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| The Christmas Child |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2021, 12:07 PM - Forum: Christmas
- Replies (2)
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Beyond all else Christmas means children.
And beyond all children Christmas means especially one Child
Even the sad pagans of a modern day, who have rudely excluded that Divine Child from Christmas, have, because of
Him, kept the day sacred to children.
Where the Christ Child is loved for Himself and is seen in the little children, who are beautifully like Him, Christmas is the day, beyond all other days, when love moves over the earth with lighted tapers, and the virtues of childhood make young once more a weary, aging humanity.
Even where the Christ Child is forgotten or ignored, His little ones for a single day waken in human hearts a new tenderness and unselfish affection. And the innocence of childhood, its unquenchable faith in the goodness of others, curve into smiles even the cynical lips that have drunk deep of sin and grown bitter in sneers.
For Christmas begins and ends with a Child. About the Infant in the manger prophecies are fulfilled, and angels sing, and the poor kneel giftless save for the unpurchasable gift of patient affection, and the rich come gilt-laden, but with a strange humility bringing low their heads, and all mankind is reborn to a new era of grace and hope and God's revelation of love and graciousness. 'A child is born to us and a son is given to us, cried Isaias in ecstatic prophecy. In a vision he saw this Child, born of a Virgin, in God's beautiful promise and sign, and his heart burst forth in the first glad Christmas greeting, 'A child is born to us and a son is given to us. And from that joyful prophecy flowed all the joy and peace and Christmas spirit that coursed hopefully through the Old Law unto glorious fulfilment in the New.
Over the heads of the patiently watchful shepherds the glory of a star ripped the satin curtains of night. Then angel hands thrust back the torn shreds of gold and purple sky, and the uncontrollable joy of heaven itself leaped forth to sing of a Child.
'Glory to God in the highest, because of that Child. 'And on earth peace to men of good will, who from that moment would find themselves kneeling in complete happiness beside that Golden Babe.
Startled, the shepherds looked up at the splendour flung unexpectedly into their drab lives. True peasants, they noted with instinctive relief that their lambs upon the hillside grazed unafraid either of the star, the angel messengers, or the swelling chorus. How could these lambs of the poor (later the favourite subject of the Saviour's parables) be flung into confusion by news that the Lamb of God had come to shepherd all His sheep?
'Today is born to you a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. Their slow minds were not too dull to realise that tonight their beloved Scriptures were fulfilled. This was the expected King of whom the angels sang. Startling as were the signs by which they were to recognise Him, swaddling clothes and a manger, they broke into headlong flight down the hill and flung themselves in adoration before the Child held up to them by the sweetest mother in all human history.
The childlike faith and hope of simple peasants found fulfilment in a Child. Christmas came rushing into their eventless lives on the wings of an infant's smile, and the low-voiced gratitude of a mother welcoming these first Christmas guests who, in a beautiful single gesture, adored her Son and filled her day with the sweet fragrance of their Christmas greeting.
'Where is He that was born King of the Jews?'
The question, repeated a thousand times along their tedious way through the desert and sprawling villages and nomadic tribes and smug, white-roofed cities, was answered with shrugged shoulders and cynically turned backs, with significant touching of foreheads and frankly contemptuous laughter.
Undismayed, the Magi were drawn forward on their quest by the vague hope of finding a Child.
More than likely they dreamed of palace gates swinging wide to welcome them as grooms swept forward to catch their camels by their tinkling bridles and pages helped them to dismount.
Surely the child of a king would rest upon the softest down, under coverlets of purple damask. Hushed attendants might permit them a glimpse of newborn royalty between the crossed lances of sleepless sentinels. Yet even this glimpse would be reward enough, they felt, for their weary desert road, the tireless swaying of their camels and the night-long journeys in pursuit of a forward moving star.
For here was a Child tall enough to light a blaze in the heavens. In the ancient papyri written for a mighty Cyrus by a Jew named Daniel, they were assured that this was no ordinary child who was born under a flaming star.
Were they at first, even for an instant, bitterly taken aback? Did they almost turn away in disappointment from the dark mouth of this unguarded stable? Probably they caught up their silken gowns as they stepped through cattle pens and sheepfolds to the dark hill cave, unlighted except for the now motionless star.
But when they saw the Child, all of Christmas welled up in their souls. What did it matter that He lay, not on orient silk, but on crackling straw; that an exquisite maid and a dignified carpenter (strange contradiction, to their aristocratic minds, a carpenter with such poise and dignity) were His only courtiers; that the bleak walls of the stable, rough-hewn from the black earth of the hill, were bare of heraldic standards or banners of scarlet and gold; that no sentries flashed repelling swords to hold back intruders?
Faith swept them forward in its high tide. A Child they had come to seek. Yet in all the world there was no child like this.
He wore His swaddling clothes as if they were Tyrian purple. He lay in a manger that seemed like a conquered world. He opened His tiny arms, and their circle was vast enough to embrace all humanity. He smiled, and the light of a new era dawned.
They had come to find a child king who was to conquer and save the world. Naturally they had dreamed of a kingship proved by files of palace guards and fluttering choirs of nurses, by carved ebony and beaten gold upon his crib, and breathless statesmen adding his name to the line of royal ancestors-he the heir of their greatness and their petty crimes, their occasional acts of kingliness and their frequent baseness and stupid cruelty and criminal lust. They knew no other kings nor sons of kings than these.
They had not dared dream of a Child whose evident kingship made a palace out of a stable and a throne out of straw heaped for oxen. They had not wildly imagined a sovereign who could conquer because he was without weapons and who won His followers, not by the cold aloofness of power, but by the warm approachableness of His weakness and His love.
Before this Child of the poor these rich men eagerly poured the tribute of their gifts. Before this Infant who contained all that the world needed to save it, these wise men bent submissive knees.
Although the shepherds in their simple ignorance and the Magi in their deep wisdom were unaware of it, around the Child, from the very beginning, vortexed the complete drama of humanity's best and basest emotions.
He had been welcomed, as every great benefactor of humanity is welcomed, with cruel indifference and rudely slammed doors. Yet, if the doors of earth were barred in His face, the gates of heaven broken open to welcome Him.
No child had ever felt, even in the heart of the most unselfish mother, the maternal love that cushioned His little body and wrapped securely His soul against the bitter winds of men's careless ingratitude. But from the neighbouring Bethlehem, though song rose, it was not sung to honour His birthday. The hands that clasped in glad welcome to relatives were hands that had recently waved away the mother of the Son of God. The warm love of a mother was never more pitifully needed than on that night, when the stinging winds blew callously and ungraciously, less from the hills than from every door and window in His own city.
If there was quick faith in the adoration of the shepherds, there was another sort of faith in the cruel planning of the king who ruled in Jerusalem. Even as the Magi knelt to adore Him, swords were being sharpened in expectation of His throat. The last traces of rust disappeared from spear points, and brutal hands, already instructed in murder, and waiting for orders, gripped tighter the hefts.
Herod, paying unconscious tribute to the Child he had never seen, paced the floor of his council chamber, hatred eating at his vitals. Soon, he felt, the triumphant faith of these Magi would place the Child within easy reach of sword blade and spear point and death.
The faith of the Magi brought them to their knees in grateful adoration. The faith of Herod brought him to his feet, thirsting for murder.
If Joseph watched against harm, a Roman emperor, long leagues away, issued his orders that there should be no king but Caesar, and bought up in good round gold the loyalty of high priests, who knew well that a Child must be born in Bethlehem who would override Rome and shake them from their secure positions. Even as Christmas dawned, Good Friday was being prepared.
Maternal love and the simple devotion of a gentleman of noble but reduced circumstances; the love of the world's purest hearts and the hatred of its vilest; a wedding of heaven to earth as angels sang of glorious news, and with it the cold uninterestedness of tight little huts and tighter little souls; the romance of a hurried quest across half the known world; murder stalking from a palace and making the first Christian martyrs in the homes of harmless peasants; spontaneous faith eagerly given and hospitality ignobly denied; the surging of heaven itself in a mighty shout of joy and the resentful stirring of earth asleep in its own ugly apathy-all these were present about this Child at the moment of His birth.
Life in its completeness of virtue and vice, enthusiasm and dark contempt, keenest joy and acutest sorrow, sublime love and blackest hate, high adventuring and bleak doubt, circled the crib of the Christmas Child.
Undoubtedly, as the shepherds returned to their flocks, they remembered only that the Babe was beautiful, the mother unforgettably lovely, and the man wonderfully gracious. And they knew that they felt in their souls a joy that they had never known before.
The Magi, however, travelled back by slow stages. They must take time to reason and reflect. And surely their trained minds marvelled at the singular appropriateness of a Child's being sent to save the sad old world and end the wearisome night.
If they had expected to find a great captain at their journey's end, they now knew how sharp would have been their disappointment.
For history had written the record of all too many captains thundering across continents, their progress marked by collapsing cities and the burning huts of farmers, by children whimpering in the shadow of oak trees, and women hiding their faces from the memory of brutal leers and their own shame.
The old world had been magnificent in the flowering of its conquerors. They had clanked triumphantly along a hundred highways. Resistlessly they had piled new empires on the ruins of those they had crushed. Atop these swaggering tyrannies they had sat, demanding the tribute of gold and lives, while slaves toiled to death beneath dark foundations and women stifled their tears lest coursing hounds, mail-clad and erect as men, might find them to their ruin.
No need of captains now! The world needed, and, happily, the Magi remembered, the world had received, a Child.
Great philosophers had solemnly sat in their quiet groves or among their white marble pillars, and twined grape leaves in the hair of truth. The Magi almost shuddered as they remembered these men who had found truth only to mock it.
They had treated philosophy as a tricky game with which to prove one's glib tongue or to sharpen a bitter eloquence. If today they proved that black was black, they tomorrow felt a perverse joy in proving that black was really dull grey, and the next day that it was blood-red or yellow as the hair of a girl or the skin of a tiger. Even they who had seen truth with clear eyes and had written of it with revealing pen had turned from high thought to base living. They had found the one true God and had left Him to burn incense to the gods of lust and thievery, or worshipped their own animal instincts or the vapid applause of the mob.
Truth had been deserted, even by those who knew it best, for the drinking flagon and the dancing girl, for the groves of Venus and the cellars of Bacchus, for the favour of a ruler who played, drunk or sober, at being divine, or for the smelly shouts of a populace who were bored by any truth that was not flattering or amusing.
Scientists, then, as in every other age, were strangely preoccupied, not with giving life, but with teaching men to deal death more effectively. The very roads along which the Magi travelled had been built by scientific men to hasten the conquering march of armies, not to quicken the advance of culture or the sacred progress of God.
The Magi, knowing history, knew these men had not saved, could not save, the world. Knowing nothing of the future, they could hardly guess that in this Child would be revealed the Captain, Philosopher, Guide of the Scientist, Beneficent Conqueror, King of Kings.
'Out of thee, Bethlehem, had sung the prophet, 'shall come the captain who will rule my people Israel.
Even the priests, who through this prophecy sent the Magi forward to Bethlehem while they turned back to count their money or court their wives, had told them this. This Child would some day be the Captain of the armies of the Most High, leading them out to His peaceful conquest of the world.
Under that Captain white uniformed companies of virgins would march with red-caped squadrons of martyrs, while vanguards of apostles would swing in advance of legions of doctors and confessors. And over all, the conquering standard of the cross!
Here was to be a Captain whose conquered victims loved Him with grateful, devoted love. The more completely they were conquered, the more deeply would they love Him. Here was a Conqueror whose pathway would be lined, not with the prostrate bodies of helpless victims, but with the upright figures of the saints.
Later all thinkers were to lift their heads in astonished acknowledgment as He said calmly, 'I am the truth. And the world would sit as children at His feet.
Incarnate philosophy, revealed theology, the sum and circle of all essential truth, this Child was to give to a truthhungry world a knowledge that was more than human, and a wisdom that was divine. For the first time men would learn of a truth that did not merely feed the mind. His was a truth that made the heart glow and the tongue shout for joy.
And, as wise men had knelt, humbly, learning wisdom from a Babe who lay in a rough-hewn manger, so great philosophers would use as their supremest textbook His carved figure fixed upon two crossed sticks.
While scientists with painful searching discovered laws in nature, He was the God who had made those laws. His providence had given to these basic elements their powers and the endless combinations on which science mounts to new achievements. 'By Him and in Him were all things made, and without Him was made nothing that was made.
One of the Magi, according to a tradition, lived to see the Child grown to manhood. If this was so, he saw in Him a poet who spoke poetry in beautiful parables, and lived poetry in every kindly gesture and every loving act.
He saw a King who captured by personal fascination and goodness, and held captive by generous love. He saw the very King of Kings, who walked among His people and won His endless kingdom only when the devastating charge of His enemies scattered His friends at the base of Calvary's hill, flung Him in final assault to its height, and there inflicted on Him the apparent defeat of death.
And if he stood near the cross, that Wise Man could read in the dying eyes of the Saviour the same love and tenderness and pitiful searching of the world that he had seen in the eyes of the Child in the crib.
The Magi rode back happy with a peace they had never known before. From the Child they had drunk deep of the happiness that is Christmas. Yet, as they pondered, they realised that in this Child they had really seen the birth of a new world. Not as Captain nor Scientist nor Philosopher nor Poet nor even as King would they remember Him. He was to them the Child, and, as a Child, the symbol of all that the tired, sick, weary old world needed.
Weary with the sickness of sin, the world needed a new birth. Desperate after centuries of deluding dreams and exhausting struggles, the world needed the dawn of a new hope.
And in the Child whom they had seen and worshipped, and to whom all mankind would return with each recurring Christmastide, was the new life that was so badly needed.
'I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly. In every child that is born lies new hope for each generation. But in this Child lay hope for all mankind. From His infant weakness was to come the renewal of human strength. His young life was hope for the feeble old world. In His eyes was the prophetic vision of a new-born age that would find a new law of life, pledge itself to a new testament, proclaim to the world the fulfilment of a new gospel, announce the good news for which, in darkness and despair, the nations had sat-wearily waiting.
Strangely enough, within His infant soul were the very virtues out of which the new humanity was to fashion itself and the new age to rise: sinlessness and purity, a trusting faith in the heavenly Father, a simplicity more beautiful than all the elaborate dreams of empire builders and the intricate conceptions of artists.
How desperately old had man grown in his sin! Sin had lined his face and bent his back as it urged him relentlessly onward in its stupid, futile treadmill.
Slaves, under the lash of cruelty, grew feeble and broken though their years were still the years of youth. Women looked out from eyes made old by tears and the searing glare of vice. The souls of little children stared out from sadly old bodies, wise beyond their years with a wisdom taught them by sin-stodgy mothers and vice-warped sires.
Old nations crumbled under the weight, not of years, but of tyrannies and ugly idolatries, greed and debilitating lust.
Even the temple of God seemed very old with its crafty-eyed priests stroking long beards amid their ugly haggling over unimportant forms of worship, while wearisome commerce ran the corridors and bleated before the silken curtain of the Holy of Holies. Impurity, that ages as does no other sin, sent world conquerors to early and filthy graves, set to trembling the legs of athletes and philosophers, carved ugly wrinkles into faces that yesterday were fresh as that of the prodigal still in his father's house, or as those of the ladies of pleasure chosen for their youth to hurry him on his road to the pigsty and ageing disillusionment.
Then came this Child with the ageless youth that is sinlessness. Not until the weight of humanity's sin pressed the blood from His crushed body in the agony of Gethsemane would His years be measured except in growth of body, in wisdom of mind, in grace of soul.
His face would be unlined and unwrinkled till the end. His eyes would glow with the quick enthusiasm of youth. Children would flock to Him, loving His eager, youthful response.
Then, through a death brought about, not by ageing body or exhausted strength,but by the external pressure of others' sin that had not touched His own soul, He would enter upon the ageless youth of the Resurrection, and, Himself immortal, pass down sinless youth throughout all time.
From Him this youth flowed as from an inexhaustible fountain to the weary world. The ageing power of sin was thwarted.
Mary, His mother, moved through life always a virgin, always sinless, always young. John, the Beloved, brought Him the quick love of his youth; loved Him in maturity with the undimmed fire of young enthusiasm; and dreamed the glorious dreams of youth even when a hundred years had, with inverted alchemy, turned to silver his yellow-gold hair.
Peter, mature and venerable when we first meet him, grows young in the company of His Master. Like a young man, he races across Jerusalem at news of the Resurrection. Like a young athlete, he leaps into the sea to swim to Christ, revealing Himself upon the shore. With the optimism of youth he faces the task of conquering a world that defies conquest, and youthfully does his accomplished work. Faced with martyrdom, he youthfully begs that the cross be inverted. He died in youthful love, and, by an almost sacred jest, upside down in what he knew to be a topsy-turvy world.
Saints never grow old. Their ageless life flows from the Child of the Christmastide. And though this life first touches their souls, it is reflected beautifully in their bodies. Like Anthony the hermit, they may pass the century mark, yet their eyes are the eyes of youth and their lips curve easily in prayer, in love, in laughter.
