the truths that should be
taught with regard to the Person of the Holy Ghost.
Certain Divine Works are Appropriated to
the Holy Ghost
It is also the duty of the pastor to teach
that there are certain admirable effects, certain excellent gifts of the Holy
Ghost, which are said to originate and emanate from Him, as from a perennial
fountain of goodness. Although the intrinsic works of the most Holy Trinity are
common to the Three Persons, yet many of them are attributed specially to the
Holy Ghost, to signify that they arise from the boundless charity of God
towards us. For as the Holy Ghost proceeds from the divine will, inflamed, as
it were, with love, we can perceive that these effects which are referred
particularly to the Holy Ghost, are the result of God's supreme love for us.
Hence it is that the Holy Ghost is called a
gift; for by the word gift we understand that which is kindly and gratuitously
bestowed, without expectation of any return. Whatever gifts and graces,
therefore, have been conferred on us by God -- and what have we, says the
Apostle, that we have not received from God? -- we should piously and
gratefully acknowledge as bestowed by the grace and gift of the Holy Ghost.
Creation, Government, Life
These gifts of the Holy Ghost are numerous.
Not to mention the creation of the world, the propagation and government of all
created beings, discussed in the first Article, we have just shown that the
giving of life is particularly attributed to the Holy Ghost, and this is
further confirmed by the testimony of Ezechiel: I will give you spirit and you
shall live.
The Seven Gifts
The Prophet (Isaias), however, enumerates the
chief effects which are most properly ascribed to the Holy Ghost: The spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of
knowledge and piety, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord. These effects are
called the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and sometimes they are even called the Holy
Ghost. Wisely, therefore, does St. Augustine admonish us, whenever we meet the
word Holy Ghost in Scripture, to distinguish whether it means the Third Person
of the Trinity or His gifts and operations.-' The two are as far apart as the
Creator is from the creature.
The diligence of the pastor in expounding
these truths should be the greater, since it is from these gifts of the Holy
Ghost that we derive rules of Christian life and are enabled to know if the
Holy Ghost dwells within us.
Justifying Grace
But the grace of justification, which signs
us with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance,'
transcends all His other most ample gifts. It unites us to God in the closest
bonds of love, lights up within us the sacred flame of piety, forms us to newness
of life, renders us partakers of the divine nature, and enables us to be called
and really to be the sons of God.
ARTICLE
IX : "I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH; THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS"
The Importance Of This Article
With what great diligence pastors ought to
explain to the faithful the truth of this ninth Article will be easily seen, if
we attend chiefly to two considerations.
First, as St. Augustine observes, the
Prophets spoke more plainly and openly of the Church than of Christ, foreseeing
that on this a much greater number may err and be deceived than on the mystery
of the Incarnation. For in after ages there would not be wanting wicked men
who, like the ape that would fain pass for a man, would claim that they alone
were Catholics, and with no less impiety than effrontery assert that with them
alone is the Catholic Church.
The second consideration is that he whose
mind is strongly impressed with the truth taught in this Article, will easily
escape the awful danger of heresy. For a person is not to be called a heretic
as soon as he shall have offended in matters of faith; but he is a heretic who,
having disregarded the authority of the Church, maintains impious opinions with
pertinacity. Since, therefore, it is impossible that anyone be infected with
the contagion of heresy, so long as he holds what this Article proposes to be
believed, let pastors use every diligence that the faithful, having known this
mystery and guarded against the wiles of Satan, may persevere in the true
faith.
This Article hinges upon the preceding one;
for, it having been already shown that the Holy Ghost is the source and giver
of all holiness, we here profess our belief that the Church has been endowed by
Him with sanctity.
First Part Of This Article : "I Believe
In The Holy Catholic Church
The Latins, having borrowed the word ecclesia
(church) from the Greeks, have transferred it, since the preaching of the
Gospel, to sacred things. It becomes necessary, therefore, to explain its
meaning.
"Church"
The word ecclesia (church) means a calling
forth. But writers afterward used it to signify a meeting or assembly, whether
the people gathered together were members of a true or of a false religion.
Thus in the Acts it is written of the people of Ephesus that when the
town-clerk had appeased a tumultuous assemblage he said: And if you inquire
after any other matter, it may be decided in a lawful church. The Ephesians,
who were worshippers of Diana, are thus called a lawful church (ecclesia). Nor
are the Gentiles only, who knew not God, called a church (ecclesia); by the
same name at times are also designated the councils of wicked and impious men.
I have hated the church (ecclesiam) of the malignant, says the Prophet, and
with the wicked I will not sit.
In common Scripture usage, however, the word
was subsequently employed to signify the Christian society only, and the
assemblies of the faithful; that is, of those who are called by faith to the
light of truth and the knowledge of God, that, having forsaken the darkness of
ignorance and error, they may worship the living and true God piously and
holily, and serve Him from their whole heart. In a word, The Church, says St.
Augustine, consists of the faithful dispersed throughout the world.'
Mysteries Which The Word Church Comprises
In this word are contained important
mysteries. For, in the calling forth, which it signifies, we recognise at once
the benignity and splendour of divine grace, and we understand that the Church
is very unlike all other societies. Other bodies rest on human reason and
prudence, but the Church reposes on the wisdom and counsels of God who has
called us inwardly by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, who opens the hearts
of men; and outwardly, through the labor and ministry of pastors and preachers.
Moreover, the end of this vocation, that is,
the knowledge and possession of things eternal will be at once understood if we
but remember why the faithful of the Old Law were called a Synagogue, that is,
a flock for, as St. Augustine teaches, they were so called, because, like
cattle, which are wont to herd together. they looked only to terrestrial and
transitory goods. Wherefore, the Christian people are justly called, not a
Synagogue, but a Church, because, despising earthly and passing things, they
pursue only things heavenly and eternal.
Other Names Given The Church In Scripture
Many names, moreover, which are replete with
mysteries, have been used to designate the Christian body. Thus, by the
Apostle, it is called the house and edifice of God. If, says he to Timothy, I
tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the
house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of
truth. The Church is called a house, because it is, as it were, one family
governed by one father of the family, and enjoying a community of all spiritual
goods.
It is also called the flock of the sheep of
Christ, of which He is the door and the shepherd. It is called the spouse of
Christ. I have espoused you to one husband, says the Apostle to the
Corinthians, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ; and to the
Ephesians: Husbands love your wives, as Christ also loved the church; and of
marriage: This is a great sacrament, but I speak in Christ and in the church.
Finally, the Church is called the body of
Christ, as may be seen in the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians. Each of
these appellations has very great influence in exciting the faithful to prove
themselves worthy of the boundless clemency and goodness of God, who chose them
to be the people of God.
The Parts of the Church
These things having been explained, it will
be necessary to enumerate the several component parts of the Church, and to
point out their difference, in order that the faithful may the better
comprehend the nature, properties, gifts, and graces of God's beloved Church,
and by reason of them unceasingly praise the most holy name of God.
The Church consists principally of two parts,
the one called the Church triumphant; the other, the Church militant. The
Church triumphant is that most glorious and happy assemblage of blessed
spirits, and of those who have triumphed over the world, the flesh, and the
iniquity of Satan, and are now exempt and safe from the troubles of this life
and enjoy everlasting bliss. The Church militant is the society of all the
faithful still dwelling on earth. It is called militant, because it wages
eternal war with those implacable enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil.
We are not, however, to infer that there are
two Churches. The Church triumphant and the Church militant are two constituent
parts of one Church; one part going before, and now in the possession of its
heavenly country; the other, following every day, until at length, united with
our Saviour, it shall repose in endless felicity.
The Members Of The Church Militant
The Church militant is composed of two
classes of persons, the good and the bad, both professing the same faith and
partaking of the same Sacraments, yet differing in their manner of life and
morality.
The good are those who are linked together
not only by the profession of the same faith, and the participation of the same
Sacraments, but also by the spirit of grace and the bond of charity. Of these
St. Paul says: The Lord knoweth who are his. Who they are that compose this
class we also may remotely conjecture, but we can by no means pronounce with
certainty. Hence Christ the Saviour does not speak of this portion of His
Church when He refers us to the Church and commands us to hear and to obey her.
As this part of the Church is unknown, how could we ascertain with certainty
whose decision to recur to, whose authority to obey?
The Church, therefore, as the Scriptures and
the writings of the Saints testify, includes within her fold the good and the
bad; and it was in this sense that St. Paul spoke of one body and one spirit.
Thus understood, the Church is known and is compared to a city built on a
mountain, and visible from every side. As all must yield obedience to her
authority, it is necessary that she may-be known by all.
That the Church is composed of the good and
the bad we learn from many parables contained in the Gospel. Thus, the kingdom
of heaven, that is, the Church militant, is compared to a net cast into the
sea, to a field in which tares were sown with the good grain, to a threshing
floor on which the grain is mixed up with the chaff, and also to ten virgins,
some of whom were wise, and some foolish. And long before, we trace a figure
and resemblance of this Church in the ark of Noah, which contained not only
clean, but also unclean animals.
But although the Catholic faith uniformly and
truly teaches that the good and the bad belong to the Church, yet the same
faith declares that the condition of both is very different. The wicked are
contained in the Church, as the chaff is mingled with the grain on the
threshing floor, or as dead members sometimes remain attached to a living body.