Martyrs laughing at threat of death; virgins singing their way through the age-old assaults of temptation; venerable doctors dropping their pens to burst into love songs to Mary; devoted mothers looking upon their petulant children with eyes young and alert and beautiful; brave men, weary with life's bitter relentlessness, yet smiling ecstatically as they kneel before the Tabernacle; pure young men and women, unspoiled and unaged, moving with steady steps and clear eyes among a generation of young people that are sophisticated, bored, old with impurity and soul-sick with cynicism; nuns whose faces are guiltless of wrinkles as their souls are guiltless of sin; old priests dying with calm faith in humanity and the gaiety of a schoolboy bound homeward for the holidays-all these have drunk deep of the inexhaustible youth that flows from Christ the Child.
Ageless, too, is the Church that was born with Christ in Bethlehem. Its enemies are tirelessly predicting its death. Yet it moves on its way, the youngest organisation in the world. Nations totter to their graves; the Church sings its regretful requiem, and turns toward new nations still fighting up from barbarism. Peoples grow weary with the struggle to survive; the Church lays them in their peaceful graves, and speedily baptizes their successors.
Unending youth flows from the Child of Bethlehem to the Church, to the nations that remain faithful, to the individual man or woman who finds the Fountain of Youth that sprang up in the darkness of a hillside the night Christ was born.
The disillusioned world into which Christ was born had lost the child-like gift of faith. There was no Father in heaven watching over a beloved world.
God seemed to the Jews far less a Father than a wrathful Judge. To the pagans heaven was filled with capricious supermortals, greater in their powers, but greater, too, in their callous selfishness. Men felt themselves the playthings of the mocking Fates, who tossed them about like the toys of spoiled children.
Then Christ the Child was born, and all this was different.
Men suddenly knew that they were God's beloved children, for He loved them well enough to give them His only begotten Son to be their brother and their Saviour.
Faith in a provident God was born again there in the shadowy stable of Bethlehem. It was a faith that lifted a supine world to its feet and raised its eyes to the Father, Who watched hopefully from a hill even when His children ran the prodigal ways of sin; Who, like a shepherd, searched for them among the brambles of the mountain-side; Who rewarded with an infinite love those who freely gave Him their love, and Who repaid the puny efforts of His children as the most doting father had never repaid his favourite child.
Faith is Christian. Cynicism is pagan. Trust in God is born of Christ. Despair of the gods is the hopeless blight of the religions that know not Bethlehem. Cynicism, like sin, wearies the heart of man to death. But the reasons for cynicism died when the world was given its vision of the Father Whose Child was born in Bethlehem for love of His brothers and sisters.
All the mystery of childhood was wrapped in the body of the Child of the Christmastide. All of childhood's unfulfilled promise, all of infancy's limitless expectations, rested upon His tiny head.
As His mother dreamed (far all mothers dream the same precious dreams) over the Child against her breast, she alone knew that the fullness of her expectations could not match the fullness of His completed promise. The undeveloped mystery of His infancy would expand into the radiant mystery of His manhood.
Slowly, as mothers will, she uncurled the petal fingers of her Child. Absurd it seemed that these should be the hands of the One who shaped the suns and planets and, with compelling finger, traced the course of every speeding star.
Hardly less absurd, however, was the vision that these hands, wrapped sleepily about her finger, touching warmingly her breast, should become calloused with the hammer and the plane with which He would earn her food. When the fullness of time came, and they had forever dropped the carpenter's tools, these hands (could she, mother-like, foresee all this?) would lift above a tensely eager people, gesturing to the lovely flow of His sermons and His parables, touching sinridden bodies and lifting them to their feet, stroking sin-scarred foreheads until they became virgin white and calm, multiplying bread and changing water into wine, and then, in stranger miracle, lifting the bread and wine into more precious substances.
Of all the instruments of His carpenter's trade, these hands would at the end cling only to the nails, till in his palms red wounds glowed with the glory of the Resurrection.
Sleepily His baby lips curved in a smile against the warm valley in her throat. Silent now, some day, her mother's heart knew clearly, they would utter words that would echo and re-echo endlessly through time and eternity.
First they would speak her name-lovingly. Then they would honour His Father-prayerfully. Then they would bless humanity-tenderly. Then they would call His apostles-compellingly. Then they would pour forth the revelation of His Father's truth-with authority. Then they would plead from the cross-pitifully. And in glorious climax they would speak welcome to the just and judgment to the wicked-unendingly.
Now His eyes, in the vague focuslessness of infancy, are closed. Yet all the glorious promise of those eyes!-lifted gratefully to her face; raised prayerfully to His Father; scanning the young men of the village and the lake shore for possible disciples; waiting intently for signs of faith and acceptance; pleading voicelessly with sinners; glowing with a love that broke the passionate heart of Magdalen and the repentant heart of Peter; blazing with just anger as the whip of cords rises and falls upon the despoilers of His temple; ecstatic as he speaks of unseen truth; prophetic as He gazes into the future, glorious or bloodstained, of His Church; agonised as He faces sin in the garden and falls beneath its blows; pain-tortured as He looked from the cross to see mankind lusting for His blood; immortal, as through them shines His divinity after the Resurrection.
All these unfulfilled but certain mysteries were wrapped round in the sleeping or waking form of the Child of Bethlehem. If in our hearts we always feel that children seem closest to God (and reverently we kneel as we accept this mystery), this time we know that the Child is not merely close to God. He is God.
He is God, and God in His most appealing, most compelling manifestation. The era of the terrifying Jehovah, thundering above His disobedient people and sending the slim shaft of His lightning and the crawling vengeance of His serpents, is over.
After the sadly adult gods of paganism, old in their wickedness and cynical from their personal familiarity with sin, God comes to man as an innocent babe. After the impure animals before whom knelt Egypt and Babylon and Carthage, God manifests Himself as the one irresistible thing in all the world, a child lifting its arms for love and pity and a welcome embrace.
While God was vast and all-powerful, men often sulked under His reign. Angrily they questioned His right. His laws irked them, and they shrank back resentfully from His commands.
Surely, then, this is a new era of God's dealing with men that begins with God's begging of our love and our welcome. Apparently, here in the crib, He needs us more than we need Him. (Untrue, we know, except that in this lovely chapter we see God's insistent wooing of our hearts through the disguise of infancy.) God, Who had promised to be our host in eternity, Who offered us grandly the hospitality of heaven, now of a sudden begs hospitality and shelter from human homes and hearts.
We stand aghast, as all the believing world has stood aghast, before this mystery of the Child. God has emptied Himself of all save love. His power seems gone; for His arms are weak and helpless and His voice is stilled. No longer does He pass judgment on the world; instead the world walks by the crib, passing judgment of acceptance or rejection upon Him.
His majesty is laid aside; the angels have returned to heaven; the star fades and disappears; shepherds, in their smelly garments, kneel unafraid; and a young maid holds Infinity in her arms.
Here, in the presence of this Child, we know that God has emptied Himself of everything except His overwhelming love. Yet, with the eloquence of silence, with the power of weakness willingly assumed, with the majesty of omnipotence made infancy, and in a language so powerful that it needs no words, God, from the crib of a Child, begs for a love men cannot deny to children, and surely will not deny to the Child Who spanned infinity to reach their hearts.
So Christmas will always belong to children, because Christmas belongs to the Divine Child.
Because of Him the day is made glad with lights and music and gifts and laughter and warmth and the enveloping affection of friends and the happy shelter of homes.
Even the orphaned child finds about him on Christmas an almost yearning love he hardly knows for the rest of the year. Men must be sweet to him, as in him they see some slight image of the dear Child who was God.
Love was appallingly denied to the Child of the Christmastide. It must not be denied to the children who have been since His day. Christmas belongs to children, and yet?
Hopefully the Child, grown to manhood, spoke of His followers, who would 'become as little children. 'Theirs, He cried, in glorious climax, 'is the kingdom of heaven.
More than that; theirs, whether they be six or sixty, stumbling in the first steps of childhood or tottering in their last feeble steps toward the grave, theirs is Christmas.
For souls are ageless, souls that have drawn their life from the crib of the ageless Child. Souls are always young if they are unblemished by sin or unwearied by the weight of evil or rejuvenated in the miraculous spring of penance. To them the Christ Child comes as to His beloved playfellows and dear contemporaries. They are young, and Christmas is for them.
In the hearts of these faithful is a deep faith in their Father. They may know themselves wise with all the wisdom of grave science and world literature; in the light of God's omniscience they know they are His little children, playing with sand piles upon a tide-swept shore. Yet they are glad, for their Father will not forget His children, but with tender eyes will hover over their days, guard through their nights, and lead them home with strong and gracious arms. Happily they face all of life; happily they face Christmas. They have the ageless faith of childhood.
Wearily the pagan world, grown old in sin, staggers to its work and sags after its play. Even its Christmas is drear and meaningless and heavily streaked with sin; for though it may gesture toward its human children, it has forgotten the Divine Child. But to us who are His adorers as well as His adopted brothers and sisters, Christmas comes as the birthday we love best. To us it brings back all the thrilling joy of His childhood and our own.
In the glory of the Mass He is re-born.
In the warm shelter of our souls, He finds His eucharistic Bethlehem, not cold now and repelling, but, we hope, warm, hospitable, fragrant with grace.
In the midst of our children He rests, our unseen, but first-honoured, guest.
In church and convent chapel young-eyed priests and never-aging nuns bend tenderly over the Figure in the crib, and then raise joyful heads to the glad Reality within the crib of the tabernacle.
And bells peal forth, and hearts leap up, and children smile, hardly knowing why they smile, and old people yearn for the re-birth that stupidly we call death, and mothers are wearily glad for the anxieties and joys of the day, and fathers touch their children's heads with new reverence, and old wrongs are forgiven, and old songs are sung, and Christmas reigns and peace is everywhere:
Because of a Child who was born to us and a Son who was given to us.
Because we are children of the Father who is His.
Because in a cave we have found the spring of eternal life.
Because divine love has assumed its most attractive form and reached out to us the compelling arms of infancy.
Because we stand in the light that is the unfading smile of the Child of the Christmastide.
Nihil obstat: J. DONOVAN, Censor Deputatus
lmprimi potest: D. MANNIX, Archiepiscopus Melbournensis. 1937
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| G.K. Chesterton: The God in the Cave |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2021, 12:01 PM - Forum: Advent
- Replies (1)
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TRADITIONS in art and literature and popular fable have quite sufficiently attested, as has been said, this particular paradox of the divine being in the cradle. Perhaps they have not so clearly emphasised the significance of the divine being in the cave. Curiously enough, indeed, tradition has not very clearly emphasised the cave. It is a familiar fact that the Bethlehem scene has been represented in every possible setting of time and country, of landscape and architecture; and it is a wholly happy and admirable fact that men have conceived it as quite different according to their different individual traditions and tastes. But while all have realised that it was a stable, not so many have realised that it was a cave. Some critics have even been so silly as to suppose that there was some contradiction between the stable and the cave; in which case they cannot know much about caves or stables in Palestine. As they see differences that are not there it is needless to add that they do not see differences that are there. When a well-known critic says, for instance, that Christ being born in a rocky cavern is like Mithras having sprung alive out of a rock, it sounds like a parody upon comparative religion. There is such a thing as the point of a story, even if it is a story in the sense of a lie. And the notion of a hero appearing, like Pallas from the brain of Zeus, mature and without a mother, is obviously the very opposite of the idea of a god being born like an ordinary baby and entirely dependent on a mother. Whichever ideal we might prefer, we should surely see that they are contrary ideals. It is as stupid to connect them because they both contain a substance called stone as to identify the punishment of the Deluge with the baptism in the Jordan because they both contain a substance called water. Whether as a myth or a mystery, Christ was obviously conceived as born in a hole in the rocks primarily because it marked the position of one outcast and homeless . . . .
It would be vain to attempt to say anything adequate, or anything new, about the change which this conception of a deity born like an outcast or even an outlaw had upon the whole conception of law and its duties to the poor and outcast. It is profoundly true to say that after that moment there could be no slaves. There could be and were people bearing that legal title, until the Church was strong enough to weed them out, but there could be no more of the pagan repose in the mere advantage to the state of keeping it a servile state. Individuals became important, in a sense in which no instruments can be important. A man could not be a means to an end, at any rate to any other man's end. All this popular and fraternal element in the story has been rightly attached by tradition to the episode of the Shepherds, who found themselves talking face to face with the princes of heaven. But there is another aspect of the popular element as represented by the shepherds which has not perhaps been so fully developed; and which is more directly relevant here.
Men of the people, like the shepherds, men of the popular tradition, had everywhere been the makers of the mythologies. It was they who had felt most directly, with least check or chill from philosophy or the corrupt cults of civilisation, the need we have already considered; the images that were adventures of the imagination; the mythology that was a sort of search; the tempting and tantalising hints of something half-human in nature; the dumb significance of seasons and special places. They had best understood that the soul of a landscape is a story, and the soul of a story is a personality. But rationalism had already begun to rot away these really irrational though imaginative treasures of the peasant; even as a systematic slavery had eaten the peasant out of house and home. Upon all such peasantries everywhere there was descending a dusk and twilight of disappointment, in the hour when these few men discovered what they sought. Everywhere else Arcadia was fading from the forest. Pan was dead and the shepherds were scattered like sheep. And though no man knew it, the hour was near which was to end and to fulfil all things; and, though no man heard it, there was one far-off cry in an unknown tongue upon the heaving wilderness of the mountains. The shepherds had found their Shepherd.
And the thing they found was of a kind with the things they sought. The populace had been wrong in many things; but they had not been wrong in believing that holy things could have a habitation and that divinity need not disdain the limits of time and space. And the barbarian who conceived the crudest fancy about the sun being stolen and hidden in a box, or the wildest myth about the god being rescued and his enemy deceived with a stone, was nearer to the secret of the cave and knew more about the crisis of the world, than all those in the circle of cities round the Mediterranean who had become content with cold abstractions or cosmopolitan generalisations; than all those who were spinning thinner and thinner threads of thought out of the transcendentalism of Plato or the orientalism of Pythagoras. The place that the shepherds found was not an academy or an abstract republic; it was not a place of myths allegorised or dissected or explained or explained away. It was a place of dreams come true. Since that hour no mythologies have been made in the world. Mythology is a search . . . .
The philosophers had also heard. It is still a strange story, though an old one, how they came out of orient lands, crowned with the majesty of kings and clothed with something of the mystery of magicians. That truth that is tradition has wisely remembered them almost as unknown quantities, as mysterious as their mysterious and melodious names; Melchior, Caspar, Balthazar. But there came with them all that world of wisdom that had watched the stars in Chaldea and the sun in Persia; and we shall not be wrong if we see in them the same curiosity that moves all the sages. They would stand for the same human ideal if their names had really been Confucius or Pythagoras or Plato. They were those who sought not tales but the truth of things; and since their thirst for truth was itself a thirst for God, they also have had their reward. But even in order to understand that reward, we must understand that for philosophy as much as mythology, that reward was the completion of the incomplete.
Such learned men would doubtless have come, as these learned men did come, to find themselves confirmed in much that was true in their own traditions and right in their own reasoning. Confucius would have found anew foundation for the family in the very reversal of the Holy Family; Buddha would have looked upon a new renunciation, of stars rather than jewels and divinity than royalty. These learned men would still have the right to say, or rather a new right to say, that there was truth in their old teaching. But after all these learned men would have come to learn. They would have come to complete their conceptions with something they had not yet conceived; even to balance their imperfect universe with something they might once have contradicted. Buddha would have come from his impersonal paradise to worship a person. Confucius would have come from his temples of ancestor-worship to worship a child . . . .
The Magi, who stand for mysticism and philosophy, are truly conceived as seeking something new and even as finding something unexpected. That tense sense of crisis which still tingles in the Christmas story and even in every Christmas celebration, accentuates the idea of a search and a discovery. For the other mystical figures in the miracle play; for the angel and the mother, the shepherds and the soldiers of Herod, there may be aspects both simpler and more supernatural, more elemental or more emotional. But the Wise Men must be seeking wisdom; and for them there must be a light also in the intellect. And this is the light; that the Catholic creed is catholic and that nothing else is catholic. The philosophy of the Church is universal. The philosophy of the philosophers was not universal. Had Plato and Pythagoras and Aristotle stood for an instant in the light that came out of that little cave, they would have known that their own light was not universal. It is far from certain, indeed, that they did not know it already. Philosophy also, like mythology, had very much the air of a search. It is the realisation of this truth that gives its traditional majesty and mystery to the figures of the Three Kings; the discovery that religion is broader than philosophy and that this is the broadest of religions, contained within this narrow space . . . .
We might well be content to say that mythology had come with the shepherds and philosophy with the philosophers; and that it only remained for them to combine in the recognition of religion. But there was a third element that must not be ignored and one which that religion for ever refuses to ignore, in any revel or reconciliation. There was present in the primary scenes of the drama that Enemy that had rotted the legend with lust and frozen the theories into atheism, but which answered the direct challenge with something of that more direct method which we have seen in the conscious cult of the demons. In the description of that demon-worship, of the devouring detestation of innocence shown in the works of its witchcraft and the most inhuman of its human sacrifice, I have said less of its indirect and secret penetration of the saner paganism; the soaking of mythological imagination with sex; the rise of imperial pride into insanity. But both the indirect and the direct influence make themselves felt in the drama of Bethlehem. A ruler under the Roman suzerainty, probably equipped and surrounded with the Roman ornament and order though himself of eastern blood, seems in that hour to have felt stirring within him the spirit of strange things. We all know the story of how Herod, alarmed at some rumour of a mysterious rival, remembered the wild gesture of the capricious despots of Asia and ordered a massacre of suspects of the new generation of the populace. Everyone knows the story; but not everyone has perhaps noted its place in the story of the strange religions of men. Not everybody has seen the significance even of its very contrast with the Corinthian columns and Roman pavement of that conquered and superficially civilised world. Only, as the purpose in his dark spirit began to show and shine in the eyes of the Idumean, a seer might perhaps have seen something like a great grey ghost that looked over his shoulder; have seen behind him filling the dome of night and hovering for the last time over history, that vast and fearful fact that was Moloch of the Carthaginians; awaiting his last tribute from a ruler of the races of Shem. The demons, in that first festival of Christmas, feasted also in their own fashion.
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| The World into which Christ was Born |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2021, 11:34 AM - Forum: Advent
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The Gospels: Their Message and Credibility-I.
The main purpose of this series of booklets is to examine two points of particular interest which arise from the study of the four canonical Gospels, or, as they are usually called, the Gospels according to SS. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. What is the specific story or message concerning Christ and His teaching which the Gospels have left us? Are we to accept that story as a trustworthy account of actual events of history, or, on the contrary, to reject it as a fiction and a fraud? It is with these two questions that we shall be chiefly concerned in these booklets.
The importance of determining the correct answer to these questions can scarcely be exaggerated. If, as the Gospels tell us, Christ is the divine Saviour of mankind, no one may adopt an attitude of indifference or neutrality to Him or to His teaching. No event of history is even remotely comparable in significance with the coming of Christ, and upon the attitude which men adopt towards Him depend issues which can be measured only in terms of eternity. For person's who are groping for the light, or for Catholics who are liable to be brought into contact with such people, a general knowledge of the evidence which goes to show that the Gospels are reliable records, is of very considerable importance. Such knowledge will enable Catholics to show the reasonableness of their own position. As St. Peter has it, they will the 'always ready to give an answer to everyone who demands an account of the hope which is in them.' (I Peter. c. 3. v. 15.) If unbelievers, who are seriously engaged in the search for the truth, can be brought to see the reasonableness of the claim that, on purely scientific, literary and historical evidence, apart from other considerations, the Gospels have a solid title to be regarded as trustworthy documents, they will have made a notable advance in the solution of their difficulties.
In the series of booklets here introduced the discussion of the various relevant topics will be necessarily brief. It is hoped, however, that it will be adequate for the immediate purpose of showing that the case for the truth of the Gospels is a strong one; that it is based on tangible scientific evidence of the kind which satisfies scholars in the examination of other ancient documents; that, in fact, the rejection of the Gospels cannot be justified by any allegation of insufficiency, either in the quantity or quality of the evidence, but is due to philosophical prejudice which, from the outset, refuses to admit the possibility of the supernatural and, consequently, rejects as unhistorical the Gospel account of miracles and of the Incarnation of the Son of God.
In order to avoid confusion, it should be noted carefully that we are not here concerned with the general doctrine of biblical Inspiration, nor with its application to the Gospels. We consider the Gospels as documents which have come down to us from antiquity, liable to be subjected to the same rigorous scientific examination as other ancient documents, e.g., The Annals of Tacitus, The Histories of Thucydides, which claim to deal with historical facts rather than with legend, myth or poetic fancy. We claim, however, that the same scientific standards, which are adopted to distinguish fact from legend and myth in other ancient documents, should be applied with equal impartiality in the case of the Gospels. The issue in which we are principally interested, viz., the truth or falsehood of the Gospels, is one which can be discussed quite independently of any theological doctrine concerning the sacred character of these books. All that is needed is an unprejudiced attitude, and a willingness to accept, in the case of the Gospels, evidence which would be considered entirely satisfactory in the case of other historical documents. While no special favour is sought for the Gospels, it must be insisted that they should not be subjected to purely a priori criticism of a kind which finds no place in the examination of other ancient documents which purport to give a narrative of fact.
Most readers will be familiar with the broad outlines of the Gospel story, and will also have some acquaintance with the actual text of the Gospels themselves. Considered as literature they come under the heading of biography. Although they may not conform precisely to the definition of biography as we use that term in modern times, they are definitely biographical in character. They tell much of the Story of the life and teaching of the figure known to history as Christ or Jesus of Nazareth. They do not give a complete, nor a strictly chronological account, but they do give an outline of what may be regarded as the items of greatest significance from that life and history.
This narrative concerning Christ is set against the background of life in Palestine at a time when that country had come under the dominion of Rome. Our knowledge of the general conditions of life, as well as the great figures and events of that age, is extensive, and is constantly being added to as a result of the thorough-going studies of modern scholars. Assuming for the moment the historicity of the Gospels, we can place all the events which they record within the limits of the period 10 a.d. Between these two extremes there is ample room: for some differences of opinion about the exact dates to be assigned for the birth and the death of Christ. The Gospels, therefore, have as historical setting that period of Roman history when Augustus and Tiberius ruled. Both Emperors are mentioned in the Gospels. (Luke c.2. v.1; c.3. v.1.) The same is true of members of the Herodian dynasty of Palestine, rulers whose history is well known to us from the writings of Josephus. The high priests, Annas and Caiaphas, and the parties of the Sadducees and Pharisees who figure so prominently in the Gospel account of the opposition to Our Lord, are also well known to us from contemporary records. In fact, there is scarcely a page of the Gospels which does not reflect in some way the political conditions, or the prevalent social, ethical and religious ideas within the Roman Empire, and more particularly within Palestine and among the Jewish people, at the period to which the Gospel narrative belongs. Time and again, we find that a knowledge of the historical background enables us to understand more fully portions of the narrative, or passages from the teaching of Our Lord, the full implications of which would otherwise escape us, e.g., the question put to Our Lord: 'Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar?,' the teaching of Christ on marriage and divorce, the account of the trial and crucifixion of Our Lord. These are but a few of the very many instances which might be cited to show how closely the Gospels bring us into contact with the laws, customs and beliefs of the world in which their story has its setting. There can be no doubt, therefore, of the value of a knowledge of the historical background for a thorough understanding of the Gospels. It may be added that belief in the reliability of the Gospels receives no slight confirmation from the accuracy with which they reflect contemporary conditions, as these are known to us from independent historical research.
Some writers, of course, under the influence of the theory of progressive evolution in religious ideas and practices, have ought to show that Christianity is nothing more than an easy natural development from the conditions prevailing at the beginning of the Christian era. This development, they say, would have been accelerated somewhat by the high ethical teaching and personal qualities of Christ, Who is looked upon merely as a man, a distinguished prophet or teacher of a high code of morality, but not the Messiah or the Son of God. According to these writers, the picture of Christ and His teaching which the Gospels give us must be regarded as the result of a period of pious speculation and hero-worship whereby Jesus of Nazareth was transformed (in the minds of his followers) from a mere man into the promised Messiah and eventually into a divine person incarnate. According to this theory, the Gospels are not so much a record of fact as a reflection of popular belief in the period 50-100 a.d.
In order to put the problem in proper perspective, and provide a suitable background for our discussion of the Message and Credibility of the Gospels, the first booklets of this series will be devoted mainly to an outline of conditions in the political, social and religious spheres within the Roman Empire, and particularly in Palestine and among the Jews at the the beginning of the Christian era. This sketch of The World into which Christ was born will pay special attention to those elements which have, or might be considered to have, a particular bearing on the origin of Christianity, or are of interest for the question of the credibility of the Gospels.
At the outset, it may be necessary to rid our minds of some misconceptions. The period to which the story of the Gospels belongs is so far removed from our own age, that we may be disposed to regard it as culturally and intellectually backward as well as historically remote. But the detailed knowledge now available of the Augustan age, and of the men and women who lived in it, tends to show that the Roman Empire bears striking resemblances to some empires of our own day. In fact, it is often helpful to visualize modern imperial methods when we wish to bring home more vividly the conditions of life within the empire of the Caesars. Imperial Rome was distinguished by a unified political administration and an ease of communication which was really remarkable for those days; the educated classes took a deep interest in philosophical speculation; writing flourished; humanitarianism, of a kind, was not unknown; between the upper and lower classes there was a veritable chasm in social conditions. All of these things have a familiar, even modern, ring, and go to show that conditions in imperial Rome are not too remote, nor too primitive, to have any interest for men of the twentieth century.
Political Conditions. -At the period in which we are interested the Roman Empire extended from France to Egypt, and from Spain to the borders of Persia. That great empire had been formed over a long period of time, mainly by wars of conquest. And now, at the beginning of the Christian era, after a long succession of civil wars which had ravaged Italy itself, this vast territory was settling down to enjoy, under the Emperor Augustus, the blessings of a period of calm, in which constructive ideas of order, justice and peace were very definitely to the fore. It was the most brilliant period of Roman history up to that time, an age of really outstanding achievement. Clear proof that the greatness of the political achievement of Augustus and the benefits his rule conferred on the subject territories were recognised and appreciated, is found in that emperor-worship which began during his lifetime and led ultimately to his apotheosis.
The administration of the imperial territories was unified under the supreme power of the Emperor. The personal financial independence of Augustus, combined with the immense power concentrated in his hands, made it possible for him to legislate for the benefit of the empire as a whole. No longer were the subject territories considered merely as convenient places for pillage by Roman officials, or merely as granaries to meet the needs of Rome and Italy. In all subject territories, whether imperial or senatorial provinces, as well as in districts where allied or subject kings were left in control, the power of the Emperor was supreme. Palestine, at the time of Christ, was ruled partially as a protectorate with members of the Herodian family in immediate control, partially as a district of the province of Syria with a Governor to represent the Emperor. The city of Rome was the chief centre of political, administrative and flourishing commercial life. Closely allied with this unity of administration was the excellent system of communication both, by road and by sea. To illustrate the point, there is the story of the merchant from Phrygia in Asia Minor who made no less than 70 business journeys to Rome. This relative ease of communication helps us to understand how St. Paul, later on, was able to cover so much ground on his missionary journeys in a comparatively short space of time.
It is generally agreed that the administrative unity and ease of communication in the Roman Empire had a certain importance by way of preparation for Christianity. The conquests of Alexander, and the Hellenistic movement which he had inaugurated, had broken down the local patriotism and narrow nationalism of an earlier age. The idea of a common culture, a unified civilization with the Greek tongue spoken everywhere as a lingua franca, had been largely translated into reality over the districts conquered by Alexander and ruled by his successors. While this idea of a universal culture is rightly regarded as something distinctively Greek, unified political administration can be regarded as a Roman contribution. Both elements had their importance in the preparation of the world for Christianity. The notion that humanity consisted of isolated groups, with little in common and much to keep them separated and at enmity, had begun to yield to a wider outlook wherein all men were capable of being brought under a single culture and a single governmnent. In this way the world was being prepared for the doctrine of the universal brotherhood of men, a contribution which is, of course, distinctively Christian.
Social and Ethical Conditions. -While the value of the Roman contribution, through its administrative system, to the progress of humanity generally, and also by way of preparation for Christianity, is recognised universally, a survey of social and ethical conditions gives us a picture of more sombre hues. Historians, as a rule, give a very dismal account of the prevailing standards in social and moral matters. There were, undoubtedly, abuses of the gravest character, some of them widespread, others confined mostly to the upper classes and to the wealthy. But there is evidence also that many of the natural virtues were appreciated and practised by that section of the community whieh rarely achieves notoriety or fame in any age. Both sides of the question must be kept in mind if we are to form a balanced picture of the situation as a whole.
In any account of social conditions in the Roman Empire the institution of slavery must hold a prominent place. The population was divided into ‘free' and ‘slave.' The slave, from the legal point of view, was scarcely a person or human being at all. He was a mere chattel or piece of property, just like the irrational animals owned by his master, and was often treated with much less consideration. The greatest rigour and cruelty were permitted in the treatment of slaves. If a master were murdered, all of his slaves could be put to death. In Rome itself slaves outnumbered the free population. Many slaves were persons of culture and education, unfortunate victims of war or piracy sold to masters who, judged by any decent human standards, were, frequently, their inferiors in everything except the possession of wealth and power. It is true that, from time to time, voices were raised against the cruelty of this institution, and that some masters treated their slaves with kindness. Slaves were sometimes granted their freedom, and of those set free some attained the highest posts in civil administration. But it is unquestionable that the system was a degrading one, that it had the most deplorable consequences for morality, and that it contributed in some degree to the disintegration of the empire itself.
Among that section of the population which was classed as free, there were many distinctions based on wealth and social rank. The privilege of Roman citizenship was not enjoyed by all the free population. It was a highly prized and jealously guarded right, which was extended outside Rome and Italy only as a special reward or favour to individuals or communities. Not until the year 212 a.d., by a decree of the Emperor Carcalla, was this right extended to all free subjects of the Empire. St. Paul, a native of Tarsus, had the good fortune to possess this privilege. His citizenship saved him more than once from indignities at the hands of Roman officials, and from the fury of the Jews who sought his death by any means at their disposal.
Next to slavery, possibly the most inhuman and debasing element of life under Roman rule was to be found in the so-called games of the amphitheatre. These gladiatorial shows, in which men fought to the death with beasts or with one another, tended, with the passage of time, to become more and more colossal displays of savagery and inhumanity.
The fact that the passion for these spectacles pervaded every class of society, and that they were one of the recognized methods of keeping the populace contented, gives us an insight into the appallingly low ethical standards of those who provided and enjoyed the shows of the amphitheatre. It is a curious irony of history that among the most tangible remains of an age that was, in many ways, one of great achievement, should be those very amphitheatres, e.g., The Colosseum in Rome, where such senseless carnage often lasted for days. Leaky has said that the continuance for centuries, almost without protest, of these games, is one of the most striking facts in moral history.
Slavery and the amphitheatre are dark blots on Roman history and remind us of the depths to which even a cultured people are capable of descending. They do not, however, exhaust the list of vices and defects which can be placed in the scale against the mighty achievements in practically every field of human endeavour, which have made the name of Rome immortal. Rome had a full quota of the faults which are liable to manifest themselves in a state, flushed with conquest, which is passing from the hard period of establishing its power to the peaceful enjoyment of the fruits of victory. The marriage bond was not universally respected nor adequately protected by law. Divorce was easy and resorted to frequently. With this instability of marriage went a host of other evils. The efforts of the Emperor to secure reform by legal enactments of various kinds are an indication of the extent to which abuses in connection with marriage and family life had begun to undermine society. Unwanted shildren, even those born in wedlock, were often exposed to death. There were frequent instances of other, and even more shameful, crimes. The theatre of the day contributed its quota to the demoralizing influences at work. Secular history thus confirms that account of pagan immorality which St. Paul has left us in his letter to the Romans, c.1. v.32. 'God abandoned them to a reprobate mind so as to do what is unbecoming; being filled with all wickedness, malice, greed, badness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; tale-bearers, slanderers; haters of God, insolent, haughty; pretentious, inventors of vices, disobedience to parents; senseless, perfidious, heartless, merciless;-.'
As a contributory cause to this loss of moral sense, we must attach some importance to the widespread lack of belief in any real survival of man after death. Cicero, Horace, Sallusat, Catullus and other writers give evidence of fairly widely disseminated scepticism on this point. The inscriptions on the tombs of the dead also add their testimony to the fact that many lived for this life and cared but little for the hereafter, e.g., 'I was not, I became, I am not, I care not.' 'While I lived, I lived well; now my little play is ended, soon shall yours be.' 'While I lived, I drank as I pleased; you who live, drink.' 'What I have eaten and drank, that I take with me; what I have left behind, that I have forfeited.' Here we are brought into close touch with one of the reasons for the decline in morality; and we also get an insight into the causes of that feeling of hopelessness and aimlessness which some writers consider to be characteristic of the period in question. Historians also draw attention to the depressing sense of sin and guilt, of which the reflecting minds of the period became increasingly conscious. Seneca, one of the most attractive figures from the pagan world of the first century, has the following striking passage in a work written about the year 60 a.d. : 'We have all sinned: the fashion in vice may change, its reign is as powerful as ever : we are wicked, have been wicked and shall continue to be wicked.' These are the reflections of an enquiring and philosophic mind, the thoughts of a man whose moral sense had not been completely dulled by contract with a corrupt world. The concise expression used by St. Paul to describe the pagan world-'they were men without hope and without God in the world' (Ephesians c.2. v.12)-sums up their condition.
On the credit side, there is considerable evidence of practical civic pride and patriotic devotion to the welfare of city or state. We know also that marital and family affection and loyalty still influenced many lives, and that other natural virtues were esteemed and put into practice. In this connection, it has been noted that the Stoic philosophy, with its insistence on the need for the practice of the virtues and the duty of self-control, had exercised a genuinely beneficial influence, even though Stoicism was, in the last analysis, a philosophy of despair which approved of suicide. The protests made from time to time against the social and moral evils which were undermining society and destroying what was best in the Roman Character, and the various attempts to secure reform, also deserve mention. They show that, despite widespread corruption, there were still some who were neither completely insensitive to moral values, nor blind to the fact that the prestige and continued welfare of Rome were gravely imperilled by the serious disorders in social and individual life.