Those Who Are Not Members Of The Church
Hence there are but three classes of persons
excluded from the Church's pale: infidels, heretics and schismatics, and
excommunicated persons. Infidels are outside the Church because they never
belonged to, and never knew the Church, and were never made partakers of any of
her Sacraments. Heretics and schismatics are excluded from the Church, because
they have separated from her and belong to her only as deserters belong to the
army from which they have deserted. It is not, however, to be denied that they
are still subject to the jurisdiction of the Church, inasmuch as they may be
called before her tribunals, punished and anathematised. Finally,
excommunicated persons are not members of the Church, because they have been
cut off by her sentence from the number of her children and belong not to her
communion until they repent.
But with regard to the rest, however wicked
and evil they may be, it is certain that they still belong to the Church: Of
this the faithful are frequently to be reminded, in order to be convinced that,
were even the lives of her ministers debased by crime, they are still within
the Church, and therefore lose nothing of their power.
Other Uses of the Word "Church"
Portions of the Universal Church are usually
called churches, as when the Apostle mentions the Church at Corinth, at
Galatia, of the Laodiceans, of the Thessalonians.
The private families of the faithful he also
calls churches. The church in the family of Priscilla and Aquila he commands to
be saluted; and in another place, he says: Aquila and Priscilla with the church
that is in their house salute you much in the Lord. Writing to Philemon, he
makes use of the same word.
Sometimes, also, the word church is used to
signify the prelates and pastors of the church. If he will not hear thee, says
our Lord, tell the church. Here the word church means the authorities of
the-Church.
The place in which the faithful assemble to
hear the Word of God, or for other religious purposes, is also called a church.
But in this Article, the word church is specially used to signify both the good
and the bad, the governed, as well as the governing.
The Marks Of The Church
The distinctive marks of the Church are also
to be made known to the faithful, that thus they may be enabled to estimate the
extent of the blessing conferred by God on those who have had the happiness to
be born and educated within her pale.
"One'
The first mark of the true Church is
described in the Nicene Creed, and consists in unity: My dove is one, my
beautiful one is one. So vast a multitude, scattered far and wide, is called
one for the reasons mentioned by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians: One
Lord, one faith, one baptism.
Unity In
Government
The Church has but one ruler and one
governor, the invisible one, Christ, whom the eternal Father hath made head
over all the Church, which is his body; the visible one, the Pope, who, as
legitimate successor of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, fills the Apostolic
chair.
It is the unanimous teaching of the Fathers
that this visible head is necessary to establish and preserve unity in the
Church. This St. Jerome clearly perceived and as clearly expressed when, in his
work against Jovinian, he wrote: One is elected that, by the appointment of a
head, all occasion of schism may be removed. In his letter to Pope Damasus the
same holy Doctor writes: Away with envy, let the ambition of Roman grandeur
cease! I speak to the successor of the fisherman, and to the disciple of the
cross. Following no chief but Christ, I am united in communion with your
Holiness, that is, with the chair of Peter. I know that on that rock is built
the Church. Whoever will eat the lamb outside this house is profane; whoever is
not in the ark of Noah shall perish in the .flood.
The same doctrine was long before established
by Saints Irenaeus and Cyprian. The latter, speaking of the unity of the Church
observes: The Lord said to Peter, I say to thee, Peter! thou art Peter: and
upon this rock I will build my Church. He builds His Church on one. And
although after His Resurrection He gave equal power to all His Apostles,
saying: As the Father hath sent me, I also send you, receive ye the Holy Ghost;
yet to make unity more manifest, He decided by His own authority that it should
be derived from one alone, etc.
Again, Optatus of Milevi says: You cannot be
excused on the score of ignorance, knowing as you do that in the city of Rome
the episcopal chair was first conferred on Peter, who occupied it as head of
the Apostles; in order that in that one chair the unity of the Church might be
preserved by all, and that the other Apostles might not claim each a chair for
himself; so that now he who erects another in opposition to this single chair
is a schismatic and a prevaricator.
Later on St. Basil wrote: Peter is made the
foundation, because he says: Thou art Christ, the Son of the Living God; and
hears in reply that he is a rock. But although a rock, he is not such a rock as
Christ; for Christ is truly an immovable rock, but Peter, only by virtue of
that rock. For Jesus bestows His dignities on others; He is a priest, and He
makes priests; a rock, and He makes a rock; what belongs to Himself, He bestows
on His servants.
Lastly, St. Ambrose says: Because he alone of
all of them professed (Christ) he was placed above all.
Should anyone object that the Church is
content with one Head and one Spouse, Jesus Christ, and requires no other, the
answer is obvious. For as we deem Christ not only the author of all the
Sacraments, but also their invisible minister -- He it is who baptises, He it
is who absolves, although men are appointed by Him the external ministers of
the Sacraments -- so has He placed over His Church, which He governs by His
invisible Spirit, a man to be His vicar and the minister of His power. A
visible Church requires a visible head; therefore the Saviour appointed Peter
head and pastor of all the faithful, when He committed to his care the feeding
of all His sheep, in such ample terms that He willed the very same power of ruling
and governing the entire Church to descend to Peter's successors.
Unity In
Spirit, Hope And Faith
Moreover, the Apostle, writing to the
Corinthians, tells them that there is but one and the same Spirit who imparts
grace to the faithful, as the soul communicates life to the members of the
body. Exhorting the Ephesians to preserve this unity, he says: Be careful to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; one body and one Spirit. As
the human body consists of many members, animated by one soul, which gives
sight to the eves, hearing to the ears, and to the other senses the power of
discharging their respective functions; so the mystical body of Christ, which
is the Church, is composed of many faithful. The hope, to which we are called,
is also one, as the Apostle tells us in the same place; for we all hope for the
same consummation, eternal and happy life. Finally, the faith which all are
bound to believe and to profess is one: Let there be no schisms amongst you,
says the Apostle. And Baptism, which is the seal of our Christian faith, is
also one.
"Holy"
The second mark of the Church is holiness, as
we learn from these words of the Prince of the Apostles: You are a chosen
generation, a holy nation.
The Church is called holy because she is
consecrated and dedicated to God; for so other things when set apart and
dedicated to the worship of God were wont to be called holy, even though they
were material. Examples of this in the Old Law were vessels, vestments and
altars. In the same sense the first-born who were dedicated to the Most High
God were also called holy.
It should not be deemed a matter of surprise
that the Church, although numbering among her children many sinners, is called
holy. For as those who profess any art, even though they depart from its rules,
are still called artists, so in like manner the faithful, although offending in
many things and violating the engagements to which they had pledged themselves,
are still called holy, because they have been made the people of God and have consecrated
themselves to Christ by faith and Baptism. Hence, St. Paul calls the
Corinthians sanctified and holy, although it is certain that among them there
were some whom he severely rebuked as carnal, and also charged with grosser
crimes.
The Church is also to be called holy because
she is united to her holy Head, as His body; that is, to Christ the Lord,' the
fountain of all holiness, from whom flow the graces of the Holy Spirit and the
riches of the divine bounty. St. Augustine, interpreting these words of the
Prophet: Preserve my soul, for I am holy," thus admirably expresses
himself: Let the body of Christ boldly say, let also that one man, exclaiming
from the ends of the earth, boldly say, with his Head, and under his Head, I am
holy; for he received the grace of holiness, the grace of Baptism and of
remission of sins. And a little further on: If all Christians and all the
faithful, having been baptised in Christ, have put Him on, according to these
words of the Apostle: "As many of you as have been baptised in Christ,
have put on Christ"; if they are made members of his body, and yet say
they are not holy, they do an injury to their Head, whose members are holy.
Moreover, the Church alone has the legitimate
worship of sacrifice, and the salutary use of the Sacraments, which are the
efficacious instruments of divine grace, used by God to produce true holiness.
Hence, to possess true holiness, we must belong to this Church. The Church
therefore it is clear, is holy, and holy because she is the body of Christ, by
whom she is sanctified, and in whose blood she is washed.
"Catholic"
The third mark of the Church is that she is
Catholic; that is, universal. And justly is she called Catholic, because, as
St. Augustine says, she is diffused by the splendour of one faith from the
rising to the setting sun."
Unlike states of human institution, or the
sects of heretics, she is not confined to any one country or class of men, but
embraces within the amplitude of her love all mankind, whether barbarians or
Scythians, slaves or freemen, male or female. Therefore it is written: Thou . .
. hast redeemed us to God, in thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and
people, and nation, and hast made us to our God a kingdom. Speaking of the Church,
David says: Ask of me and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance,
and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession; and also, I will be
mindful of Rahab and of Babylon knowing me; and man is born in her.
Moreover to this Church, built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, belong all the faithful who have
existed from Adam to the present day, or who shall exist, in the profession of
the true faith, to the end of time; all of whom are founded and raised upon the
one corner-stone, Christ, who made both one, and announced peace to them that
are near and to them that are far.
She is also called universal, because all who
desire eternal salvation must cling to and embrace her, like those who entered
the ark to escape perishing in the flood.. This (note of catholicity),
therefore, is to be taught as a most reliable criterion, by which to
distinguish the true from a false Church.
Apostolic
The true Church is also to be recognised from
her origin, which can be traced back under the law of grace to the Apostles;
for her doctrine is the truth not recently given, nor now first heard of, but
delivered of old by the Apostles, and disseminated throughout the entire world.