The last century of the pre-Christian era was one of flourishing activity, a period in which the Roman genius reached a high level of achievemenit in law, administration, literature, architecture and engineering. It is generally recognized that, in these spheres, Rome made contributions of permanent value which have placed the whole civilized world in its debt. The value of the literary and cultural legacy bequeathed to the world by Roman writers of that century is too well known to need extensive treatment here. Virgil and Horace, chief ornaments of the Augustan age of literature, are still, as Mackail notes, 'the schoolbooks and the companions of the whole world; forming the mind of youth, and yielding more and more of their secret to prolonged study and inveterate acquaintance.' The writings of Virgil, 'the noblest poet of the Roman tongue,' give striking expressions to the hopes aroused by the establishment of peace and order. Virgil deserves, in a special way, the title 'poet of Imperial Rome,' because, more than any other writer of the age, he manifests a sense of the high dignity of the Roman state and of the role which Rome should play in the world. It was for Rome 'to rule the nations,' 'to establish the settled ways of peace, to deal gently with subject peoples, to vanquish the proud.' The rule of Augustus marked the return of the golden age, and the beginning of an era of universal peace under the dominion of Rome. A well-known passage from the fourth Eclogue of Virgil, sometimes referred to as the messianic Eclogue, contains a remarkable expression of the poet's hopes, and of his exalted conception of the part which the Roman state was called upon to play in world history.- ‘Now is come the last age of the song of Cumae; the great line of the centuries begins anew. Now the virgin (Justice) returns, the reign of Saturn returns; now a new generation descends from heaven on high . . . And in thy consulship, Pollio, shall this glorious age begin, and the mighty months begin their march; under thy sway, any lingering traces of our guilt shall become void, and release the earth from its continual dread.' (Trans. Fairclough). The optimism of Virgil is a refreshing change from the prevailing cynicism and depression, and sharp contrast to the verdict which, one hundred years later, the historian Tacous passed upon the Imperial rule-'The wrath of the gods upon the Roman State.'
Virgil and Horace stand out from their contemporaries, but they are not the only distinguished authors of an age which produced numerous writers catering in prose and verse for the varied literary tastes of the public. Nor did the cultured and educated classes confine their interest to a merely aesthetic appreciation of literature. From the middle of the second century b.c., philosophy had been enjoying increasing attention. Greece, of course, had been the home of philosophy for centuries, and her thinkers had made a contribution of outstanding merit to philosophical enquiry, showing a capacity for original and profound speculation which the Romans never equalled. The Romans were content, on the whole, to accept their philosophy at second-hand, and in this sphere, more than any other, they remained the disciples and imitators of the conquered Greeks who had become their teachers. With the progressive decline of polytheistic religion, and its manifest inability to give satisfactory answers to vital questions concerning the meaning of life, the regulation of human conduct, the fate of man after death etc., reflecting minds naturally turned to philosophy in search of the light and guidance of which they felt the need. All the well-known schools of philosophy had their advocates and won some measure of support; but it was the Stoic philosophy which had the greatest influence and the largest following. This is not altogether surprising, because the ideal of conduct propounded by the Stoics was one which appeared to be particularly suited to Roman temperament and tradition. The picture of the true Stoic, practising the virtues and capable of rising superior to external changes of fortune, was bound to make a strong appeal to those who revered the traditional Roman virtues of gravity, dignified restraint in adversity as in prosperity, and piety, due discharge of duties to families, kindred, state and the gods. It is not to be supposed that the general body of the population was deeply interested in the teaching of the different schools of thought. While some attempt was made to reach the common people. it was mainly within the fairly narrow limits of cultured Roman society that persons were to be found with the capacity to take an enlightened interest in philosophical discussion. The majority, apart from those who had lapsed into practical atheism or scepticism, held on to the ancient beliefs, or were won over to newer and more seductive forms of religious belief and worship.
This brief sketch is sufficient to indicate that Roman society at the end of the pre-Christian era presented some remarkable contrasts. High ideals and notable achievement in many spheres were to be found side by side with moral degradation and social disorder. But even taking into account every element of good which historians have been able to detect, and making full allowance for the abiding worth of the Roman contribution to human progress, the general picture is not bright. The prevailing standards in ethical and social matters were law, and neither appeals to ancient tradition nor legislative reforms were able to check the steady moral decline and corruption of society.
Religious Ideals and Practices. -The religious conditions which obtained within the Roman empire at this time might be regarded as the root-cause of the widespread corruption of society. In the absence of a firm conviction of the existence of a Supreme Being who sanctions the moral law, it is vain to hope for the general maintenance of high moral standards. Rome was now in a transition period when the traditional beliefs were going by the board. At an earlier stage, religious duties centred mainly on the worship of the domestic gods and the cult of those deities who were looked upon as the founders or protecting patrons of the city or state. But this narrow concept of the deities, as mere domestic or local patrons and guardians, broke down before the philosophy of the Greeks; and the consequent tendency towards scepticism increased with the ever widening horizons opened up by the conquests of Alexander the Great and of Rome.
In the New Testament period the official attitude of the ruling power in Rome was one of tolerance for all religions of subject peoples, provided that these religions were prepared, in turn, to extend similar toleration to other religions. This official recognition of a whole pantheon of deities, however admirable as a political expedient designed to avoid clashes with subject races, inevitably drew attention to the irrational basis of polytheistic religion, and this accelerated still further the disintegrating process which had set in. Moreover, the stories of the exploits of pagan gods, which had become part of mythology and the stock-in-trade of poets, were frequently of a character not calculated to edify. It is true that Stoicism had done something to introduce a purer and more elevated concept of the deity; but it is hardly surprising that, once the essential weakness of polytheism had been brought to light, men tended to atheism and scepticism rather than to the formation of a more correct idea of a Supreme Being who ruled the whole world. There were some, of course, who still clung to the beliefs and rites of their fathers and were encouraged in that attitude by official attempts to give a now lease of life to the ancient religion of Rome. This loyalty, however, and the respect for ancient tradition which inspired it, proved unequal to the task of maintaining the prestige and influence of the ancient cults against the attacks of philosophy and the attractions of newer forms of worship.
As a result of the general policy of tolerance, many new religions found their way to Rome itself. Most notable of these were the mystery religions of the East, e.g., the mysteries of Isis, Cybele, Orpheus and Eleusis. There is considerable uncertainty about the exact history of these cults and the precise nature of their rites; but it would appear that they began as 'fertility rites,' which were concerned with the constantly recurring cycle of death and re-birth in nature. At a later stage of their history they held out to those who had been duly initiated, the prospect of some kind of purification and the hope of happiness after death. This probably goes a long way towards explaining the popularity which they achieved-they provided a way of escape from the depression and sense of guilt which appear to have weighed heavily on many minds of the age. The rites of the mystery religions had, moreover, an emotional appeal not found in the traditional forms of worship. But it is to be remembered that the celebration of the mysteries was often merely a cloak for wild orgiastic ceremonies of an utterly immoral kind. The mystery religions were alien to the Roman character, and their harmful influence was recognised by Augustus, who made a vain attempt to check their growth.
Another factor to note in this rather complicated religious situation is the development of 'emperor-worship.' The first movements appear to have come from the population of certain of the eastern provinces who had long been accustomed to some form of ruler-worship. In Greece, it had long been the custom to speak of men of distinction, or great public benefactors, as somehow equal to the gods. In Rome itself there was a strong tradition of veneration for ancestors and a tendency to exalt the memory of the great heroes of the past. The benefits conferred on the imperial territories by the rule of Augustus were so unmistakeable that it was an easy step to bestow upon him titles such as ‘saviour' and ‘god,' and to found temples and institute worship in his honour. Allowance must, of course, be made for some element of exaggeration and flattery in all this. But it is clear that, in origin at least, the cult of the emperor, far from being mere adulation, was a sincere manifestation of the feelings of hope and gratitude aroused by the restoration of order and peace. Augustus was quick to see the political advantages that might be expected to accrue to the Empire and to himself from this worship. It would serve as a new bond letween the different parts of the Empire; and, when associated with the worship of the goddess Rama, promote the interests of the imperial house. Emperor-worship was at all times largely political in its significance, even though it took on the usual external formalities of religious worship. Many Christians were destined to suffer for their refusal to participate in the usual sacrifices to the divinity of the emperor.
By way of conclusion to this outline it may be appropriate to touch upon the general question of the relation of the Roman Empire to Christianity. Was the empire in any sense a preparation for Christianity? Were conditions in the Roman world such that the Christian economy could have developed naturally from them? What was the attitude of the Roman power to the Christian religion? The thesis that the Roman empire, by its very existence and organization, facilitated the preaching of the Gospel and the growth of the Church is one which few will be disposed to question. Rome had done much to break down national barriers. The system of communications which had been built up within the limits of Roman rule made travel comparatively easy and secure. The widespread knowledge of the Greek tongue was a further advantage to those whose message was for men of every race and nation. In brief, the Roman empire had removed a number of material obstacles to the spread of Christianity; and, moreover, in its political, social and administrative structure, it provided a unique framework for the building up of a supranational Church. It is not surprising that Christian writers have always been attracted by the contention first put forward by Melito of Sardis in the second century, in an apologia directed to the emperor, Marcus Aurelius that it was Divine Providence which had arranged that such a system should have come into existence precisely at the time when the Christian religion was about to be preached.
To what extent was the Roman world mentally prepared for the Christian message? Roman dominion would, no doutht, have suggested to some the notion of a world-wide kingdom, and have strengthened the concept of common bonds between men. Philosophy had shown the weakness of polytheism and of the traditional beliefs, but as an alternative to some form of religious belief and worship, had failed to satisfy men's minds and hearts. Conditions in the ethical sphere served only to show the weakness of men whose only moral guidance comes from tradition and reason. Possibly all this should be regarded as a negative preparation for a religion which would give clear teaching concerning One true God and His relations to men, together with guidance and strength to observe the moral law. Obviously, the Roman world was not one which would take easily to the high moral standards of Christianity. For certain classes, e.g., slaves, the Gospel brought a message of hope, not by proclaiming the immediate abolition of slavery, but by the promise of eternal life, and by teaching that all men, bond and free, are equal as sons of God and brothers of Christ. The Christian doctrine of One God Who lays down and sanctions the moral law would be a light to thinkers who had failed to find in the schools of philosophy a satisfactory answer to any of the great problems of life. The doctrine of the forgiveness of sin was bound to make a wide appeal; and the prospect of eternal happiness would compensate in some measure for the woes of this present life. But the history of the early Church shows that the transition from paganism to Christianity was anything but easy. The fundamental doctrine of spiritual salvation through the death of Christ upon the cross was, as St. Paul tells us, 'a folly to the pagans.' The moral code of Christianity made very serious demands upon persons accustomed to an almost unbridled reign of vice; and the power of Rome was, from an early date, directed to the repression of the new religion. Neither as a system of philosophy, nor as a code of high moral teaching, would Christianity have sufficed to convert the world from paganism. In that process the finger of God, manifested in miracles, and the blood of the martyrs, had to play their part.
It is useful to keep this outline of Roman conditions in mind. The full significance of the Message of the Gospels will be all the more evident when contrasted with the confusion of ideas and the low moral standards, which characterized this great empire, great in its own right and heir to all the glory and achievement of the Greeks.
Nihil Obstat : RECCAREDUS FLEMING, Censor Theol. Deput,
Imprimi Potest: IOANNES CAROLUS. Hiberniae Primas. Dublini, dieº 22 Nov., anno° 1945.
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| Thoughts for the Sundays of Advent |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2021, 11:15 AM - Forum: Advent
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FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT - ON THE GENERAL JUDGMENT
"And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves; men withering away for fear and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. For the powers of the heavens shall be moved." (Luke xxi. 25, 26.)
THESE are some of the signs which are to precede the last day, and to indicate its approach. Now, if the mere signs of that day will be so alarming, as even to make 'men wither away for fear of what shall come upon the whole world; what must be that fearful account which is to follow? It is to this account that our Lord alludes, when, speaking of these signs, that 'they are but the beginnings of sorrows. And it is to the same account that I intend now to call your attention.
POINT I. All mankind most strictly examined
'Oh! terrible hour! exclaims St. Ephrem; 'who shall relate, or who shall bear to hear, this last and fearful rehearsal? For we shall then have to account for our whole life- for every thought, word, and deed; for every omission of duty; for every sin we have criminally caused in others; and even for our very virtues, on account of the imperfections accompanying them.
1. THOUGHTS.- Then will be brought against you all the evil thoughts, which you have wilfully entertained; all those thoughts of pride, by which, like the proud Pharisee, you have raised yourselves above what you are, and despised others; those thoughts of envy, hatred, and revenge, which you have cherished in your mind; those thoughts of groundless suspicion, and of rash judgment, whereby you have put a bad construction even on the innocent actions of others; and those thoughts of impurity, which have been indulged with pleasure, with desire, and perhaps even with the intention of accomplishing what you desired. All these will be strictly examined.
2. WORDS.- Your words also must be accounted for- they will be brought to judgment, all those words of lying by which you have spoken against the truth; of rash judgment, detraction, and calumny, whereby, your neighbouur's character has been destroyed or lessened; those words of injustice, by which you have been guilty of deception in your dealings with your neighbour; those words of contention, quarrelling, and contumely, which have created animosities, disturbed peace amongst neighbours, and been the cause of many other evils; those words of cursing and blasphemy, which you have uttered to the injury of yourselves, and the disedification of others; and those words of indecency and double meaning, whereby you have defiled not only your own soul, but also the souls of them that listened to you. All these will be examined, and set against you.
3. ACTIONS.- Then come your actions: all the thefts and injustices, by which you have taken to yourselves what did not belong to you, or in any other way wronged your neighbour; all the excesses in drinking, whereby you have degraded yourselves, scandalised your neighbour, and grieved and injured your family; and all the improper liberties, and shameful acts of which St. Paul ,says, that they 'ought not to be so much as even named among you, as becometh Saints. (Eph. v. 3.) All these will be brought against you, and put to your account.
4. OMISSIONS.- And not only will you have to account for the evils done, but for the good you have left undone- for all your omissions of duty; for all your omissions of deeds of charity, by refusing alms to the poor, when you ought to have given them; your omissions of prayer, meditation and spiritual reading, and of assisting at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, through negligence, sloth, tepidity, or indifference; your omissions of the means of grace provided for you in the Sacraments by having seldom or never received them, from those like sloth, or tepidity; your omissions of the duties of your state of life, to the disedification and prejudice of your family, or your employers; you neglect of religious instruction, which, by causing you to live in ignorance of your religion, has produced many other omissions and transgressions of duty. All these, with their consequences, will be examined, and added to your account.
5. SINS OF OTHERS.- And you will not only have to account for the evils which you have done yourself, and for your own omissions of duty; but moreover, for all those sins of commission and omission, which you have criminally caused in others. 'Soul for soul will be required from those parents, through whose neglect, or bad example their children have become wicked; heads of families will have many sins of their domestics to answer for, on account of having exposed them to the occasions of those sins, or for not having removed such occasions, when they ought to have done; and those who have withdrawn others from their duty, and seduced them by leading them into evil, will have to answer to their Judge for the long habits of sin, of which they have been the guilty cause. Oh! what an account! Such, indeed, is the perversity of human nature, that scandals will come; and therefore our blessed Lord says: 'Woe to the world because of scandals; for it must needs be that scandals come; but nevertheless, woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh. (Mt. xviii. 7.)
6. DEFECTIVE VIRTUES.- But have you not at least some good works'some virtues, to be put in the scale against so much evil? Alas! even these are to be closely examined'to be nicely weighed; and in how many instances will they be 'found wanting? You have prayed, and, perhaps, frequently; but how? with what attention? with what disposition of heart? You have abstained and fasted; but in what spirit? You have approached the Sacraments; but was it from a pure intention? with due preparation? with proper dispositions? 'And it shall come to pass at that time (saith the Lord), that I will search Jerusalem with lamps. (Soph. i. 12.) What, then, will become of the wicked Babylon? 'If the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (I Peter iv. 18.) And after this fearful examination, where, my Brethren, shall we appear?
POINT 2. Every sin is publicly exposed.
But there is another circumstance in this examination, which will add very much to our distress; for the conscience of each individual will be known, not only to himself and God; but, moreover, to all his relatives, friends, and acquaintances'to the entire world! Oh! what will be the sinner's shame and confusion, at seeing himself thus publicly exposed? You may judge of this by what your feelings would be if an Angel were to descend now into this temple and reveal all your secret sins to the rest of the congregation. What then will be your feelings at the last day, when all those secret sins will be revealed to the whole world? Overwhelmed with confusion, will you not 'call upon the mountains and rocks to fall upon you, and to hide you? (Apoc. vi. 16.) But there is no escape.
POINT 3. The sentence is pronounced.
All mankind having been thus strictly examined, and every conscience exposed to public view, the Judge will pronounce theirrevocable sentence. To the just He will say 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. But to the wicked: 'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil andhis angels. 'And these shall go into everlasting punishment, but the just into life everlasting. (Mt. xxv.)
Thus will terminate the last and fearful day. By these two sentences, the lot of each individual of the human race will be finally and eternally fixed. But oh! what a difference between the lot of the saint, and that of the sinner! The saint in heaven, the sinner in hell; the one perpetually happy, the other perpetually miserable; the one with God in eternal glory, the other with the devils in everlasting flames.
And where will you be, my Brethren? where is it your wish to be? Make now your choice, for you can do so- it is at present in your power; because this life is the time of mercy and grace: 'Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation. (2 Cor. vi. 2.) But if you defer your repentance and amendment of life, and die in the state of mortal sin, then, at the last day, you will receive 'judgment without mercy. (James ii. 13.)