Hence no one can doubt that the impious opinions which heresy invents, opposed
as they are to the doctrines taught by the Church from the days of the Apostles
to the present time, are very different from the faith of the true Church.
That all, therefore, might know which was the
Catholic Church, the Fathers, guided by the Spirit of God, added to the Creed
the word Apostolic. For the Holy Ghost, who presides over the Church, governs
her by no other ministers than those of Apostolic succession. This Spirit,
first imparted to the Apostles, has by the infinite goodness of God always
continued in the Church. And just as this one Church cannot err in faith or
morals, since it is guided by the Holy Ghost; so, on the contrary, all other
societies arrogating to themselves the name of church, must necessarily,
because guided by the spirit of the devil, be sunk in the most pernicious
errors, both doctrinal and moral.
Figures of the Church
The figures of the Old Testament have great
power to stimulate the minds of the faithful and to remind them of these most
beautiful truths. It was for this reason chiefly that the Apostles made use of
these figures. The pastor, therefore, should not overlook so fruitful a source
of instruction.
Among these figures the ark of Noah holds a
conspicuous place. It was built by the command of God, in order that there
might be no doubt that it was a symbol of the Church, which God has so
constituted that all who enter therein through Baptism, may be safe from danger
of eternal death, while such as are outside the Church, like those who were not
in the ark, are overwhelmed by their own crimes.
Another figure presents itself in the great
city of Jerusalem, which, in Scripture, often means the Church. In Jerusalem
only was it lawful to offer sacrifice to God, and in the Church of God only are
to be found the true worship and true sacrifice which can at all be acceptable
to God.
"I Believe the Holy Catholic
Church"
Finally, with regard to the Church, the
pastor should teach how to believe the Church can constitute an Article of
faith. Although reason and the senses are able to ascertain the existence of
the Church, that is, of a society of men on earth devoted and consecrated to
Jesus Christ, and although faith does not seem necessary in order to understand
a truth which even Jews and Turks do not doubt; nevertheless it is from the
light of faith only, not from the deductions of reason, that the mind can grasp
those mysteries contained in the Church of God which have been partly made
known above and will again be treated under the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
Since, therefore, this Article, no less than
the others, is placed above the reach, and defies the strength of the human
understanding, most justly do we confess that we know not from human reason,
but contemplate with the eyes of faith the origin, offices and dignity of the
Church.
This Church was founded not by man, but by
the immortal God Himself, who built her upon a most solid rock. The Highest
himself, says the Prophet, hath founded her. Hence, she is called the
inheritance of God, the people of God. The power which she possesses is not
from man but from God.
Since this power, therefore, cannot be of
human origin, divine faith can alone enable us to understand that the keys of the.
kingdom of heaven are deposited with the Church, that to her has been confided
the power of remitting sins," of denouncing excommunication, and of
consecrating the real body of Christ; and t}tat her children have not here a
permanent dwelling, but look for one above.
We are, therefore, bound to believe that
there is one Holy Catholic Church. With regard to the Three Persons of the Holy
Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, we not
only believe them, but also believe in them.
But here we make use of a different form of expression, professing to believe
the holy, not in the holy Catholic Church. By this difference of expression we
distinguish God, the author of all things, from His works, and acknowledge that
all the exalted benefits bestowed on the Church are due to God's bounty.
Second Part of this Article: "The
Communion of Saints"
The Evangelist St. John, writing to the
faithful on the divine mysteries, explains as follows why he undertook to
instruct them in these truths: That you may have fellowship with us, and our
fellowship may be with the Father, and with his son Jesus Christ. This
fellowship consists in the Communion of Saints, the subject of the present
Article.
Importance Of This Truth
Would that in its exposition pastors imitated
the zeal of Paul and of the other Apostles. For not only is it a development of
the preceding Article and a doctrine productive of abundant fruit; it also
teaches the use to be made of the mysteries contained in the Creed, because the
great end to which we should direct all our study and knowledge of them is that
we may be admitted into this most august and blessed society of the Saints, and
may steadily persevere therein, giving thanks with joy to God the Father, who
hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light.
Meaning of "The Communion of
Saints"
The faithful, therefore, in the first place
are to be informed that this part of the Article, is, as it were, a sort of
explanation of the preceding part which regards the unity, sanctity and
catholicity of the Church. For the unity of the Spirit, by which she is
governed, brings it about that whatsoever has been given to the Church is held
as a common possession by all her members.
Communion Of Sacraments
The fruit of all the Sacraments is common to
all the faithful, and these Sacraments, particularly Baptism, the door, as it
were, by which we are admitted into the Church, are so many sacred bonds which
bind and unite them to Christ. That this communion of Saints implies a
communion of Sacraments, the Fathers declare in these words of the Creed: I
confess one Baptism. After Baptism, the Eucharist holds the first place in
reference to this communion, and after that the other Sacraments; for although
this name (communion) is applicable to all the Sacraments, inasmuch as they
unite us to God, and render us partakers of Him whose grace we receive, yet it
belongs in a peculiar manner to the Eucharist which actually produces this
communion.
Communion Of Good Works
But there is also another communion in the
Church which demands attention. Every pious and holy action done by one belongs
to and becomes profitable to all through charity, which seeketh not her Own.
This is proved by the testimony of St. Ambrose, who, explaining these words of
the Psalmist, I am a partaker with all them that f ear thee, observes: As we
say that a limb is partaker of the entire body, so are we partakers with all
that fear God. Therefore has Christ taught us that form of prayer in which we
say our, not my bread; and the other Petitions are equally general, not
confined to ourselves alone, but directed also to the common interest and the
salvation of all.
This communication of goods is often very
aptly illustrated in Scripture by a comparison borrowed from the members of the
human body. In the human body there are many members, but though many, they yet
constitute but one body, in which each performs its own, not all the same,
functions. All do not enjoy equal dignity, or discharge functions alike useful
or honourable; nor does one propose to itself its own exclusive advantage, but
that Of the entire body. Besides, they are so well organised
and knit together that if one suffers, the
rest likewise suffer on account of their affinity and sympathy of nature; and
if, on the contrary, one enjoys health, the feeling of pleasure is common to
all.
The same may be observed in the Church. She
is composed of various members; that is, of different nations, of Jews,
Gentiles, freemen and slaves, of rich and poor; when they have been baptised,
they constitute one body with Christ, of which He is the Head. To each member
of the Church is also assigned his own peculiar office. As some are appointed
apostles, some teachers, but all for the common good; so to some it belongs to
govern and teach, to others to be subject and to obey.
Those Who Share In This Communion
The advantages of so many and such exalted
blessings bestowed by Almighty God are enjoyed by those who lead a Christian
life in charity, and are just and beloved of God. As to the dead members; that
is, those who are bound in the thraldom of sin and estranged from the grace of
God, they are not so deprived of these advantages as to cease to be members of
this body; but since they are dead members, they do not share in the spiritual
fruit which is communicated to the just and pious. However, as they are in the
Church, they are assisted in recovering lost grace and life by those who live
by the Spirit; and they also enjoy those benefits which are without doubt
denied to those who are entirely cut off from the Church.
Communion In Other Blessings
Not only the gifts which justify and endear
us to God are common. Graces gratuitously granted, such as knowledge, prophecy,
the gifts of tongues and of miracles, and others of the same sort, are common
also, and are granted even to the wicked, not, however, for their own but for
the general good, for the edification of the Church. Thus, the gift of healing
is given not for the sake of him who heals, but for the sake of him who is
healed.
In fine, every true Christian possesses
nothing which he should not consider common to all others with himself, and
should therefore be prepared promptly to relieve an indigent fellow-creature.
For he that is blessed with worldly goods, and sees his brother in want, and
will not assist him, is plainly convicted of not having the love of God within
him.
Those, therefore, who belong to this holy
communion, it is manifest, do now enjoy a certain degree of happiness and can
truly say: How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! my soul longeth and
fainteth for the courts of the Lord.... Blessed are they who dwell in thy
house, Lord.
ARTICLE
X : "THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS"
Importance Of This Article
The enumeration of this among the other
Articles of the Creed is alone sufficient to satisfy us that it conveys a
truth, which is not only in itself a divine mystery, but also a mystery very
necessary to salvation. We have already said that, without a firm belief of all
the Articles of the Creed, Christian piety is wholly unattainable. However,
should that which ought to be clear in itself seem to require the support of
some authority, the declaration of our Lord will suffice. A short time previous
to His Ascension into heaven, when opening the understanding of His disciples
that they might understand the Scriptures, He bore testimony to this Article of
the Creed, in these words: It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from
the dead the third day, and that penance and remission of sins should be
preached, in his name, unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Let the pastor but weigh well these words,
and he will readily perceive that the Lord has placed him under a most sacred
obligation, not only of making known to the faithful whatever regards religion
in general, but also of explaining with particular care this Article of the
Creed.
The Church Has the Power of Forgiving Sins
On this point of doctrine, then, it is the
duty of the pastor to teach that, not only is forgiveness of sins to be found
in the Catholic Church, as Isaias had foretold in these words: The people that
dwell therein shall have their iniquity taken away from them; but also that in
her resides the power of forgiving sins; and furthermore that we are bound to believe
that this power, if exercised duly, and according to the laws prescribed by our
Lord, is such as truly to pardon and remit sins.