Judge yourselves now, my Brethren, by making a due preparation for the Sacrament of Penance, and you will not then be judged; repent now, and you will not have to repent then. Enter now upon a new life, and you will deprive that day of all its terrors. For then, instead of being banished from God eternally with the reprobate, you will be found worthy to hear from your Judge that consoling sentence: 'Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. (Mt. xxv. 34.)
SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT - ON THE VIRTUE OF HOPE
"Now the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in Hope, and in the power of the Holy Ghost." (Rom. xv. 13.)
DURING the time of Advent, we have to prepare ourselves for worthily and profitably celebrating the approaching Festival of Christmas, wherein we commemorate the first coming of our blessed Lord, when, in quality of our Redeemer, He came 'to seek and to save the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel.
POINT I. We must fear God.
To guide and assist us in this preparation, the Church directs our attention, on the First Sunday of Advent, to the terrible judgments of God, which, at the last day, or the second coming of Christ, will be executed severely and eternally upon impenitent sinners: 'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. (Mt. xxv. 41.) And thus we are led to the fear of God, which, according to the Council of Trent, is the first step in the sinner's conversion to God. (Sess. 6, c. 6.) And it is the first step also in his preparation for Christmas.
POINT II. We must also hope in God.
But, on this Second Sunday of Advent, it would seem to be the intention of the Church to lead you on, through this salutary fear of God's judgments, to the consideration of His Mercy and Goodness; that so you may be raised to a firm hope that He will be propitious to you for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Redeemer. This hope, according to the same Council, is the second step in the sinner's conversion to God; and it is the second also in his preparation for Christmas.
God has revealed to us, in the book of Ecclesiasticus (ii. 9), that this is the sure way of escaping His severe judgments, and of drawingdown upon us the consoling effects of His mercy: 'Ye that fear the Lord, He says, 'hope in Him, and mercy shall come to you for your delight. May 'the God of hope, therefore, from the riches of His mercy and goodness infuse bountifully into your souls this necessary, this saving virtue; 'that you may abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Ghost.
We will consider now the powerful motives, which urge us to place all our hope in God; and also the qualities, which our hope should have.
POINT III. Why we must hope in God.
Hope is a theological virtue, which 'helps us to expect, with confidence, that God will give us all things necessary for our salvation, if, on our part, we do what He requires of us. (Catec.) This virtue is of strict obligation'it is absolutely necessary for us, as a means of salvation, and it is grounded on the most solid foundation.
For we have every motive to induce us to hope in God- to place an unlimited confidence in His mercy and goodness.
1. We have the pressing Exhortations, or rather, Commands of God: 'Trust in Him, all ye congregation of people: . . . . God is our helper for ever. (Ps. lxi. 9.) 'Have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart; and lean not upon thine own prudence. (Prov. iii. 5.) 'And hope in God always. (Osee xii. 6.) 'Casting all your care upon Him, for He hath care of you. (1 Pet. v. 7.)
2. We have also the infallible promises of God, whereby He has pledged Himself to reward those who 'cast all their care upon Him. For He says 'Because he hath hoped in Me, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he hath known My Name. (Ps. xc. 14.) And consequently He declares, that 'Blessed is the man whose trust is in the Name of the Lord. (Ps. xxxix. 5.) 'Do not, therefore, lose confidence, He says, 'which hath a great reward, (Heb. x. 35.)
We read in the Gospel, that our Lord attributed many of the miracles which He wrought, solely to the great confidencewith which the petition for cure was presented to Him. Thus, He said to the centurion: 'As thou hast believed, so be it done to thee. (Mt. viii. 13.) In like manner, to the blind men, He said: 'According to your faith (that is, your confidence), 'be it done unto you. (Mt. ix. 29.) . The woman, who, for twelve years, had been labouring under an infirmity, which, during that period, had been incurable, 'said within herself: If I shall touch only the hem of His garment, I shall be healed. But Jesus seeing her, said: Be of good heart, daughter; thy faith (that is, thy confidence) hath made thee whole. (Mt. ix. 20.)
3. Other motives of confidence are the great Love of God towards us,- His infinite goodness and mercy in our regard,- and (lest our past sins should weaken our hope) the infinite merits of Christ, which more than supply for our unworthiness.
These are the powerful and solid motives, which should excite our confidence in God'the sure grounds whereon our hope is founded.
POINT IV. How we must hope in God.
And resting, as it does, on sure grounds, it follows, that our hope should be firm and unlimited. FIRM.- It should be firm, because the goodness, power, and promises of God leave no room for the least
diffidence. And hence St. Paul calls this virtue: 'The anchor of the soul, sure and firm (Heb. vi. 19); it being impossible that God should want either the power, or the will, to assist them that trust in Him; or, that He should be untrue to His promises.
2. UNLIMITED.'Our hope must also be unlimited; that is, we should hope for ALL that we need, both for soul and body- we should hope for eternal happiness, and for all the means necessary for obtaining it, if only, on our part, we will do what God requires from us. And nothingshould make us lose our confidence in God. 'For He hath said: I will not leave thee; neither will I forsakethee: So that we may confidently say The Lord is my helper. (Heb. xiii. 5, 6.) And He positively assures us that 'He will not suffer us to be tempted above that which we are able (to resist); 'but that He will make with temptation issue, that we may be able to bear it. (1 Cor. x. 13.) He declares, indeed, that 'the hope of the wicked shall perish ' (Prov. x. 28); but this is to be understood of such only, as will not have recourse to His mercy.
Examine now, my Brethren, whether your hope is such as it ought to be. Is it not weak and languishing? When attacked by temptations, or oppressed with misfortunes, do you not immediately, 'lose confidence, and become dejected and 'sorrowful, even as others who have no hope? (1 Thes. iv. 12.)
By commanding you to pray for salvation, for help in temptations, for pardon, for daily bread, and for all that you stand in need of, God thereby engages Himself to grant these things; and He will grant them, according to His repeated promises, if you pray with an entire confidence in Him, grounding that confidence on His infinite goodness and promises, through the infinite merits of Jesus Christ.
Never fail, therefore, to have immediate recourse to God, with a firm and unlimited hope, in your difficulties, dangers, and temptations, and in all your necessities.
On all occasions, cast yourselves confidently upon Him, for He will not withdraw that you may be left to fall. And let it not weaken or diminish your hope, when He appears to defer the help you crave, or if it should seem to you that He even positively refuses your requests. For He is then only trying your faith, as He tried the Chananean woman, whose faith, or firm, unlimited hope, He afterwards admired and rewarded: 'O woman, great is thy faith: be it done unto thee as thou wilt. (Mt. xv. 28.) 'Do not therefore lose your confidence, which hath a great reward (Heb. x. 35); but 'hope in your God always (Osee xii. 6); because 'mercy shall encompass him that hopeth in the Lord (Ps. xxxi. 10); for 'no one hath hoped in Him, and been confounded. (Eccli. ii. 11.)
THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT - ON PRAYER
"In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God." (Philip. iv. 6.)
AT the commencement of the time of Advent, we were led to a fear of God, by the consideration of those eternal judgments, which, at the last day, are to be executed upon all impenitent sinners: 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. (Mt. xxv.) And in the Epistle of the Second Sunday, we were cheered with the consoling prospect, which hope holds out to us: 'The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. (Rom. xv. 13.) For it is the consoling effect of hope, that it gives us an assured confidence of God's being willing, and even desirous, to pardon our sins; through Jesus Christ; and so to avert from us those heavy judgments, to which our sins have exposed us; and that it encourages us, moreover, to apply to Him confidently for these happy effects of His mercy. And hence we see the reason of that tender solicitude and anxious desire of the Apostle, as expressed in the concluding words of last Sunday's Epistle: 'That you may abound in hope, and (also thereby) in the power of the Holy Ghost. (Rom. xv. 13.)
On the present Sunday we are directed to consider, not so much in the feelings of fear as of hope, the destitute state of our souls to which sin has reduced us; to look to our wants and necessities, and to exercise our hope in God, by having recourse to His mercy and goodness for relief. 'In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God.
It is on prayer, therefore, that I intend now to address you'on its Necessity, and its Advantages, and on the Conditions that are required for rendering it effectual in obtaining for us the grant of our petitions.
POINT I. Necessity of Prayer.
WE MUST NECESSARILY PRAY.- And this necessity of prayer arises from our relation to God, from His absolute dominion over us, and our entire dependence on Him for everything. It is from Him that we received and still bold our being; for He created us, and is continually preserving us. We must therefore pay Him the homage of our adoration, praise, thanksgiving, and supplication.
Having created us, God placed us in this world between two extremes; for we must either serve Him while we are here, and thereby come to possess and enjoy him eternally, or else we must neglect His service, and thereby lose that supreme happiness, and be condemned to perpetual banishment from Him in the flames of hell. We have to escape the one by gaining the other. This is a work which every one of us has to accomplish; and no work can be of greater importance to us. But, of ourselves, we can do nothing towards it; at every step, we need God's assisting and protecting grace; but that needed grace cannot be obtained without prayer. Without prayer then we must perish eternally.
We see the reason, therefore, why St. Paul so earnestlyadmonishes us to pray on all occasions 'In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God.
The same Apostle also says: 'Be instant in prayer. (Col. iv. 2.) 'Pray without ceasing. (1 Thess. v. 17.) And our blessed Lord repeatedly commands us to pray: 'Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation. (Mt. xxvi. 41.) 'You ought always to pray and not to faint. (Lk. xviii. 1.) 'Ask, and you shall receive. (John xvi. 24.)
It is clear from these, and from many other considerations, that it is necessary for us to pray, and to pray continually; that prayer is the first and most necessary thing for us to learn and make use of; that it is both the key which must unlock for us the treasury of God's graces, and also the channel through which those graces are to be conveyed to our souls. The treasury of graces cannot be unlocked and opened to us, without the proper key; nor will the graces be conveyed to us otherwise than through the appointed channel.
POINT II. Advantages to be gained by prayer.
What has been already said on the necessity of prayer, serves, in a great measure, to show also its advantages, as being the effectual means of obtaining the necessary wants, and of saving our souls. No supply of our employment, therefore, can be more profitable; nor, at the same time, more consoling.
1. PROFITABLE.- For how can we be more profitably employed, than in drawing down upon ourselves the graces and blessings of heaven? and these we can obtain, and do obtain, by prayer. For the truth of this, we have the positive assurance of our blessed Lord Himself: 'Amen, Amen I say to you: if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it you. Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full. (John xvi. 23.) 'For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. (Mt. vii. 8.)
2. CONSOLING.- What, therefore, can be a source of greater consolation than prayer? St. Chrysostom calls it, 'an angelic occupation; and St. Gregory, 'an anticipation of the joys of heaven. What sweet consolations have not the Saints drawn from prayer? And when God, for their greater good, withdrew those consolations from them for a time, their persevering fidelity to prayer did not fail to afford comfort to their souls.
POINT III. Conditions which must accompany our prayer.
But, in order that prayer may be effectual in drawing down these advantages, it must be accompanied with certain Conditions; it must be offered to God with such dispositions of soul as He requires.
1. We must pray, therefore, with humility- with a deep sense of our nothingness, of our unworthiness, and sinfulness: 'To whom shall I have respect, says Almighty God, 'but to him that is poor and little, and of a contrite heart, and that trembleth at My words? (Is. lxvi. 2.) 'He hath had regard to the prayer of the humble, and He hath not despised their petition. (Ps. ci. 18.) 'The prayer of him that humbleth himself, shall pierce the clouds; and he will not depart till the Most High behold. (Eccli. xxxv. 21.) 'To the humble He giveth grace. (1 Pet. v. 5.) In King Achab, we have a striking example of the advantage of humbling ourselves before God in prayer. For, as soon as he had done so, God said to Elias: 'Hast thou not seen Achab humbled before Me? , Therefore, because he hath humbled himself for My sake, I will not bring the evil in his days. (3 Kings xxi. 29.)
2. We must pray also all with confidence in God. Nothing honours God more- nothing is more pleasing to Him, nor more effectual in drawing down His blessings, than praying to Him with an humble, but entire confidence in Him: 'And Jesus saith to them: Have the faith of God. Amen I say, to you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain, be thou removed, and be cast into the sea; and shall not stagger in his heart, but believe, that whatsoever he saith shall be done; it shall be done unto him. Therefore I say unto you, all things WHATSOEVER you ask when you pray, believe that you shall receive and they shall come unto you. (Mk. xi. 23.) When Mary Magdalen, with an humble confidence, prostrated herself at our Lord's feet, He said to her: 'Thy sins are forgiven thee; thy faith (that is thy confidence) hath made thee safe; go in peace. (Lk. vii. 48, 50.) 'If any of you want wisdom, says St. James, 'let him ask of God, who giveth to all men abundantly; . . . . and it shall be given him: but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, which is carried about by the wind. Therefore, let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. (James i. 5.)
3. We must pray, likewise, with perseverance- we must continue knocking at the door of God's mercy, till it be opened to us: For 'we ought always to pray, and not to faint. (Lk. xviii. 1.)
We must 'be instant in prayer. For God wishes us to constrain Him, as it were, to show mercy: 'The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away. (Mt. xi. 12.)
4. God requires, moreover, that we should pray with attention and fervour; for He looks to heart more than to the lips. 'Prayer is the raising up of the mind and heartto God; and not merely the raising up of the voice to Him. In order that you may pray with attention, put yourselves in the presence of God at the beginning of your prayers. St. Ignatius says you should do so before every prayer, however short. And this is the direction which God Himself gives us, when He says: 'Before prayer prepare thy soul; and be not a man that tempteth God. (Eccli. xvi. 23.)
Humble yourselves, my Brethren, at the thought of not having profited more by this powerful means of grace. Look back, and examine what it is that has rendered your prayers ineffectual. Is it not attachment of your heart to creatures'to some passion, which, producing a want of fervour and attention, has hindered the effect of your prayer or has there not been a neglect of preparation which has produced the same effect? has there not been spiritual sloth; and consequently a want of perseverance? or has not your confidence in God been deficient? Whatever you may find to have been the defect, it must be corrected in future. Resolve therefore to begin, from this present moment, to take the necessary means of correcting it. 'He lives well, says St. Augustine, 'who prays well.
THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT - ON PREPARING FOR CHRIST'S COMING
"A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight His paths. Every valley shall be filled; and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight; and the rough ways plain; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." (Luke iii. 4, 5, 6.)
THE Prophet Isaias, foreseeing the coming of the promised Redeemer, and unable to contain his joy, breaks forth into these fervid exclamations: 'Be comforted, be comforted, my people, saith your God. Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem; . . for her evil is come to an end'her iniquity is forgiven. Get thee up into a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion; . . . say to the cities of Juda: Behold your God. (Is. xl. 1, 2, 9.) Yes, my Brethren, the time is at hand, when we are to celebrate the birth of our Redeemer- of our Saviour- of our God! That happy day approaches, which the ancient Saints so ardently longed for- that happy day, at the prospect of seeing which Abraham rejoiced; and, when he saw it in spirit only, he was glad; that happy day is fast approaching; and the Church now calls upon us to prepare our hearts for celebrating it in a propel manner. Let us do so, my Brethren, by considering, in the first place, why Jesus Christ came on earth; and, secondly, how we are to prepare our hearts to profit by His coming.
POINT I. Why Jesus Christ came upon earth.
Jesus Christ came 'to seek and to save that which was lost. (Lk. xix. 10.) To be convinced of this we need only follow Him from the manger to the Cross. The slightest attention to His life will be a sufficient proof.
1. For, why was He born in poverty, in humiliations, and sufferings? It was to teach us how to avoid and expiate sin. Why did He receive the Name of JESUS, at the same time shedding His blood? An Angel from heaven tells us the reason 'Thou shalt call His Name JESUS, for He shall save His people from their sins. (Mt. i. 21.)
2. How clearly, how forcibly, does His ardent desire for our salvation shine forth in those tender parables, which He delivered to the Jews, during the three years of His public ministry? At one time, He represents Himself as the Good Shepherd going in search of the lost sheep, and coutinuing His search till He has found it (Lk. xv.); at another time, as the kind and compassionate Samaritan, soothing and healing the wounds of one that had fallen amongst robbers (Lk. x.); and again, as the loving and forgiving Father, receiving back His prodigal but repentant son, and restoring him to favour. (Lk. xv.) These parables are so evident in their meaning and object, that they need no explanation. For how clearly, and how forcibly do they show, that 'the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost! (Lk. xix. 10.) And more especially when we consider that the parable of the lost sheep, and that of the prodigal son, were intended by our Lord to answer the objection which the Jews had made against Him: 'This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.) (Lk. xv. 2.)
3. If we still further consider those tender and pressing invitations, whereby He urges sinners to return to Him, how plainly again does he manifest the same earnest desire of our salvation? 'Come to Me, all you that labour and are burdened; and I will refresh you. (Mt. xi. 28.) 'Go and learn what this meaneth: I will have mercy and not sacrifice . . . For I am not come to call the just but sinners. (Mt. ix. 13.) 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not? (Mt. xxiii. 37.)
4. How powerfully, and with what complete conviction, does He still further prove the ardour of His desire of procuring our eternal happiness, by the constant labours which He underwent in teaching us the truths of salvation? 'And Jesus went about all the cities, and towns; teaching in their synagogues; and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom; and healing every disease, and every infirmity; and seeing the multitudes, He had compassion on them, because they were . . . . lying like sheep that have no shepherd. (Mt. ix. 35.) Thus did He go about from place to place, 'to enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, to direct our feet into the way of peace. (Lk. i. 79.)
5. How vividly, moreover, and how strikingly has He exemplified this same earnest desire to save sinners, in the mercy by which He receive and pardoned Magdalen (Lk. vii. 48), and Zaccheus (Lk. xix. 9), the humble publican (Lk. xviii. 13) and the penitent thief? (Lk. xxiii. 43.)
Indeed, so much did He show His tender mercy towards sinners, that the Jews accused Him of being 'a friend of publicans and sinners. (Lk vii. 34.) But, in answer to them, He said: 'They that are whole need not the physician, but they that are sick: I am not come to call the just, but sinners to penance. (Lk. v. 31, 3c.)
6. Only follow Him, my Brethren, through the different stages of His Passion. Contemplate Him, agonizing in the Garden; seized by His own chosen people, and dragged by them from one tribunal to another, amidst insults, injuries, and ill-treatment of every kind; most inhumanly scourged at a pillar, and barbarously crowned with thorns; falsely accused, and unjustly condemned, and thus allowing Himself to be 'reputed with the wicked. (Is. liii. 12.)
Contemplate Him on the Cross, dying the most cruel and humiliating death; and shedding the last drop of His Sacred Blood for our Redemption; at the same time praying for His enemies, that is for sinners. Now, why did He suffer all this, but to atone for our sins, and enable us to obtain forgiveness? Why did He shed the last drop of His Blood upon the Cross, but to wash away the sins of the world, and reconcile lost man to his offended God?
7. If further proof be necessary, consider what takes place on our altars. Why does He daily renew the Adorable Sacrifice of the Mass till the end of the world? Why does He thus continue His presence amongst us; and even feed and nourish our souls with His own Body and Blood, in the Holy Communion? Could He give us stronger testimonies of the tenderest love? of the most ardent desire to save our souls?
8. And, that our sins might not prevent Him from visiting us in the Holy Communion, and enriching our souls with His strengthening graces, He has still further manifested His desire of our salvation, by instituting in His Church a means of pardon- the Sacrament of Penance.
You see, then, His great goodness and mercy towards us. His sincere desire to save, not only the just, but also sinners who return to Him by repentance.
POINT II. How we are to prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ.
Go to Him, therefore, with confidence; be not disheartened at the thought of difficulties; for His mercy will assist you. You see the means of pardon provided for you, in the Sacrament of Penance; and of future advancement and perseverance, in the Holy Communion. It is by preparing for these Sacraments, that you are to 'prepare the way of the Lord, to make straight His paths. For, by taking a review of your past sins, and by the humiliation of confession, 'every mountain and hill shall be brought low; that is, your pride will be humbled. By your contrition and resolutions of amendment 'the crooked shall be made straight; that is, your vicious habits will be corrected; divine grace, obtained by these Sacraments, will make 'the rough ways plain; that is, will smooth down every difficulty.
But you must not only bring down the mountain of pride and make your crooked ways straight by renouncing your evil habits; but you must also 'fill up every valley, that is, your want of virtue must be supplied by religious exercises by good works.
To 'fill up every valley, then, practise 'The Christian's Daily Exercise, which you find at the end of the Catechism. As you are there taught, give the first moments, when you awake, to prayer; adoring God, and offering to him your heart, with all the actions of the day. Reflect, at least for a short time, on some pious subject; resolving to conquer some vice, and to labour for some particular virtue. During the day bear in mind the presence of God; making to Him frequent aspirations of love, conformity, contrition, and patience. Be always intent upon mortifying your passions, receiving, in the spirit of penance, all the crosses, contradictions, and troubles with which you may meet.
At night, make your general and particular examination of conscience; thanking God for the blessings you have received; lamenting your sins, and craving pardon; resolving to avoid them in future, and imploring the graces necessary for that purpose.
Sanctify the Sundays and Holidays; and be regular in approaching to the Sacraments.
Practise these duties, my Brethren; then all your days will be full days'full of merit and good works; for it is by practising these duties, that 'every valley will be filled up-that every vacancy or deficiency of your past life will be supplied; that your souls will be adorned with virtue, and fitted, not only for worthily celebrating our Saviour's coming amongst us, but also for enjoying Him eternally in the Kingdom of His glory.
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| Traditional Catholics Sound Alarm As Rome Suppresses Most Old Rite Sacraments |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2021, 10:42 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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Traditional Catholics Sound Alarm As Rome Suppresses Most Old Rite Sacraments
They contend the Oct. 7 pastoral instruction forbidding six of the seven sacraments celebrated according to the extraordinary form is a violation of canon law and will cause spiritual harm.
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Basilica of St. John Lateran, home to the Vicariate of Rome
NCR | December 14, 2021
ROME — Canon lawyers and experts in the traditional liturgy have warned that a pastoral instruction issued by the Diocese of Rome that bans traditional communities and priests from celebrating all the sacraments with the exception of the Eucharist according to the traditional form of the Roman Rite is unlawful and will harm souls if allowed to continue.
The guidelines, issued in an Oct. 7 letter signed by Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, the Vicar of Rome, stated that in light of Pope Francis’ July 16 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes (Guardians of Tradition), it is “no longer possible to use the Roman Ritual and other liturgical books of the ‘ancient rite’ for the celebration of sacraments and sacramentals (e.g. not even the Ritual for Reconciliation of Penitents according to the ancient form).”
These sacraments, he continued, are “expressly forbidden and only the use of the Missale Romanum of 1962 [the form of the Mass celebrated before the Second Vatican Council] remains permitted.” Furthermore, he said those priests — diocesan or religious — who wished to celebrate the old Mass must have written authorization from a bishop of the diocese.
By way of the cardinal’s letter, the diocese has therefore prohibited all traditional sacramental forms of baptism, matrimony, ordination, penance, confirmation, and extreme unction (anointing of the sick) being celebrated in Rome, allowing only the Eucharist in the traditional form. The instruction also stated that the Easter Triduum could no longer be celebrated according to the Roman Missal of 1962 anywhere in the diocese.
Cardinal De Donatis, who as the Pope’s vicar general runs the diocese on the Pope’s behalf, wrote that he was issuing the instruction in order to provide “precise guidelines” for implementing Traditionis Custodes and “for the spiritual good of the faithful.”
Traditionis Custodes, an apostolic letter issued motu proprio (on the Pope’s own volition), aimed to place sweeping restrictions on the old Mass, also known as the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, the Tridentine Mass, or the Traditional Latin Mass, that was celebrated before Pope St. Paul VI’s liturgical reforms of 1970.
The motu proprio abrogated previous papal decrees of the past 35 years that had liberalized this old form of the Mass, most notably Benedict XVI’s 2007 landmark apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum which acknowledged the right of all priests to celebrate Mass using the Roman Missal of 1962.
One of the main elements of Traditionis Custodes is the stipulation that all priests in a diocese wishing to celebrate the traditional rites must now seek authorization in writing from the diocesan bishop. It also ended the right for groups to have the Mass celebrated in parish churches among other changes.
Francis said he wanted a “return in due time” to the liturgy instituted after the Second Vatican Council, and that he had imposed the decree because some traditional faithful reject Vatican II and claim the reformed liturgy betrays “Tradition and the ‘true Church.’” He therefore said he felt impelled to take such a drastic step “in defense of the unity of the Body of Christ” after previous liberalizations of the old rite had, he believed, been exploited to expose the Church “to the peril of division.”
Exceeding Traditionis Custodes?
But critics say the Rome instruction goes far beyond the Pope’s decree, which did not mention prohibiting the old liturgical rites.
Father Gerald Murray, canonist at Holy Family Church in New York, drew attention to Article 1 of Traditionis Custodes which states that the liturgical books of the new Roman Missal “are the unique expression of the lex orandi [law of prayer] of the Roman Rite,” phrasing that he contends “does not in itself canonically establish that every other sacramental rite in use at the time of the issuance of Traditionis Custodes is prohibited.”
As examples, he highlighted other parts of the Roman Rite (for example the Anglican Ordinariate and the Ambrosian, Gallican, Dominican rites) and yet these are “plainly distinct from the ‘unique expression of the lex orandi’ found in the revised Roman rites.”
Said Father Murray, “Since the prohibition of the more ancient sacramental rites is not expressly stated in Traditionis Custodes, it should not be asserted that this supposed prohibition is, in fact, now in effect by virtue of an identification of what constitutes the ‘unique expression of the lex orandi.’”
Peter Kwasniewski, an author and expert on the traditional liturgy, noted that this absence of a clear prohibition in Traditionis Custodes means that the Rome instruction violates Canon 18 which demands that any law, penalty or restriction of free exercise of rights must be subject to “strict interpretation.”
“In other words, if a sacrament is to be canceled — clearly either a penalty, or a restriction of free exercise of rights — then it must have been expressly canceled. But Traditionis Custodes did no such thing,” Kwasniewski said.
He also said the instruction has other violations, notably Canon 17 which says that if a law’s meaning is “doubtful and obscure,” one should refer to the mind of the legislator. Kwasniewski recalled that in informal comments in September, the Pope has said the motu proprio did not suggest “abolish[ing] the old rites or the Triduum” but established “limits.”
“So either the Vicariate is departing from the mind of the legislator, or there is no clarity we can have about what exactly that mind is, in which case Canon 14 comes fully into play,” Kwasniewski argued. Canon 14 stipulates that regulations “do not oblige when there is a doubt about the law.”
Father Murray agreed, saying that by prohibiting six of the seven sacraments in the old form, the vicariate of Rome has acted “beyond the words of Traditionis Custodes and the intent of the legislator.” He added, “Thus a doubt of law exists and thus the prohibition of such celebrations lacks the force of law until such time that the doubt of law has been resolved.” He also agreed with Kwasniewski on the application of Canons 17 and 18 with respect to the Rome instruction exceeding Traditionis Custodes.
A further violation, traditional Catholics have observed, is that, as with Traditionis Custodes and its banning of creating new traditional rite parishes, the Rome prohibitions threaten to breach the Holy See-approved constitutions of traditional communities such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, the Institute of Christ the King, and the Institute of the Good Shepherd — all of which have a presence in Rome.
Father Murray stressed that those constitutions “remain in effect and cannot be overridden by a pastoral letter of the Vicariate of Rome which lacks specific approval by the Pope.”
Priests Express Alarm
Three traditional priests contacted by the Register, but who did not wish to be named due to the current climate of suppression, expressed their alarm at the vicariate’s decision.
Referring to the traditional rite of baptism as an example, they contended that the old rite conveys more clearly truths of the faith such as the reality of Satan, the need to be cleansed of original sin, and the call to holiness (it has stronger and more repeated exorcisms, they argued, and the use of exorcised salt). They also said it imparts additional graces as its extra prayers each call down graces from God and the entire rite is more sacred and solemn.
Father Claude Barthe, an expert author on the traditional liturgy and priest of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in France, said he believed the doctrinal message conveyed by the modern baptismal rite is “clearly weaker in at least one respect: the aspect of fighting the devil, which so strongly characterizes the traditional form of baptism, and is practically blurred.”
As for the other sacraments in the old form, the traditional priests said the spiritual battle is clearly present in them as well, as is the reality of sin, and that they act as good catechetical tools. For these and other reasons, they believe a ban would be harmful for souls.
Msgr. Charles Pope, dean and pastor in the Archdiocese of Washington, DC and a Register contributor, agreed “to some degree” with the priests and Father Barthe on the baptismal rite. But he hesitated to describe the new baptismal rite as “weaker” as the Sacraments have power ex opere operato (“from the work performed”). He preferred to speak, as St. Thomas Aquinas did, of the “fruitfulness” of the rite.
Msgr. Pope added that he favors speaking of a “mutual respect” between the older and newer forms and likes both for different reasons. The old ones, he said, are “more theologically precise and emphasize the mystery and glory of what is taking place and that we are worshipping and encountering God.” The newer rites, meanwhile, “emphasize an accessibility, are more inclusive of the faithful in the celebration of the rites and are rich in scripture.”
But he supports “reinvigorating the new rite of baptism with a more vigorous exorcism,” saying the current rite is written “more as a suggestion” whereas demons “reply to the voice of command.” The exorcisms of the old form “surely did that,” he said.
Going Underground
As a consequence of the Diocese of Rome’s prohibitions, Kwasniewski believes that adherents to receiving the sacraments in the traditional form will travel to where they can receive them, possibly a parish run by the traditional Society of St. Pius X which is not in full communion with Rome (a move that bishops have cautioned against for a variety of reasons), or watch it on television or online or defy their bishop “surreptitiously.”
Father Barthe said he believed the Rome instruction has “all the appearance of a trial balloon,” and that attempts “will be made to impose this elsewhere.” So far very few other dioceses have followed suit (Le Havre in France is one other), and no bishop is reported to have followed Cardinal De Donatis’ line in the United States.
One major concern, noted Dec. 12 by the French traditional website Paix Liturgique, is that if the prohibitions are extended to traditional communities, it would have a “devastating effect on the vocations that these communities attract.” Father Barthe said if the Rome instruction is repeated elsewhere, “we will have to risk some kind of refusal.”
Msgr. Pope said he “deeply” regretted the vicariate’s decision and feared many bishops “may view it as a model to follow” despite the instruction departing from Traditionis Custodes. He believes both forms of the rite should live peacefully alongside one another, permitting the “diversity and inclusion so often hailed by many.”
“Edging people to the margins does not seem to foster the unity Francis seeks,” Msgr. Pope said. “Holding people close to the heart of the Church who desire only what the Church has done for centuries seems far more unitive.”
The Vicariate of Rome did not respond by press time to these criticisms of the instruction, including the accusation that prohibiting the Triduum in the old rite exceeded Traditionis Custodes.
The Register also contacted for comment Archbishop Arthur Roche, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Both are handling the application of Traditionis Custodes, in dioceses and in traditional communities respectively.
Cardinal Braz de Aviz declined to comment, while Archbishop Roche directed us to a short Nov. 14 interview with an Italian-speaking Swiss television network, in which he said Traditionis Custodes was issued because the “experiment” to liberalize the traditional rites had “not been entirely successful” and so it was necessary to return to what the Second Vatican Council “required of the Church.” In the comments aired by the station, he did not discuss prohibiting the traditional sacraments.
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| The Roche Christmas Massacre: CDW Instruction on Traditionis Custodes to be issued next week |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2021, 09:00 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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“The Roche Christmas Massacre”: CDW Instruction on Traditionis Custodes to be issued next week
Rorate Caeli | December 14, 2021
RORATE has learned, and can confirm, that the instruction of the Congregation for Divine Worship (Prefect: Archbishop Arthur Roche) on the application of the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes is to be published next week. (Unless some extraordinary measure prevents the publication of the already approved text.)
The instruction will try (among other things) to impose over the global Church, by violent and illegitimate will of the legislator, the blueprint established for the Diocese of Rome by its Cardinal Vicar months ago regarding all Sacraments other than the Holy Eucharist.
If we gather more details before publication, we will let you know.
***
PRAY FOR THE PROMPT END OF THIS DARK AND SOMBER PERIOD IN CHURCH HISTORY.
RESIST.
SUPPORT ALL CLERGYMEN WHO DARE TO RESIST.
Mater Dolorosa, ora pro nobis!
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| Senior Cardinal Warns Elites Ushering In "Total Control Surveillance State" Through COVID |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2021, 08:48 AM - Forum: Great Reset
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Senior Cardinal Warns Elites Ushering In "Total Control Surveillance State" Through COVID
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ZH | DEC 15, 2021
Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,
A senior German Cardinal has warned that the likes of Bill Gates, George Soros and Davos Economic Forum head Klaus Schwab are using the coronavirus pandemic to force the world under “total control” of globalist “super-rich elites.”
Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, who also serves as a high ranking judge at the Vatican court, made the comments during an interview with Austria’s St. Boniface Institute.
Mueller urged that “People, who sit on the throne of their wealth,” are seizing an “opportunity to push through their agenda.”
The Cardinal added that the pandemic has led to “chaos” and “turmoil” in part due to elites wanting to “snatch an opportunity to bring people in line” via a global “surveillance state”.
Mueller also stated that globalists are making efforts to bring “a new man” into the world, created “in their own image and likeness,” warning “That has nothing to do with democracy.”
Watch (In German):
The German media immediately dismissed the Cardinal’s comments as “conspiracy theories,” with Der Spiegel magazine also suggesting that his comments could be anti-semitic.
Mueller responded to the German news agency DPA in an email stating that it is wrong to suggest that anyone who “criticizes the financial elite … is automatically on the wrong side,” and further urged that “super-rich elites in various countries” are exerting an “illegitimate influence” over the people of the planet.
Mueller is not the first prominent figure in the Catholic Church to warn about the dark objectives behind the Great Reset.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the most powerful Catholics in the United States, gave a homily in which he savaged “secular forces” who want to “make us slaves to their godless and murderous agenda.”
Quote:“Then there is the mysterious Wuhan virus about whose nature and prevention the mass media daily give us conflicting information,” said Burke.
“What is clear, however, is that it has been used by certain forces, inimical to families and to the freedom of nations, to advance their evil agenda. These forces tell us that we are now the subjects of the so-called ‘Great Reset,’ the ‘new normal,’ which is dictated to us by their manipulation of citizens and nations through ignorance and fear.”