Extent of this Power:
All Sins That Precede Baptism
When we first make a profession of faith and
are cleansed in holy Baptism, we receive this pardon entire and unqualified; so
that no sin, original or actual, of commission or omission, re- mains to be
expiated, no punishment to be endured. The grace of Baptism, however, does not
give exemption from all the infirmities of nature. On the contrary, contending,
as each of us has to contend, against the motions of concupiscence, which ever
tempts us to the commission of sin, there is scarcely one to be found among us,
who opposes so vigorous a resistance to its assaults, or who guards his
salvation so vigilantly, as to escape all wounds.
All Sins Committed After Baptism
It being necessary, therefore, that a power
of forgiving sins, distinct from that of Baptism, should exist in the Church,
to her were entrusted the keys of the kingdom of heaven, by which each one, if
penitent, may obtain the remission of his sins, even though he were a sinner to
the last day of his life. This truth is vouched for by the most unquestionable
authority of the Sacred Scriptures. In St. Matthew the Lord says to Peter: I
will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt
bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and what- soever thou shalt
loose on earth, shall be loosed also in heaven; and again: Whatsoever you shall
bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose
on earth, shall be loosed also in heaven.' Further, the testimony of St. John
assures us that the Lord, breathing on the Apostles, said: Receive ye the Holy
Ghost, whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them; and whose sins you
shall retain, they are retained. '
Limitation of this Power:
It Is Not Limited As To Sins, Persons, Or
Time
Nor is the exercise of this power restricted
to particular sins. No crime, however heinous, can be committed or even
conceived which the Church has not power to forgive, just as there is no
sinner, however abandoned, however depraved, who should not confidently hope
for pardon, provided he sincerely repent of his past transgressions.
Furthermore, the exercise of this power is
not restricted to particular times. Whenever the sinner turns from his evil
ways he is not to be rejected, as we learn from the reply of our Saviour to the
Prince of the Apostles. When St. Peter asked how often we should pardon an
offending brother, whether seven times, Not only seven times, said the
Redeemer, but till seventy times seven.
It Is Limited As To Its Ministers And
Exercise
But if we look to its ministers, or to the
manner in which it is to be exercised, the extent of this divine power will not
appear so great; for our Lord gave not the power of so sacred a ministry to
all, but to Bishops and priests only. The same must be said regarding the
manner in which this power is to be exercised; for sins can be forgiven only
through the Sacraments, when duly administered. The Church has received no
power otherwise to remit sin. Hence it follows that in the forgiveness of sins
both priests and Sacraments are, so to speak, the instruments which Christ our
Lord, the author and giver of salvation, makes use of, to accomplish in us the
pardon of sin and the grace of justification.
Greatness of this Power
To raise the admiration of the faithful for
this heavenly gift, bestowed on the Church by God's singular mercy towards us,
and to make them approach its use with the more lively sentiments of devotion
the pastor should endeavour to point out the dignity and the extent of the
grace which it imparts. If there be any one means better calculated than
another to accomplish this end, it is carefully to show how great must be the
efficacy of that which absolves from sin and restores the unjust to a state of
justification.
Sin Can Be Forgiven Only By The Power Of
God
This is manifestly an effect of the infinite
power of God, of that same power which we believe to have been necessary to
raise the dead to life and to summon creation into existence. But if it be
true, as the authority of St. Augustine assures us it is, that to recall a
sinner from the state of sin to that of righteousness is even a greater work
than to create the heavens and the earth from nothing, though their creation
can be no other than the effect of infinite power, it follows that we have still
stronger reason to consider the remission of sins as an effect proceeding from
the exercise of this same infinite power.
With great truth, therefore, have the ancient
Fathers declared that God alone can forgive sins, and that to His infinite
goodness and power alone is so wonderful a work to be referred. I am he, says
the Lord Himself, by the mouth of His Prophet, I am he who blotteth out your
iniquities.
The remission of sins seems to bear an exact
analogy to the cancelling of a pecuniary debt. None but the creditor can
forgive a pecuniary debt. Hence, since by sin we contract a debt to God alone
-- wherefore we daily pray: forgive us our debts sin, it is clear, can be
forgiven by Him alone, and by none else.
This Power Communicated To None Before
Christ
This wonderful and divine power was never
communicated to creatures, until God became man. Christ our Saviour, although
true God, was the first one who, as man, received this high prerogative from
His heavenly Father. That you may know that the son of man hath power on earth
to forgive sins (then said he to the man sick of the palsy), rise. take up thy
bed, and go into thy house. As, therefore, He became man, in order to bestow on
man this forgiveness of sins, He communicated this power to Bishops and priests
in the Church, previous to His Ascension into heaven, where He sits forever at
the right hand of God. Christ, however, as we have already said, remits sin by
virtue of His own authority; all others, by virtue of His authority delegated
to them as His ministers.
If, therefore, whatever is the effect of
infinite power claims our highest admiration and reverence, we must readily
perceive that this gift, bestowed on the Church by the bounteous hand of Christ
our Lord, is one of inestimable value.
Sin Remitted Through The Blood Of Christ
The manner too, in which God, in the fullness
of His paternal clemency resolved to cancel the sins of the world must
powerfully move the faithful to contemplate the greatness of this blessing. It
was His will that our offences should be expiated by the blood of His
Only-begotten Son; that His Son should voluntarily assume the imputability of
our sins, and suffer a most cruel death, the just for the unjust, the innocent
for the guilty.
When, therefore, we reflect that we were not
redeemed with corruptible things, as gold or silver, but with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled, we are naturally led to
conclude that we could have received no gift more salutary than this power of
forgiving sins, which proclaims the ineffable Providence of God and the excess
of His love towards us. This reflection must produce in all the most abundant
spiritual fruit.
The Great Evil From Which Forgiveness
Delivers Man
For whoever offends God, even by one mortal
sin, instantly forfeits whatever merits he may have previously acquired through
the sufferings and death of Christ, and is entirely shut out from the gate of
heaven which, when already closed, was thrown open to all by the Redeemer's
Passion. When we reflect on this, the thought of our misery must fill us with
deep anxiety. But if we turn our attention to this admirable power with which
God has invested His Church; and, in the firm belief of this Article, feel
convinced that to every sinner is offered the means of recovering, with the
assistance of divine grace, his former dignity, we must exult with exceeding
joy and gladness, and must offer immortal thanks to God.
If, when we are seriously ill, the medicines
prepared for us by the art and industry of the physician are wont to be welcome
and agreeable to us, how much more welcome and agreeable should those remedies
prove which the wisdom of God has established to heal our souls and restore us
to the life of grace, especially since they bring with them, not, indeed,
uncertain hope of recovery, like the medicines that are applied to the body,
but assured health to such as desire to be cured !
Exhortation:
This Remedy To Be Used
The faithful, therefore, having formed a just
conception of the dignity of so excellent and exalted a blessing, should be
exhorted to profit by it to the best of their ability. For he who makes no use
of what is really useful and necessary must be supposed to despise it;
particularly since, in communicating to the Church the power of forgiving sin,
the Lord did so with the view that all should have recourse to this healing
remedy. As without Baptism no one can be cleansed, so in order to recover the
grace of Baptism, forfeited by actual mortal guilt, recourse must be had to
another means of expiation, -- namely, the Sacrament of Penance.
Abuse To Be Guarded Against
But here the faithful are to be admonished to
guard against the danger of becoming more prone to sin, or slow to repentance,
from a presumption that they can have recourse to this power of forgiving sins
which is so complete and, as we saw, unrestricted as to time. For, as such a
propensity to sin would manifestly convict them of acting injuriously and
contumaciously to this divine power, and would therefore render them unworthy
of the divine mercy; so this slowness to repentance gives great reason to fear
that, overtaken by death, they may in vain confess their belief in the
remission of sins, which by their tardiness and procrastination they deservedly
forfeited.
ARTICLE
XI : "THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY"
Importance Of This Article
That this Article supplies a convincing proof
of the truth of our faith appears chiefly from the fact that not only is it
proposed in the Sacred Scriptures to the belief of the faithful, but is also
confirmed by numerous arguments. This we scarcely find to be the case with
regard to the other Articles, which justifies the inference that on this
doctrine, as on its most solid basis, rests our hope of salvation; for
according to the reasoning of the Apostle, If there be no resurrection of the
dead, then Christ is not risen again; and if Christ be not risen again, then is
our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
The diligence and zeal, therefore, of the
pastor in the explanation of this dogma should not be less than the labor which
the impiety of many has expended in efforts to overthrow it. That eminently
important advantages flow to the faithful from the knowledge of this Article
will be shown further on.
"The Resurrection of the Body"
That in this Article the resurrection of
mankind is called the resurrection of the body, is a circumstance which
deserves special attention. It was not, indeed, so named without a reason for
the Apostles intended thus to convey a necessary truth, the immortality of the
soul. Lest anyone, despite the fact that many passages of Scripture plainly
teach that the soul is immortal, might imagine that it dies with the body, and
that both are to be restored to life, the Creed speaks only of the resurrection
of the body.
Although in Sacred Scripture the word flesh
often signifies the whole man, as in Isaias, All flesh is grass, and in St.
John, The Word was made flesh; yet in this place it is used to express the body
only, thus giving us to understand that of the two constituent parts of man,
soul and body, one only, that is, the body, is corrupted and returns to its
original dust, while the soul remains incorrupt and immortal. As then, a man
cannot be said to return to life unless he has previously died, so the soul
could not with propriety be said to rise again.