The Cardinal, who sits on the Church’s Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest judicial authority in the Catholic Church, also slammed the United States’ fealty to China as a dangerous threat to Christian identity in America.
Quote:“To attain economic gains, we as a nation have permitted ourselves to become dependent upon the Chinese Communist Party, an ideology totally opposed to the Christian foundations upon which families and our nation remain safe and prosper,” he said.
Furthermore, we highlighted last November, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò wrote an open letter to President Trump claiming that the COVID-19 pandemic is part of a plot to impose a “health dictatorship.”
“We see heads of nations and religious leaders pandering to this suicide of Western culture and its Christian soul, while the fundamental rights of citizens and believers are denied in the name of a health emergency that is revealing itself more and more fully as instrumental to the establishment of an inhuman faceless tyranny,” wrote Viganò.
He added that The Great Reset sought to inflict “the imposition of liberticidal measures, hidden behind tempting promises of ensuring a universal income and cancelling individual debt.”
Catholic Cardinal Robert Sarah also recently warned that Christianity is on the decline and western society is “lost” because “if we are cut from God, we are lost and God is silent.”
The Cardinal also cautioned that “western civilization is in a profound state of decadence and ruin” due to people’s obsession with materialism and that the situation is similar to right before the collapse of the Roman Empire.
Quote:“The elites care for nothing but increasing the luxury of their daily lives, and the people have been anaesthetized by every more vulgar entertainments,” said Sarah.
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| Excerpts from the Prophecies of Ven. Bartholomew Holzhauser (1613-1658) |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2021, 02:30 PM - Forum: Catholic Prophecy
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Ven. Bartholomew Holzhauser (1613-1658) - On the Great Monarch and the Angelic Pontiff
Taken from here [adapted].
![[Image: Ven%2BBatholomew%2BHolzhauser.jpg]](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KXqe8q5CyuU/XM3_wVHuxEI/AAAAAAAACFQ/VhlfheqqVRQ7NQ-xy7cywg4KbB5zKZYMgCLcBGAs/s400/Ven%2BBatholomew%2BHolzhauser.jpg)
VEN. BARTHOLOMEW HOLZHAUSER (1613-1658) was born in Laugna, into the family of Leonard and Catherine Holzhauser, who were poor, pious, and honest people. Leonard and Catherine had eleven children, including Bartholomew. Ven. Holzhauser's father made his living as a shoemaker. Young Bartholomew developed a great love for books and an earnest desire to enter the sacred ministry. At Augsburg, he was admitted to a free school for poor boys, earning his living by going from door to door singing and begging. He fell sick of an epidemic raging at that time. After his recovery, Ven. Bartholomew went home and for a time helped his father at work.
He then continued his studies at Neuburg an der Donau and Ingolstadt, with the aid of kind friends and the Jesuits in particular. His teachers were unanimous in praising his talents, his piety, and his modesty. On July 9, 1636, he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and then studied theology, in which he merited the baccalaureate on May 11, 1639. He was ordained into the priesthood by the Bishop of Eichstätt, and said his first Holy Mass on Pentecost Sunday, June 12, 1639 in the Church of Our Lady of Victory, at Ingolstadt.
He exercised his priestly functions at this place for some time and was soon much sought after as a confessor. In the meantime, he attended lectures at the university and was declared licentiate of theology on June 14, 1640. On August 1 of the same year, he came into the Archdiocese of Salzburg, and was made dean and pastor of Tittmoning. On February 2, 1642, he became pastor of St John's at Leoggenthal, in the county of Tyrol, at the behest of the Bishop of Chiemsee. In the spring of 1655, at the invitation of Archbishop Johann Philipp von Schönborn, he went to Mainz where he was soon appointed pastor at Bingen on the Rhine, and in 1657, dean of the district of Algesheim.
Because the faithful had become lukewarm, and morals and discipline had relaxed not only in the laity but also in the clergy in the aftermath of the Thirty Years War in Europe, Ven. Holzhauser founded an order called the Bartholomites to counteract the moral decline of times. It also became known as the Apostolic Union of Secular Priests promoting an apostolic life in the community and forming models of priestly perfection and zealous leaders of the people. Their principal task was to educate in the seminaries. The members of the secular congregation were expected to live in the seminaries, or in groups of two or three in the parishes, and to follow a set routine of daily prayers and exercises. Funds were to be in common, and all female servants were to be dismissed. No vows were taken, but a simple promise of obedience to the superior was made, confirmed by an oath.
Holzhauser died, aged 45, at Bingen. At the time of his death, the community had members at Chiemsee, Salzburg, Freising, Eichstätt, Würzburg, and Mainz. The institute, however, made many enemies. Unfortunately, at the end of the eighteenth century the community he founded became extinct. On the occasion of the second centenary of his death, a celebration was held at Bingen in the presence of the Bishop of Mainz. The location of his remains was again found and in 1880, a new monument was erected over his grave at the parish church, and Bartholomew was declared Venerable by the Roman Catholic Church.
THE GREAT MONARCH AND ANGELIC PONTIFF
Ven. Holzhauser was a visionary and made several predictions, which he presented 1646 to Emperor Ferdinand III and to Duke Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria. Ludwig Clarus published these visions, along with a commentary showing their partial fulfilment, in German, in 1849. One of the predictions was that England would not have the Mass for 120 years, priest would not be able to say it under pain of death, after which England would convert and help to spread the Faith after its conversion, this seems to have been partially fulfilled for the prohibition of the Mass under penalty of capital punishment was enacted in 1658 and partially recalled in 1778.
He also wrote extensive personal commentaries on the Apocalypse, which include the Great Monarch and Angelic Pontiff prophecies. Although they appear to be a personal interpretation, his commentaries were held in great esteem by his contemporaries. Having once been asked where he could have received such extraordinary insight for the interpretation of so difficult a book, with tears in his eyes Ven. Holzhauser answered, “I am nothing but a little child, whose hand and pen his teacher holds and guides to make him write.”
THE SEVEN AGES OF THE CHURCH
Ven. Holzhauser divides the periods and the duration of the Church from Jesus Christ until the end of the world into seven ages or seven different epochs. He founds this seven-fold division on the seven churches of Asia, the seven candlesticks, the seven stars, the seven seals, seven spirits, seven trumpets, seven plagues of the Apocalypse, and also on the seven days of creation mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis. According to him,
1) The first age or special epoch of the Church begins with Jesus Christ and lasts until the first persecution under the pagan emperor, Nero.
2) The second, from Nero to Constantine the Great
3) The third, from Constantine till Charlemagne
4) The fourth, from Charlemagne to Charles V, the pontificate of Leo X., and the heresy of Martin Luther
5) The fifth age, from Luther up until ….
6) The sixth age, which begin with the arrival of the Great Monarch and Angelic Pontiff – this will be the Age of Concolation for the Church, the promised Age of Peace. The Age of Peace of the Sixth Age will end with the rise of the Antichrist, but the Sixth Age itself won't end until the Second Coming of Christ.
7) The seventh will introduce the elect to the 'eternal sabbath' – i.e. The Second Coming of Christ when the Last Day occurs, the Last Judgement takes place and Eternity begins with the New Heaven and the New Earth.
Therefore, according to Ven. Holzhauser we are yet in the Fifth Age of the Church and awaiting the Sixth, and we seem very close to it.
Here are his prophecies concerning this era:
“The fifth period of the Church, which began circa 1520, will end with the arrival of the holy Pope and of the powerful Monarch who is called "Help From God" because he will restore everything [in Christ]…”
“The fifth period is one of affliction, desolation, humiliation, and poverty for the Church. Jesus Christ will purify His people through cruel wars, famines, plagues, epidemics, and other horrible calamities. He will also afflict and weaken the Latin Church with many heresies. It is a period of defections, calamities and exterminations. Those Christians who survive the sword, plague and famines, will be few on earth. Nations will fight against nations and will be desolated by internecine dissensions…”
“During this period the Wisdom of God guides the Church in. several ways: 1) by chastising the Church so that riches may not corrupt her completely; 2) by interposing the Council of Trent like a light in the darkness, so that the Christians who see the light may know what to believe, 3) by setting St. Ignatius and his Society in opposition to Luther and other heretics (i.e note the Jesuits were a force to be reckoned with in opposing the Lutheran heresies at the time, hence it is no wonder they came under such attack later) ; 4) by carrying to remote lands the Faith which has been banned in most of Europe…”
(NOTE: while this interpretation starts with the beginning of the Fifth period which means the rise of Luther, Ven. Holzhauser obviously predicted that the heresies Luther started would continue to wreak havoc and grow until the Great Monarch and Angelic Pontiff bring about the restoration of the Church hence - the COUNCIL OF TRENT not only was but will continue to be a guiding light in the time of darkness of the Church. According to Ven. Holzhuaser then, those who stay true to the declarations of the Council of Trent will not be led astray from the true Faith. Of interest, Bl. Catherine of Racconigi predicted that the aims of the Council of Trent would be fully accomplished with the arrival of Great Monarch and Angelic Pontiff.)
“Are we not to fear during this period that the Mohamedans (i.e. Muslims and the rise of Islam) will come again working out their sinister schemes against the Latin church…?”
“During this period, many men will abuse the freedom of conscience conceded to them. It is of such men that Jude the Apostle spoke when he said, ‘These men blaspheme whatever they do not understand; and they corrupt whatever they know naturally as irrational animals do… They feast together without restraint, feeding themselves, grumbling murmurers, walking according to their lusts; their mouth speaketh proud things, they admire people for the sake of gain; they bring about division, sensual men, having not the spirit.’”
“During this unhappy period, there will be laxity in divine and human precepts. Discipline will suffer. The Holy Canons will be completely disregarded, and the Clergy will not respect the laws of the Church. Everyone will be carried away and led to believe and to do what he fancies, according to the manner of the flesh…”
“They will ridicule Christian simplicity; they will call it folly and nonsense, but they will have the highest regard for advanced knowledge, and for the skill by which the axioms of the law, the precepts of morality, the Holy Canons and religious dogmas are clouded by senseless questions and elaborate arguments. As a result, no principle at all, however holy, authentic, ancient, and certain it may be, will remain free of censure, criticism, false interpretation, modification, and delimitation by man…”
(NOTE: apparently, Ven. Holzhausuer's comments on the time of corruption before the renewal of the Church. The world will grow corrupt and the Church will also fall into decay as it turns on its ancient Traditions and twists it to suit the times. Note the word 'modification'.)
“These are evil times, a century full of dangers and calamities. Heresy is everywhere, and the followers of heresy are in power almost everywhere. Bishops, prelates, and priests say that they are doing their duty, that they are vigilant, and that they live as befits their state in life. In like manner, therefore, they all seek excuses. But God will permit a great evil against His Church: Heretics and tyrants will come suddenly and unexpectedly; they will break into the Church while bishops, prelates and priests are asleep. They will enter Italy and lay Rome waste; they will burn down the churches and destroy everything.…”
(OBSERVATION: Ven. Holzhauser notes this period of degradation will LAST A CENTURY. He predicts this century of heretical intrusions and moral laxity in the Church will apparently be nearing its climax or basically reaching its end when ROME IS BURNED AND LAID WASTE. In another prediction, Ven. Holzhauser says Satan will be bound for a time when the Great Monarch comes, which means SATAN will be given liberty BEFORE ROME BURNS AND THE RENEWAL BEGINS. So, could this be another prediction of 'SATAN's CENTURY' as foreseen by Pope Leo XIII? If so, re will be nearing the end of Satan's Century when Rome burns and is laid waste.)
“The Sixth Age of the Spirit commences with the powerful Monarch and the Holy Pontiff as previously mentioned and will last until the appearance of the Antichrist. This sixth epoch of the church – “the time of consolation” begins with the Holy Pope and the Powerful Emperor and terminates with the reign of Antichrist. This will be an age of solace wherein God will console His church after the many mortifications and afflictions she has endured in the Fifth period, for all nations will be brought to the unity of the True catholic faith. The sacerdocy will flower more than ever, and men will seek the kingdom of God in all solicitude. The Lord will give good pastors to the Church. Vocations will be abundant as never before and all men will seek only the kingdom of God and His justice. Men will live in peace and this will be granted because people will make their peace with God. They will live under the protection of the Great Monarch and his successors….”
“The Great Monarch will come when the Latin Church is desolated, humiliated, and afflicted with many heresies….”
(NOTE: the one strange contradiction here is he says the Great Monarch will have successors, therefore, possible heirs, but that cannot be possible according to the rest of his predictions, which says the Monarch will reign until the Antichrist appears after which there is the Second Coming, and then, in another prediction by Ven. Holzhauser, the Great Monarch he will continue to rule his kingdom even after the Second Coming with Christ, which is an interesting hint that Ven. Holzhauser believed that Christ will delegate kingdoms of the New Earth to deserving chosen saints. So, it is difficult to know what he means by 'successors' in this instance. It cannot mean an 'heir'.
“The Sixth Epoch of the World, which commences with the emancipation of the people of Israel and the restoration of the Temple and of the city of Jerusalem, will endure until the advent of Jesus Christ…For likewise, in this epoch, the people of Israel will be consoled to a very high degree by the Lord, our God, who will deliver them from the captivity of Babylon. The kingdoms, the nations, and the people will submit to the Roman Empire, furiously vanquished by the very powerful and very illustrious monarch who will govern during fifty-six years, rendering the peace of the universe and reigning alone until the advent of Jesus Christ and even after him. Thus, in the Sixth Age, God will delight his Church with the greatest prosperity…”
Apparently, this is Ven. Holzhauser's interpretation of Chapter 10 of the Apocalypse featuring the great Angel who gives St. John a book to eat:
“The “angel” is the Great Monarch: “from heaven” means he will be a catholic: “clothed in clouds” implies he will be humble and modest; “rainbow” he will bring peace to the world; “sunshine” refers to his wisdom, talents and title; “feet” refers to his power and zeal; “Open book” he will rule with justice “Right and left foot” he will exercise power over all the world; “Lion Voice” he will put fear into the wicked. The “Golden Crown” refers to his Holy Roman Empire; “Cutlass” means his victorious army; the other “angel” refers to the pope (Angelic pastor). “Other angels” are the other helpers of the Great Monarch who will help him crush the Turks…”
“During the fifth period we saw only calamities and devastation, oppression of Catholics by tyrants and heretics, executions of kings and conspiracies to set up republics but by the hand of God almighty there occurs so wonderful a change during the sixth period that no one can humanly visualize it. The powerful Monarch, who is sent from God, will uproot every Republic. He will submit everything to this authority and he will show great zeal for the true church of Christ. The empire of the Mohamedans will be broken up and the monarch will reign in the east as well as in the west. All nations will come to worship God in the true and Catholic Roman faith. There will be many saints and doctors of the church on earth. Peace will reign over the whole earth because God will bind Satan for a number of years before the days of the Son of Perdition. No one will be able to pervert the word of God since during the sixth period there will be an ecumenical council which will be the greatest of all councils. By the grace of God, by the power of the great Monarch, by the authority of the holy pontiff and by union of all the most devout princes atheism and every heresy will be banished from the earth. The council will define the true sense of Holy Scripture and this will be beloved and accepted by everyone.”
“When everything has been ruined by war; when Catholics are hard pressed by traitorous co-religionists and heretics, then the Hand of Almighty God will work a marvellous change, something apparently impossible according to human understanding. There will rise a valiant monarch anointed by God. He will be a Catholic, a descendant of Louis IX, yet a descendant of an ancient imperial German family, born in exile. He will rule supreme in temporal matters. The Pope will rule supreme in spiritual matters at the same time. Persecution will cease and justice shall rule. Religion seems to be suppressed, but by the changes of entire kingdoms it will be made more firm….He will root out false doctrines and destroy the rule of Moslemism. His dominion will extend from the East to the West. All nations will adore God their Lord according to the Catholic teaching. There will be many wise and just men. The people will love justice, and peace will reign over the whole earth, for divine power will bind Satan for many years until the coming of the Son of Perdition.”
“The reign of the Great Ruler may be compared with that of Caesar Augustus who became Emperor after his victory over his enemies, thereby giving peace to the world, also with the reign of Constantine the Great, who was sent by God, after severe persecution, to deliver both the Church and State. By his victories on water and land he brought the Roman Empire under subjection which
he then ruled in peace”
"On account of a terrible war Germany will wail, France will be the cause of all the woe, Germany will be miserably wounded, all will be impoverished. England shall suffer much. The King shall be killed.
"After desolation has reached its peak in England peace will be restored and England will return to the Catholic faith with greater fervor than ever before.