The word body is also mentioned, in order to
confute the heresy of Hymeneus and Philetus, who, during the lifetime of the
Apostle, asserted that whenever the Scriptures speak of the resurrection, they
are to be understood to mean not the resurrection of the body, but that of the
soul, by which it rises from the death of sin to the life of grace. The words
of this Article, therefore, as is clear, exclude that error, and establish a
real resurrection of the body.
The Fact of the Resurrection:
Examples And Proofs Derived From Scripture
It will be the duty of the pastor to
illustrate this truth by examples taken from the Old and New Testaments, and
from all ecclesiastical history. In the Old Testament, some were restored to
life by Elias and Eliseus; and, besides those who were raised to life by our
Lord, many were raised by the holy Apostles and by many others. These many
resurrections confirm the doctrine taught by this Article; for believing that
many were recalled from death to life, we are also naturally led to believe the
general resurrection of all. In fact the principal fruit which we should derive
from these miracles is to yield to this Article our most unhesitating belief.
To pastors ordinarily conversant with the
Sacred Volumes many Scripture proofs of this Article will at once present
themselves. In the Old Testament the most conspicuous are those afforded by
Job, when he says that in his flesh he shall see his God, and by Daniel when,
speaking of those who sleep in the dust of the earth, he says, some shall awake
to eternal life, others to eternal reproach. In the New Testament (the
principal passages are) those of St. Matthew, which record the disputation our
Lord held with the Sadducees, and those in which the Evangelists speak
concerning the Last Judgment. To these we may also add the accurate reasoning
of the Apostle on the subject in his Epistles to the Corinthians and
Thessalonians.
Analogies From Nature
But although the resurrection is most
certainly established by faith, it will, notwithstanding, be of material
advantage to show from analogy and reason that what faith proposes is not at
variance with nature or human reason.
To one asking how the dead should rise again,
the Apostle answers: Foolish man! that which thou sowest is not quickened,
except it die first; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that
shall be, but bare grain, as of wheat, or of some of the rest; but God giveth
it a body as he will; and a little after, It is sown in corruption, it shall
rise in incorruption.
St. Gregory calls our attention to many other
arguments of analogy tending to the same effect. The sun, he says, is every day
withdrawn from our eyes, as it were, by dying, and is again recalled, as it
were, by rising again; trees lose, and again, as it were, by a resurrection,
resume their verdure; seeds die by putrefaction, and rise again by germination.
Arguments Drawn From Reason
The reasons also adduced by ecclesiastical
writers seem well calculated to establish this truth. In the first place, as
the soul is immortal, and has, as part of man, a natural propensity to be
united to the body, its perpetual separation from it must be considered as
unnatural. But as that which is contrary to nature and in a state of violence,
cannot be permanent, it appears fitting that the soul should be reunited to the
body, and consequently that the body should rise again. This argument our
Saviour Himself employed, when in His disputation with the Sadducees He deduced
the resurrection of the body from the immortality of the soul."
In the next place, as an all-just God holds
out punishments to the wicked and rewards to the good, and as very many of the
former depart this life unpunished for their crimes and many of the latter
unrewarded for their virtues, the soul should be reunited to the body, in
order, as the partner of her crimes, or the companion of her virtues, to become
a sharer in her punishments or rewards. This argument has been admirably treated
by St. Chrysostom in his homily to the people of Antioch.
To this effect also, the Apostle, speaking of
the resurrection, says: If in this life only, we have hope in Christ, we are of
all men the most miserable.. These words of St. Paul cannot be supposed to
refer to the misery of the soul; for since the soul is immortal, it is capable
of enjoying happiness in a future life, even though the body did not rise
again. His words, then, must refer to the whole man; for, unless the body
receive the due rewards of its labours, those who, like the Apostles, endured
so many afflictions and calamities in this life, would necessarily be the most
miserable of men. On this subject the Apostle is much more explicit in his
Epistle to the Thessalonians: We glory in the churches of God, for your
patience and faith, in all your persecutions and tribulations which you endure
-- for an example of the just judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy
of the kingdom of God, for which also you suffer; seeing it is a just thing with
God to repay tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled,
rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with the angels
of his power, in a flame of fire, yielding vengeance to them who know not God,
and who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Again, while the soul is separated from the
body, man cannot enjoy that full happiness which is replete with every good.
For as a part separated from the whole is imperfect, the soul separated from
the body must be imperfect. Therefore, that nothing may be wanting to fill up
the measure of its happiness, the resurrection of the body is necessary.
By these, and similar arguments, the pastor
will be able to instruct the faithful in this Article.
All Shall Rise
He should also carefully explain from the
Apostle who are to be raised to life. Writing to the Corinthians, he (St. Paul)
says: As in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.' Good and
bad then, without distinction, shall all rise from the dead, although the
condition of all will not be the same. Those who have done good, shall rise to
the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil to the resurrection of
judgment.
When we say all we mean those who will have
died before the day of judgment, as well as those who will then die. That the
Church acquiesces in the opinion that all, without distinction, shall die, and
that this opinion is more consonant with truth, is the teaching of St. Jerome
and of St. Augustine.
Nor does the Apostle in his Epistle to the
Thessalonians dissent from this doctrine, when he says: The dead who are in
Christ shall rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, shall be taken up
together with them in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air. St. Ambrose
explaining these words says: In that very taking up, death shall take place, as
it were, in a deep sleep, and the soul, having gone forth from the body, shall
instantly return. For those who are alive shall die when they are taken up
that, coming to the Lord, they may receive their souls from His presence;
because in His presence they cannot be dead. This opinion is supported by the
authority of St. Augustine in his book On the City of God."
The Body Shall Rise Substantially the Same
But as it is of vital importance to be fully
convinced that the identical body, which belongs to each one of us during life,
shall, though corrupt and dissolved into its original dust, be raised up again
to life, this too is a subject which demands accurate explanation on the part
of the pastor.
It is a truth conveyed by the Apostle when he
says: This corruptible must put on incorruption, evidently designating by the
word this, his own body. It is also clearly expressed in the prophecy of Job:
In my flesh I shall see my God, whom I myself shall see, and mine eyes behold,
and not another.
Further, this same truth is inferred from the
very definition of resurrection; for resurrection, as Damascene defines it, is
a return to the state from which one has fallen.
Finally, if we bear in mind the arguments by
which we have just established a future resurrection, every doubt on the
subject must at once disappear.
We have said that the body is to rise again,
that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath
done, whether it be good or evil. Man is, therefore, to rise again in the same
body with which he served God, or was a slave to the devil; that in the same
body he may experience rewards and a crown of victory, or endure the severest
punishments and torments.
Restoration Of All That Pertains To The
Nature And Adornment Of The Body
Not only will the body rise, but whatever
belongs to the reality of its nature, and adorns and ornaments man will be
restored. For this we have the admirable words of St. Augustine: There
shall then be no deformity of body; if some
have been overburdened with flesh, they shall not resume its entire weight. All
that exceeds the proper proportion shall be deemed superfluous. On the other
hand, should the body be wasted by disease or old age, or be emaciated from any
other cause, it shall be repaired by the divine power of Christ, who will not
only restore the body unto us, but will repair whatever it shall have lost
through the wretchedness of this life. In another place he says: Man shall not
resume his former hair, but shall be adorned with such as will become him,
according to the words: "The very hairs of your head are all
numbered." God will restore them according to His wisdom.
Restoration Of All That Pertains To The
Integrity Of The Body
But the members especially, because they
belong to the integrity of human nature, shall all be restored at once. The
blind from nature or disease, the lame, the maimed and the paralysed in any of
their members shall rise again with entire and perfect bodies. Otherwise the
desires of the soul, which so strongly incline it to a union with the body,
would be far from satisfied; but we are convinced that in the resurrection
these desires will be fully realised.
Besides, the resurrection, like the creation,
is clearly to be numbered among the principal works of God. As, therefore, at
the creation all things came perfect from the hand of God, we must admit that
it will be the same in the resurrection.
These observations are not to be restricted
to the bodies of the martyrs, of whom St. Augustine says: As the mutilation
which they suffered would prove a deformity, they shall rise with all their
members; otherwise those who were beheaded would rise without a head. The
scars, however, which they received shall remain, shining like the wounds of
Christ, with a brilliance far more resplendent than that of gold and of
precious stones.
The wicked, too, shall rise with all their
members, even with those lost through their own fault. The greater the number
of members which they shall have, the greater will be their torments; and
therefore this restoration of members will serve to increase not their
happiness but their sorrow and misery; for merit or demerit is ascribed not to
the members, but to the person to whose body they are united. To those,
therefore, who shall have done penance, they shall be restored as sources of
reward; and to those who shall have contemned it, as instruments of punishment.
If the pastor gives attentive consideration
to these things, he can never lack words or ideas to move the hearts of the
faithful, and enkindle in them the flame of piety; so that having before their
minds the troubles and calamities of this life, they may look forward with
eager expectations to that blessed glory of the resurrection which awaits the
just.
The Condition of the Risen Body Shall be
Different
It now remains for the faithful to understand
how the body, when raised from the dead, although substantially the same body
that had been dead, shall be vastly different and changed in its condition.
Immortality
To omit other points, the chief difference
between the state of all bodies when risen from the dead and what they had
previously been is that before the resurrection they were subject to
dissolution, but when reanimated they shall all, without distinction of good
and bad, be invested with immortality.
This admirable restoration of nature, as the
Scriptures testify, is the result of the glorious victory of Christ over death.
For it is written: He shall cast death down headlong for ever, and, O death! I
will be thy death.' Explaining these words the Apostle says: And the enemy
death shall be destroyed last; and St. John also says: Death shall be no more.
It was most fitting that the sin of Adam
should be far exceeded by the merit of Christ the Lord, who overthrew the
empire of death. It was also in keeping with divine justice, that the good
should enjoy endless felicity, while the wicked, condemned to everlasting
torments, shall seek death, and shall not find it, shall desire to die, and
death shall fly from them. Immortality, therefore, will be common to the good
and to the bad.
The Qualities Of A Glorified Body
In addition to this, the bodies of the risen
Saints will be distinguished by certain transcendent endowments, which will
ennoble them far beyond their former condition. Among these endowments four are
specially mentioned by the Fathers, which they infer from the doctrine of St.
Paul, and which are called gifts.
Impassibility
The first endowment or gift is impassibility,
which shall place them beyond the reach of suffering anything disagreeable or
of being affected by pain or inconvenience of any sort. Neither the piercing
severity of cold, nor the glowing intensity of heat, nor the impetuosity of
waters can hurt them. It is sown says the Apostle, in corruption, it shall rise
in incorruption This quality the Schoolmen call impassibility, not
incorruption, in order to distinguish it as a property peculiar to a glorified
body. The bodies of the damned, though incorruptible, will not be impassible;
they will be capable of experiencing heat and cold and of suffering various
afflictions.
Brightness
The next quality is brightness, by which the
bodies of the Saints shall shine like the sun, according to the words of our
Lord recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew: The just shall shine as the sun, in
the kingdom of their Father. To remove the possibility of doubt on the subject,
He exemplifies this in His Transfiguration. This quality the Apostle sometimes
calls glory, sometimes brightness: He will reform the body of our lowness, made
like to the body of his glory; " and again, It is sown in dishonour, it
shall rise in glory. Of this glory the Israelites beheld some image in the
desert, when the face of Moses, after he had enjoyed the presence and
conversation of God, shone with such lustre that they could not look on it.
This brightness is a sort of radiance
reflected on the body from the supreme happiness of the soul. It is a
participation in that bliss which the soul enjoys just as the soul itself is
rendered happy by a participation in the happiness of God.
Unlike the gift of impassibility, this
quality is not common to all in the same degree. All the bodies of the Saints
will be equally impassible; but the brightness of all will not be the same,
for, according to the Apostle, One is the glory of the sun, another the glory
of the moon, and another the glory of the stars, for star differeth from star
in glory: so also is the resurrection of the dead.
Agility
To the preceding quality is united that which
is called agility, by which the body will be freed from the heaviness that now
presses it down, and will take on a capability of moving with the utmost ease
and swiftness, wherever the soul pleases, as St. Augustine teaches in his book
On the City of God, and St. Jerome On Isaias. Hence these words of the Apostle:
It is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power.
Subtility
Another quality is that of subtility, which
subjects the body to the dominion of the soul, so that the body shall be
subject to the soul and ever ready to follow her desires. This quality we learn
from these words of the Apostle: It is sown a natural body, it shall rise a
spiritual body.
These are the principal points which should
be dwelt on in the exposition of this Article.
Advantages of Deep Meditation on this
Article
But in order that the faithful may appreciate
the fruit they derive from a knowledge of so many and such exalted mysteries,
it is necessary, first of all, to point out that to God, who has hidden these
things from the wise and made them known to little ones, we owe a debt of
boundless gratitude. How many men, eminent for wisdom or endowed with singular
learning, who ever remained blind to this most certain truth ! The fact, then,
that He has made known to us these truths, although we could never have aspired
to such knowledge, obliges us to pour forth our gratitude in unceasing praises
of His supreme goodness and clemency.
Another important advantage to be derived
from reflection on this Article is that in it we shall find consolation both
for ourselves and others when we mourn the death of those who were endeared to
us by relationship or friendship. Such was the consolation which the Apostle
himself gave the Thessalonians when writing to them concerning those who are
asleep.
Again, in all our afflictions and calamities
the thought of a future resurrection must bring the greatest relief to the
troubled heart, as we learn from the example of holy Job, who supported his
afflicted and sorrowing soul by this one hope that the day would come when, in
the resurrection, he would behold the Lord his God.
The same thought must also prove a powerful
incentive to the faithful to use every exertion to lead lives of rectitude and
integrity, unsullied by the defilement of sin. For if they reflect that those
boundless riches which will follow after the resurrection are now offered to
them as rewards, they will be easily attracted to the pursuit of virtue and
piety.
On the other hand, nothing will have greater
effect in subduing the passions and withdrawing souls from sin, than frequently
to remind the sinner of the miseries and torments with which the reprobate will
be visited, who on the last day will come forth unto the resurrection of judgment.
ARTICLE
XII : "LIFE EVERLASTING"
Importance Of This Article
The holy Apostles, our guides, thought fit to
conclude the Creed, which is the summary of our faith, with the Article on
eternal life: first, because after the resurrection of the body the only object
of the Christian's hope is the reward of everlasting life; and secondly, in
order that perfect happiness, embracing as it does the fullness of all good,
may be ever present to our minds and absorb all our thoughts and affections.
In his instructions to the faithful the
pastor, therefore, should unceasingly endeavour to light up in their souls an
ardent desire of the promised rewards of eternal life, so that whatever
difficult duties he may inculcate as a part of the Christian's life, the faithful
may look upon as light, or even agreeable, and may yield a more willing and
cheerful obedience to God.
"Life Everlasting"
As many mysteries lie concealed under the
words which are here used to declare the happiness reserved for us, they are to
be explained in such a manner as to make them intelligible to all, as far as
each one's capacity will allow.
The faithful, therefore, are to be informed
that the words, life everlasting, signify not only continuance of existence,
which even the demons and the wicked possess, but also that perpetuity of
happiness which is to satisfy the desires of the blessed. In this sense they
were understood by the lawyer mentioned in the Gospel when he asked the Lord
our Saviour: What shall I do to possess everlasting life? as if he had said,
What shall I do in order to arrive at the enjoyment of perfect happiness? In
this sense these words are understood in the Sacred Scriptures, as is clear
from many passages.
"Everlasting"
The supreme happiness of the blessed is
called by this name (life everlasting) principally to exclude the notion that
it consists in corporeal and transitory things, which cannot be everlasting.
The word blessedness is insufficient to express the idea, particularly as there
have not been wanting men who, puffed up by the teachings of a vain philosophy,
would place the supreme good in sensible things. But these grow old and perish,
while supreme happiness is to be terminated by no lapse of time. Nay more, so
far is the enjoyment of the goods of this life from conferring real happiness
that, on the contrary, he who is captivated by a love of the world is farthest
removed from true happiness; for it is written: Love not the world, nor the
things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the
Father is not in him, and a little farther on we read: The world passeth away,
and the concupiscence thereof.
The pastor, therefore, should be careful to
impress these truths on the minds of the faithful, that they may learn to
despise earthly things, and to know that in this world, in which we are not
citizens but sojourners, happiness is not to be found. Yet even here below we
may be said with truth to be happy in hope, if denying ungodliness and worldly
desires, we . . . live soberly, and justly, and godly in this world, looking
for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God and our Saviour
Jesus Christ. Very many who seemed to themselves wise, not understanding these
things, and imagining that happiness was to be sought in this life, became
fools and the victims of the most deplorable calamities.
These words, life everlasting, also teach us
that, contrary to the false notions of some, happiness once attained can never
be lost. Happiness is an accumulation of all good without admixture of evil,
which, as it fills up the measure of man's desires, must be eternal. He who is
blessed with happiness must earnestly desire the continued enjoyment of those
goods which he has obtained. Hence, unless its possession be permanent and
certain, he is necessarily a prey to the most tormenting apprehension.
Life
The intensity of the happiness which the just
enjoy in their celestial country, and its utter incomprehensibility to all but
themselves alone, are sufficiently conveyed by the very words blessed life. For
when in order to express any idea we make use of a word common to many things,
it is clear that we do so because we have no exact term by which to express it
fully. Since, therefore, to express happiness, words are adopted which are not
more applicable to the blessed than to all who are to live for ever, this
proves to us that the idea presents to the mind something too great, too
exalted, to be expressed fully by a proper term. True, the happiness of heaven
is expressed in Scripture by a variety of other words, such as the kingdom of
God, of Christ, of heaven, paradise, the holy city, the new Jerusalem, my
Father's house; yet it is clear that none of these appellations is sufficient
to convey an adequate idea of its greatness.
The pastor, therefore, should not neglect the
opportunity which this Article affords of inviting the faithful to the practice
of piety, of justice and of all the other Christian duties, by holding out to
them such ample rewards as are announced in the words life everlasting. Among
the blessings which we instinctively desire life is certainly esteemed one of
the greatest. Now it is chiefly by this blessing that we describe the happiness
(of the just) when we say life everlasting. If, then, there is nothing more
loved, nothing dearer or sweeter, than this short and calamitous life, which is
subject to so many and such various miseries that it should rather be called
death; with what ardour of soul, with what earnestness of purpose, should we
not seek that eternal life which, without evil of any sort, presents to us the
pure and unmixed enjoyment of every good?
Negative and Positive Elements of Eternal
Life
The happiness of eternal life is, as defined
by the Fathers, an exemption from all evil, and an enjoyment of all good.
The Negative
Concerning (the exemption from all) evil the
Scriptures bear witness in the most explicit terms. For it is written in the Apocalypse:
They shall no more hunger nor thirst, neither shall the sun fall on them, nor
any heat; '° and again, God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and
death shall be no more, nor mourning nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more,
for the former things are passed away.
The Positive
As for the glory of the blessed, it shall be
without measure, and the kinds of their solid joys and pleasures without
number. Since our minds cannot grasp the greatness of this glory, nor can it
possibly enter into our souls, it is necessary for us to enter into it, that
is, into the joy of the Lord, so that immersed therein we may completely
satisfy the longing of our hearts.
Although, as St. Augustine observes, it would
seem easier to enumerate the evils from which we shall be exempt than the goods
and the pleasures which we shall enjoy; yet we must endeavour to explain,
briefly and clearly, these things which are calculated to inflame the faithful
with a desire of arriving at the enjoyment of this supreme felicity.
But first of all we should make use of a
distinction which has been sanctioned by the most eminent writers on religion;
for they teach that there are two sorts of goods, one of which constitutes
happiness, the other follows upon it. The former, therefore, for the sake of
perspicuity, they have called essential blessings, the latter, accessory.
Essential Happiness
Solid happiness, which we may designate by
the common appellation, essential, consists in the vision of God, and the
enjoyment of His beauty who is the source and principle of all goodness and
perfection. This, says Christ our Lord, is eternal life: that they may know
thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. These words St.
John seems to interpret when he says: Dearly beloved, we are now the sons of
God; and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when he shall
appear, we shall be like to him: because we shawl see him as he is. He shows,
then, that beatitude consists of two things: that we shall behold God such as
He is in His own nature and substance; and that we ourselves shall become, as
it were, gods.
The Light Of Glory
For those who enjoy God while they retain
their own nature, assume a certain admirable and almost divine form, so as to
seem gods rather than men. Why this transformation takes place becomes at once
intelligible if we only reflect that a thing is known either from its essence,
or from its image and appearance, consequently, as nothing so resembles God as
to afford by its resemblance a perfect knowledge of Him, it follows that no
creature can behold His Divine Nature and Essence unless this same Divine
Essence has joined itself to us, and this St. Paul means when he says: We now
see through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face.' The words, in a
dark manner, St. Augustine understands to mean that we see Him in a resemblance
calculated to convey to us some notion of the Deity.
This St. Denis' also clearly shows when he
says that the things above cannot be known by comparison with the things below;
for the essence and substance of anything incorporeal cannot be known through
the image of that which is corporeal, particularly as a resemblance must be
less gross and more spiritual than that which it represents, as we easily know
from universal experience. Since, therefore, it is impossible that any image
drawn from created things should be equally pure and spiritual with God, no
resemblance can enable us perfectly to comprehend the Divine Essence. Moreover,
all created things are circumscribed within certain limits of perfection, while
God is without limits; and therefore nothing created can reflect His immensity.
The only means, then, of arriving at a
knowledge of the Divine Essence is that God unite Himself in some sort to us,
and after an incomprehensible manner elevate our minds to a higher degree of
perfection, and thus render us capable of contemplating the beauty of His
Nature. This the light of His glory will accomplish. Illumined by its splendour
we shall see God, the true light, in His own light.
The Beatific Vision
For the blessed always see God present and by
this greatest and most exalted of gifts, being made partakers of the divine
nature, they enjoy true and solid happiness. Our belief in this happiness
should be joined with an assured hope that we too shall one day, through the
divine goodness, attain it. This the Fathers declared in their Creed, which
says: I expect the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
An Illustration Of This Truth
These are truths, so divine that they cannot
be expressed in any words or comprehended by us in thought. We may, however,
trace some resemblance of this happiness in sensible objects. Thus, iron when
acted on by fire becomes inflamed and while it is substantially the same seems
changed into fire, a different substance; so likewise the blessed, who are
admitted into the glory of heaven and burn with a love of God, are so affected
that, without ceasing to be what they are, they may be said with truth to differ
more from those still on earth than red-hot iron differs from itself when cold.
To say all in a few words, supreme and
absolute happiness, which we call essential, consists in the possession of God;
for what can he lack to consummate his happiness who possesses the God of all
goodness and perfection?
Accessory Happiness
To this happiness, however, are added certain
gifts which are common to all the blessed, and which, because more within the
reach of human comprehension, are generally found more effectual in moving and
inflaming the heart. These the Apostle seems to have in view when, in his
Epistle to the Romans, he says: Glory and honour, and peace to every one that
worketh good.
Glory
For the blessed shall enjoy glory; not only
that glory which we have already shown to constitute essential happiness, or to
be its inseparable accompaniment, but also that glory which consists in the
clear and distinct knowledge which each (of the blessed) shall have of the
singular and exalted dignity of his companions (in glory).
Honour
And how distinguished must not that honour be
which is conferred by God Himself, who no longer calls them servants, but
friends, brethren and sons of God! Hence the Redeemer will address His elect in
these most loving and honourable words: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess
you the kingdom prepared for you. Justly, then, may we exclaim: Thy friends, O
God, are made exceedingly honourable. They shall also receive the highest
praise from Christ the Lord, in presence of His heavenly Father and His Angels.
And if nature has implanted in the heart of
every man the common desire of securing the esteem of men eminent for wisdom,
because they are deemed the most reliable judges of merit, what an accession of
glory to the blessed, to show towards each other the highest veneration !
Peace
To enumerate all the delights with which the
souls of the blessed shall be filled would be an endless task. We cannot even
conceive them in thought. With this truth, however, the minds of the faithful
should be deeply impressed -- that the happiness of the Saints is full to
overflowing of all those pleasures which can be enjoyed or even desired in this
life, whether they regard the powers of the mind or of the perfection of the
body; albeit this must be in a manner more exalted than, to use the Apostle's
words, eye hath seen, ear heard, or the heart of man conceived.
Thus the body, which was before gross and
material, shall put off in heaven its mortality, and having become refined and
spiritualised, will no longer require corporal food; while the soul shall be
satiated to its supreme delight with that eternal food of glory which the
Master of that great feast passing will minister to all.
Who will desire rich apparel or royal robes,
where there shall be no further use for such things, and where all shall be
clothed with immortality and splendour, and adorned with a crown of
imperishable glory?
And if the possession of a spacious and
magnificent mansion contributes to human happiness, what more spacious, what more
magnificent, can be conceived than heaven itself, which is illumined throughout
with the brightness of God ? Hence the Prophet, contemplating the beauty of
this dwelling-place, and burning with the desire of reaching those mansions of
bliss, exclaims: How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! my soul
longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have
rejoiced in the living God. That the faithful may be all filled with the same
sentiments and utter the same language should be the object of the pastor's
most earnest desires, as it should also be of his zealous labours. For in my
Father's house, says our Lord, there are many mansions," in which shall be
distributed rewards of greater and of less value according to each one's deserts.
He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly: and he who soweth in
blessings, shall also reap blessings.
How to Arrive at the Enjoyment of this
Happiness
The pastor, therefore, should not only
encourage the faithful to seek this happiness, but should frequently remind
them that the sure way of obtaining it is to possess the virtues of faith and
charity, to persevere in prayer and the use of the Sacraments, and to discharge
all the duties of kindness towards their neighbour.
Thus, through the mercy of God, who has
prepared that blessed glory for those who love Him, shall be one day fulfilled
the words of the Prophet: My people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and in
the tabernacle of confidence, and in wealthy rest.
PART
II : THE SACRAMENTS
Importance Of Instruction On The
Sacraments
The exposition of every part of Christian
doctrine demands knowledge and industry on the part of the pastor. But
instruction on the Sacraments, which, by the ordinance of God, are a necessary
means of salvation and a plenteous source of spiritual advantage, demands in a
special manner his talents and industry By accurate and frequent instruction
(on the Sacraments) the faithful will be enabled to approach worthily and with
salutary effect these inestimable and most holy institutions; and the priests
will not depart from the rule laid down in the divine prohibition: Give not
that which is holy to dogs: neither cast ye your pearls before swine.
The Word "Sacrament"
Since, then, we are about to treat of the
Sacraments in general, it is proper to begin in the first place by explaining
the force and meaning of the word Sacrament, and showing its various
significations, in order the more easily to comprehend the sense in which it is
here used. The faithful, therefore, are to be informed that the word Sacrament,
in so far as it concerns our present purpose, is differently understood by
sacred and profane writers.
By some it has been used to express the
obligation which arises from an oath, pledging to the performance of some
service; and hence the oath by which soldiers promise military service to the
State has been called a military sacrament. Among profane writers this seems to
have been the most ordinary meaning of the word.
But by the Latin Fathers who have written on
theological subjects, the word sacrament is used to signify a sacred thing
which lies concealed. The Greeks, to express the same idea, made use of the
word mystery. This we understand to be the meaning of the word, when, in the
Epistle to the Ephesians, it is said: That he might make known to us the
mystery (sacramentum) of his will; and to Timothy: great is the mystery
(sacramentum) of godliness; and in the Book of Wisdom: They knew not the
secrets (sacramenta) of God. In these and many other passages the word
sacrament,- it will be perceived, signifies nothing more than a holy thing that
lies concealed and hidden.
The Latin Doctors, therefore, deemed the word
a very appropriate term to express certain sensible signs which at once
communicate grace, declare it, and, as it were, place it before the eyes. St.
Gregory, however, is of the opinion that such a sign is called a Sacrament,
because the divine power secretly operates our salvation under the veil of sensible
things.
Let it not, however, be supposed that the
word sacrament is of recent ecclesiastical usage. Whoever peruses the works of
Saints Jerome and Augustine will at once perceive that ancient ecclesiastical
writers made use of the word sacrament, and some times also of the word symbol,
or mystical sign or sacred sign, to designate that of which we here speak.
So much will suffice in explanation of the
word sacrament. What we have said applies equally to the Sacraments of the Old
Law; but since they have been superseded by the Gospel Law and grace, it is not
necessary that pastors give instruction concerning them.
Definition of a Sacrament
Besides the meaning of the word, which has
hitherto engaged our attention, the nature and efficacy of the thing which the
word signifies must be diligently considered, and the faithful must be taught
what constitutes a Sacrament. No one can doubt that the Sacraments are among
the means of attaining righteousness and salvation. But of the many
definitions, each of them sufficiently appropriate, which may serve to explain
the nature of a Sacrament, there is none more comprehensive, none more
perspicuous, than the definition given by St. Augustine and adopted by all
scholastic writers. A Sacrament, he says, is a sign of a sacred thing; or, as
it has been expressed in other words of the same import: A Sacrament is a
visible sign of an invisible grace, instituted for our justification.
"A Sacrament is a Sign"
The more fully to develop this definition,
the pastor should ex plain it in all its parts. He should first observe that
sensible objects are of two sorts: some have been invented precisely to serve
as signs; others have been established not for the sake of signifying something
else, but for their own sakes alone. To the latter class almost every object in
nature may be said to belong; to the former, spoken and written languages,
military standards, images, trumpets, signals a and a multiplicity of other
things of the same sort. Thus with regard to words; take away their power of
expressing ideas, and you seem to take away the only reason for their
invention. Such things are, therefore, properly called signs. For, according to
St. Augustine, a sign, besides what it presents to the senses, is a medium
through which we arrive at the knowledge of something else. From a footstep,
for instance, which we see traced on the ground, we instantly infer that some
one whose trace appears has passed.
Proof From Reason
A Sacrament, therefore, is clearly to be
numbered among those things which have been instituted as signs. It makes known
to us by a certain appearance and resemblance that which God, by His invisible
power, accomplishes in our souls. Let us illustrate what we have said by an
example. Baptism, for instance, which is administered by external ablution,
accompanied with certain solemn words, signifies that by the power of the Holy
Ghost all stain and defilement of sin is inwardly washed away, and that the
soul is enriched and adorned with the admirable gift of heavenly justification;
while, at the same time, the bodily washing, as we shall hereafter explain in
its proper place, accomplishes in the soul that which it signifies.
Proof From Scripture
That a Sacrament is to be numbered among
signs is dearly inferred also from Scripture. Speaking of circumcision, a
Sacrament of the Old Law which was given to Abraham, the father of all
believers," the Apostle in his Epistle to the Romans, says: And he
received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the justice of the faith. In
another place he says: All we who are baptised in Christ Jesus, are baptised in
his death, words which justify the inference that Baptism signifies, to use the
words of the same Apostle, that we are buried together with him by baptism into
death.
Nor is it unimportant that the faithful
should know that the Sacraments are signs. This knowledge will lead them more
readily to believe that what the Sacraments signify, contain and effect is holy
and august; and recognising their sanctity they will be more disposed to venerate
and adore the beneficence of God displayed towards us.
"Sign of a Sacred Thing" : Kind
of Sign Meant Here
We now come to explain the words, sacred
thing, which constitute the second part of the definition. To render this
explanation satisfactory we must enter somewhat more minutely into the accurate
and acute remarks of St. Augustine on the variety of signs.
Natural Signs
Some signs are called natural. These, besides
making themselves known to us, also convey a knowledge of something else, an effect,
as we have already said, common to all signs. Smoke, for instance, is a natural
sign from which we immediately infer the existence of fire. It is called a
natural sign, because it implies the existence of fire, not by arbitrary
institution, but from experience. If we see smoke, we are at once convinced of
the presence of fire, even though it is hidden.
Signs Invented By Man,
Other signs are not natural, but
conventional, and are invented by men to enable them to converse one with
another, to convey their thoughts to others, and in turn to learn the opinions
and receive the advice of other men. The variety and multiplicity of such signs
may be inferred from the fact that some belong to the eyes, many to the ears,
and the rest to the other senses. Thus when we intimate any thing to another by
such a sensible sign as the raising of a flag, it is obvious that such
intimation is conveyed only through the medium of the eyes; and it is equally
obvious that the sound of the trumpet, of the lute and of the lyre,-instruments
which are not only sources of pleasure, but frequently signs of ideas -- is
addressed to the ear. Through the latter sense especially are also conveyed
words, which are the best medium of communicating our inmost thoughts.
Signs Instituted By God
Besides the signs instituted by the will and
agreement of men, of which we have been speaking so far, there are certain
other signs appointed by God. These latter, as all admit, are not all of the
same kind. Some were instituted by God to indicate something or to bring back
its recollection. Such were the purifications of the Law, the unleavened bread,
and many other things which belonged to the ceremonies of the Mosaic worship.
But God has appointed other signs with power not only to signify, but also to
accomplish (what they signify).
Among these are manifestly to be numbered the
Sacraments of the New Law. They are signs instituted not by man but by God,
which we firmly believe have in themselves the power of producing the sacred
effects of which they are the signs.
Kind of Sacred Thing Meant Here
We have seen that there are many kinds of
signs. The sacred thing referred to is also of more than one kind. As regards
the definition already given of a Sacrament, theologians prove that by the
words sacred thing is to be understood the grace of God, which sanctifies the
soul and adorns it with the habit of all the divine virtues; and of this grace
they rightly consider the words sacred thing, an appropriate appellation,
because by its salutary influence the soul is consecrated and united to God.
In order, therefore, to explain more fully
the nature of a Sacrament, it should be taught that it is a sensible object
which possesses, by divine institution, the power not only of signifying, but
also of accomplishing holiness and righteousness. Hence it follows, as everyone
can easily see, that the images of the Saints, crosses and the like, although
signs of sacred things, cannot be called Sacraments. That such is the nature of
a Sacrament is easily proved by the example of all the Sacraments, if we apply
to the others what has been already said of Baptism; namely, that the solemn
ablution of the body not only signifies, but has power to effect a sacred thing
which is wrought interiorly by the operation of the Holy Ghost.
Other Sacred Things Signified By The
Sacraments
Now it is especially appropriate that these
mystical signs, instituted by God, should signify by the appointment of the
Lord not only one thing, but several things at once.
All The Sacraments Signify Something
Present, Something Past, Something Future:
This applies to all the Sacraments; for all
of them declare not only our sanctity and justification, but also two other
things most intimately connected with sanctification, namely, the Passion of
Christ our Redeemer, which is the source of our sanctification, and also
eternal life and heavenly bliss, which are the end of sanctification. Such,
then, being the nature of all the Sacraments, holy Doctors justly hold that
each of them has a threefold significance: they remind us of something past;
they indicate and point out something present; they foretell something future.
Nor should it be supposed that this teaching
of the Doctors is unsupported by the testimony of Holy Scripture. When the
Apostle says: All we who are baptised in Christ Jesus, are baptised in his
death, he gives us clearly to understand that Baptism is called a sign, because
it reminds us of the death and Passion of our Lord. When he says, We are buried
together with him by baptism into death; that as Christ is risen from the dead
by the glory of the Father, so, we also may walk in newness of life, he also
clearly shows that Baptism is a sign which indicates the infusion of divine grace
into our souls, which enables us to lead a new life and to perform all the
duties of true piety with ease and cheerfulness. Finally, when he adds: If we
have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in
the likeness of his resurrection, he teaches that Baptism clearly foreshadows
eternal life also, which we are to reach through its efficacy.
A Sacrament Sometimes Signifies The
Presence Of More Than One Thing
Besides the different significations already
mentioned, a Sacrament also not infrequently indicates and marks the presence
of more than one thing. This we readily perceive when we reflect that the Holy
Eucharist at once signifies the presence of the real body and blood of Christ
and the grace which it imparts to the worthy receiver of the sacred mysteries.
What has been said, therefore, cannot fail to
supply the pastor with arguments to prove how much the power of God is
displayed, how many hidden miracles are contained in the Sacraments of the New
Law; that thus all may understand that they are to be venerated and received
with utmost devotion.'
Why the Sacraments were Instituted
Of all the means employed to teach the proper
use of the Sacraments, there is none more effectual than a careful exposition
of the reasons of their institution. Many such reasons are commonly assigned.
The first of these reasons is the feebleness of the human mind. We are so constituted by nature that no one can aspire to mental and intellectual knowledge unless through the medium of sensible objects. In order, therefor