“[After a world war] will come a new period, in which two mighty ones will face each other. The wrangle between these two will begin in the second half of the twentieth century. It will overthrow mountains and silt up rivers. A great change will come to pass, such as no mortal man will have expected; Heaven and Hell will confront each other in this struggle, old states will perish and light and darkness will be pitted against each other with swords, but it will be swords of a different fashion. With these swords it will be possible to cut up the skies and split the earth. A great lament will come over all mankind and only a small batch will survive the storm, the pestilence and the horror. And neither of the two adversaries will conquer nor be vanquished. Both mighty ones will lie on the ground, and a new mankind will come into existence. God possesses the key to everything. Blessed is he who will then be able to praise him, having obeyed all his commandments. And the great monarch of the world will create new laws for the new mankind and will cause a new age to begin, in which there will be only one flock and one shepherd, and peace will be of long, long duration, for the glory of God in heaven and on earth…”
“Now the Great Monarch also will dominate over all the beasts of the earth, that is to say over the barbarian nations, over the rebellious peoples, over the heretic republics and over all men dominated by their evil passions…”
“It is in that age that the relation of the sixth Spirit of the Lord will be known, that is to say the Spirit of Wisdom that God diffuses over all the surfaces of the globes in those times. For men will fear the Lord their God, they will observe the law and serve it with all their heart. The sciences will be multiplied and complete on the earth. The Holy Scriptures will be unanimously understood, without controversy and without the errors of heresies. Men will be enlightened, so much as in the natural sciences and in the celestial sciences…”
“Finally, the Sixth Church, the Church of Philadelphia, is the type of this sixth age, for Philadelphia signifies friendship of brothers, and again guarding the heritage in union with the Lord. Now all these characters convene perfectly in the sixth age, in which they will have love, concord and perfect peace and in which the powerful Monarch will have to consider almost the entire world as his heritage. He will deliver up the earth, with the aid of the Lord his God from all his enemies, of ruin and of all evil…”
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| The Catholic Family Handbook by Rev. George Kelly |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2021, 10:52 AM - Forum: Resources Online
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The Catholic Family Handbook
Foreword by FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN Archbishop of New York
Copyright, 1959, by Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 59-10826
NIHIL OBSTAT: John A. Goodwine, J.C.D., Censor Librorum
IMPRIMATUR: Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York
August 22, 1959
This book is a memorial to eleven wonderful and happy years in Saint Monica's Parish, New York City, and to people I will always cherish with fond affection.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many good people have made the writing of this book a pleasure and have contributed much to the finished product. Our Regional Family Life Directors in New York have organized the family apostolate from which has been drawn some of the viewpoints and experiences recorded herein. The writer wishes publicly to acknowledge the work of the Reverends John Mulroy, James Keating, William Shelley, William McManus, John Hawes, John Hynes, John Scanlon, and Raymond Hill, and to thank them for their enthusiastic support and co-operation. The important part played by Dr. Bernard Pisani, in the success of "The Catholic Marriage Manual," both as friend and collaborator, is belatedly recognized. To John Springer is owed a special debt of gratitude. Mr. Springer was a constant source of help in assisting the author finish this work. His time, intelligence, and energy were always at my disposal. I am sincerely appreciative of his unselfishness and that of Paul Lapolla of Random House, whose personal concern and criticism helped us progress. Last and certainly not least, the author wishes to thank his Archbishop, Francis Cardinal Spellman, not only for the Foreword to the book, which sums up so well its purpose and spirit, but also for his interest and encouragement during the year of writing.
FOREWORD
By His Eminence, Francis Cardinal Spellman
Archbishop of New York
There is no art or profession more difficult and more strenuous than that of molding the bodies, minds, and souls of children. Because these are tender creatures, easily influenced by wrong guidance, God made parents the first and most important educators of children. When God confides a child to the care of Christian parents, He seems to say to them what Pharoah's daughter said to the mother of the infant Moses: "Take this child and rear him for Me."
The family, then, in God's plan is the nursery school in which the man of tomorrow matures and is formed--for life and eternity. The foundations of Christian living are established in the home, where minds are opened to God's Presence in the Universe and virtue is nurtured and strengthened. Children are eager pupils following the examples their father and mother give--learning from their words, their actions, and their attitudes.
How serious then, is their obligation to be good teachers. How tragic when they neglect their duties or perform them carelessly or indifferently!
In the training of children for effective Christian living, none can fully take the place of parents. If the home fails to measure up to divine ideals, the Church and school labor with impaired fruitfulness.
But it is not enough to be conscious of an obligation and to have the desire of discharging it. Parents must have besides, the competency to render them capable of fulfilling their responsibilities. Hence Catholic parents should deem it a sacred duty to prepare themselves properly for the arduous work of educating citizens of heaven and earth.
"The Catholic Family Handbook" performs a real service for parents. It helps fathers and mothers realize the full meaning of their sacred calling and offers them practical directives for dealing with the problems of educating modern youth; and they will find in its pages ways and means to perfect their relationship with their children.
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| The “Everything Was Tested on HEK” Lie |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2021, 10:19 AM - Forum: Abortion
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Excerpt:
Quote:The “Everything Was Tested on HEK” Lie
![[Image: Fr.-Schneider-Beware-of-False-Claims-108...db0&189db0]](https://catholicfamilynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Fr.-Schneider-Beware-of-False-Claims-1084x500.jpg?189db0&189db0)
Catholic Family News - Paul Casey, M.D. | December 9, 2021
On September 24, 2021, a Catholic Airman in United States Air Force, who graduated from the Academy with Military, Academic, and Athletic honors, was denied a religious exemption from receiving a COVID vaccine because she was told her objection did not constitute a “sincerely held belief”[1] after she admitted taking Tylenol, ibuprofen, and other over-the-counter medications. She was told that those medications, too, had been “tested” on the HEK-293 cell line. When she asked on what basis this testing claim was being made, her superior officer provided her with a single source[2] — an article by Fr. Matthew Schneider, LC, entitled, “If Any Drug Tested on HEK-293 is Immoral, Goodbye Modern Medicine.”
Her denial was based on a lie.
Note: Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines a “lie” as “an untrue or inaccurate statement that may or may not be believed true by the speaker or writer.” So does Webster’s. So do others. For the purpose of this article, there will be no distinction made between what some insist on calling an “untruth” and what will be referred to hereafter as a “lie”, or, more precisely, lies, as per the definition above, referring to the statements as they exist on paper.
Read the entire article here.
Download the PDF here.
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| Rev. George Kelly: You are your child's best teacher |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2021, 08:01 AM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors
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IT CANNOT be repeated too often that you are your child's most important teacher. As an adult, he will reflect your influence to a greater extent than you probably imagine-just as you reflect the personality of your own mother and father. Even if you refused to exercise your God-given responsibility to train him, you would leave your imprint upon his personality nevertheless. For instance, a father who deserts his family while his child is still an infant leaves an impression upon the youngster that will never be eradicated; he says, in effect, that parenthood is not worth the trouble and that a father's obligations are more than a man should carry. The storekeeper who calls it 'good business' when he cheats his customers by selling inferior merchandise teaches his child that honesty is unimportant. The mother who tells smutty stories need not deliver a speech downgrading purity; her actions, more effectively than words, teach this principle to her child. And against such influences of the home, it is highly unlikely that the corrective teaching of church or school can prevail.
You have an awesome responsibility, therefore, but also a challenge -a challenge to which you will rise magnificently if you realize the benefits to humanity that can be achieved if you live by true Christian principles. As we have noted, your influence as parent will extend not only to your children but to your children's children and down to many other generations yet unborn. Your simple acts of devoted motherhood or fatherhood may assist untold numbers to heaven-or your bad example may be the force which may lead them to hell.
What your child needs. In order to become an adult who will honour God and serve his fellow man in the way God intended, your child needs the sense of security that can come only from your unquestioned love and kindness. When a baby is born, he enters a strange environment-one newer and more different to him than Mars might be to the first space traveler. Before birth, your child was sheltered, warmed and fed in an automatic process. Then his world abruptly changed: he became an individual thrust from his warm, protecting shelter and forced to encounter cold, hunger and suffering. Never again on earth will he enjoy the sense of peace and well-being that he experienced in the womb.
The newborn babe needs food and shelter, of course. But even more, he needs a substitute for the security he has lost. This need can be satisfied in a physical way at first-for instance, when he is held close to his mother's body. Later, as he develops a sense of physical freedom as an individual, it must be supplied psychologically through love.
In his book 'Your Child's World,' Dr. Robert Odenwald, the psychiatrist, states that your child's need for security will be the most important part of your relationship with him. His behaviour in later life will reflect whether you have provided or denied it, and how much maturity he acquires as an adult will depend directly upon how much security you give him in his early years. 'You can best foster a feeling of security in your infant or young child by giving him uniform, sympathetic care,' Dr. Odenwald states. 'Paying loving attention to his needs, like holding him and rocking him, creates a steadfast continuity which makes him feel secure. One of the first things you will discover about your child is his urgent demand for consistency. Take him from the crib to which he has become accustomed, change some characteristic of his feedings, misplace his favourite toy, get someone new to care for him for a short period, and he may wail for hours. Is this an early evidence of perverseness on his part? No. It is evidence of his desire for security and his deep unhappiness when it is not provided for him.'
As your child develops, you can make him secure by constantly letting him know that you are interested in him as a person, and that you want him and love him. Few parents would openly admit that they do not love their child; yet many reject their offspring by their actions. Some couples find that a young child interferes with their pursuit of pleasure: they cannot go to many dancing parties or stay out until early morning when an infant demands their attention around the clock. Others may subconsciously resent the fact that they no longer can spend as much as they would like on liquor, clothes or automobiles; they must tighten their purse strings to support their baby. Other couples are immature and see the infant as a threat to their hold upon the affections of the partner.
When these resentments exist, th e parents may not express them openly; it is not the 'polite' thing to do. But they may develop attitudes which express their true feelings. One such attitude is perfectionism. Those who would not dare reject their child in an obvious way-such as by leaving him upon a doorstep-can set up standards of behaviour with which any human being would find it impossible to comply. Typical perfectionist parents usually have only one or two children; they often are more concerned about what other people will think of them than about what is truly right, and they tend to be unable to give freely of themselves emotionally. They upbraid their child for disturbing the sterile neatness of the living room, for shouting or singing in the house, or for returning dirty after playing outdoors. These parents are really saying that what their child does naturally-and what any normal child would do-is not suitable behaviour. By setting up artificial standards, they do not allow him to develop in a normal way and thus they undermine his confidence in himself as a worth-while individual- the very basis of his security.
Other parents stifle their child through over-protectiveness. Such parents also are saying that their child cannot be trusted to handle by himself the normal situations of everyday living which others of his age tackle with their own resources. Visit a public park on a Sunday and you will see over-protectiveness at its most appalling. A young child wishes to run on the grass, but his mother holds him back because she fears he might fall and hurt himself. Eight-year-olds playing a game are constantly warned not to throw the ball too far, lest they run out of the parents' sight and thus risk getting lost. These are extreme examples-the kind which often bring the child involved into a psychiatrist's office years later, as an adult, when he lacks the initiative to perform even common tasks on his own. Fortunately, few parents are guilty of such extreme behaviour, yet lesser varieties of over-protectiveness-the kind summed up in the word 'Mumism'-are more common than most persons suspect.
You are overprotective when you implore your young child to eat his dinner every night for fear that he will not get proper nourishment. If you withheld food between meals and let him hunger for a few days if necessary, he soon would eat what is offered at mealtime. You are overprotective if you constantly warn him of dangers such as falling which are a normal risk in children's games. Likewise, you are overprotective if you repeatedly beseech your teen-ager to wear his rain-coat when it rains; after a few urgings on your part, it would be better for his full development as a self-reliant individual if he contracted a cold as a result of his failure to wear them and thus learned from his own experience. For by constantly reminding your child to do what is a reasonable responsibility of his age, you indicate that you lack confidence in him and thus undermine his security.
It is obvious that a necessary chore when done for a young child may be sheer over-protectiveness when done for an older one. When your two-year-old plays in front of your house, common prudence dictates that you remain close by, because he lacks the experience to know that he must not run into the street and possibly into the path of an oncoming car. But to sit by for the same reason while your nine-year-old plays is sheer over-protectiveness. Thus, to function effectively as a parent, try to understand what may reasonably be expected of your child at various stages of his development. Many excellent books have been written by child psychologists which indicate what the normal youngster can do for himself at different ages.
Understanding your child. A second need of your child is to be understood in terms of his own native talents and capabilities. God makes each one of us different; our nervous systems may run from extremes of restlessness to extremes of placidity. One child may be born with a physique that demands constant physical exertion. Another may prefer to spend hours in one spot, if not in one position. One child may have a native curiosity which may some day make him an outstanding scientist; another may be bookish; a third given to play-acting. As was noted earlier, you should first accept your child for what he is. Then you should try to understand his particular needs which result from the fact that he is who he is. This is of great importance if he is to have a wholesome environment in which he can develop his fullest potentials.
Modern experts make much of the necessity of understanding your youngster. They are correct in this attitude. If twoyear-old Eddie constantly demands attention after the birth of a younger child, it is helpful to parents to realize that his conduct is probably caused by his fear that his parents are giving to the newcomer the love which he wants for himself. If your eight-year-old constantly picks on younger boys and is acquiring a reputation as a bully, it helps you if you realize that he probably feels frustrated in some important area of his life and is venting his frustration upon those who cannot fight back. If your thirteen-year-old daughter defies your wishes and applies rouge and lipstick when out of your sight, it may aid you if you understand that she is expressing her wish for greater freedom, and perhaps feels that you regard her too much as a little girl.
All too often, however, parents who understand why a child does a certain thing also feel that they must accept the action. This is a complete mistake-the kind of error that soft-hearted social workers make, especially in dealing with juvenile delinquents. You should understand why your child acts as he does so that you may be able to satisfy those emotional needs which he is seeking to satisfy by his improper conduct. If his actions reflect his sense of insecurity, find ways to give him a feeling of being loved and wanted. If his actions indicate his struggle for independence, provide outlets that enable him to express his own individuality without harming others. If his conduct indicates a belief that he is treated less fairly than your other children, devise ways to prove that he shares equally in your love.
But because you can explain why Johnny acts that way does not mean that his objectionable conduct itself should be tolerated. There is probably a reason why every sinner in history has performed his shameful act. But that does not make the act justifiable. The man who kills in a fit of passion may have been goaded into it; yet society rightfully demands that he pay a penalty. The bank robber may have been frustrated as a child; but if his lawyer advanced such an excuse before a judge, he would probably be laughed out of court. Therefore, when you seek to understand your child, do so not to excuse him but to gain knowledge that will help you direct him along the course of proper action.
Directing your child. Your final and fullest test as a parent lies in helping your child reach the potential of which he is capable. You must show him the way to go, and to do so you must know the way yourself.
Your child's goal is a happy, holy adulthood in which he serves God and man. He will make much progress toward this goal simply by following his natural urges to grow physically and mentally, and by observing you in your everyday relationship. But he should also be directed formally toward his goal by your direct teaching. Three principles are involved:
1. You alone have this authority to teach. It is your right given by God as an attribute of your parenthood. Moreover, no one can take it from you, so long as you fulfill your obligation to exercise it. Christian society has always recognized that the authority of the father and mother is unquestioned. For instance, in most states of the Union, a child is legally subject to his parents until he is eighteen.
2. Respect for authority is earned, not imposed. Children will always respond to authority when it is just and when they respect the parent who exercises it. They will ignore or disobey authority when it is unjust or when the parent has forfeited their respect. A father cannot expect his child to obey his rules if, for example, he consistently passes red lights and commits other traffic violations and thus shows that he himself disregards the laws of society. Likewise, your child will respect you only when you show by your actions that you respect him.
3. Your authority must be used. One 'modern' father decided not to teach his child anything about God so that the child could choose his own religion himself when he grew up. This man could just as well have argued that he would not try to inculcate any virtues; that the child could choose between honesty and dishonesty, between truth and falsehood, or between loving his country and hating it. Precisely because you are more experienced, you must decide on all matters affecting your child's welfare. You would not wait for him to decide when to see a doctor to treat his illness; you would call the doctor as soon as you decided that his services were necessary. You would not allow your seven-year-old to choose a school; you would make the decision without even consulting him.
As your child develops, he should exercise an increasing amount of authority over his own actions. When he is eight, you will decide which Mass he should attend on Sundays; when he is eighteen, the decision probably will be his. When he is seven, you will exercise a strong control over his reading matter; at seventeen, he himself will exercise a choice.
Allow your child to make decisions for himself on unimportant matters first. In questions involving the important areas-his religious duties, choice of school, etc., give freedom slowly and carefully. For instance, your teen-ager might be free to decide whether to attend a sports event on a Sunday afternoon, but he has no freedom to decide whether to attend Mass on Sunday morning.
How to instill obedience. You can teach your child to obey if you proceed in the proper way. Most youngsters want to remain on good terms with their parents and will do what they are told to maintain that relationship. Their disobedience often is due either to their ignorance of what is expected of them or to their desire to test whether the parents mean what they say. Obviously, your child's misbehaviour through ignorance of what you expect of him is not a deliberate attempt to circumvent your will and cannot be considered disobedience; and if he is promptly punished for stepping beyond the limits of conduct you have set, his experimental disobedience will cease abruptly.
Many childish actions that may seem to be disobedient are actually not that at all. A mother asked if her ten-year-old daughter would like to set the table. The girl said that she would not. The mother shook her head, remarking that the child was truly disobedient. The mother was mistaken: her daughter merely gave an honest reply to a question. When you want your child to obey you, tell him plainly that he must perform a specific action. Only then can you justifiably expect him to do as you say. If you ask him if he would like to do something or if you merely discuss a possible action without making your position plain, he may reasonably conclude that he may follow a course other than the one you advocate.
Children should not be slaves, to be ordered about at a snap of the finger. They must often be allowed freedom of choice, and should be permitted to raise reasonable and respectful objections if they feel that your instructions are not altogether correct. In doing so, they merely exercise a prerogative of individuals with minds of their own. But when an important issue arises and they must obey without questioning or quibbling, let them know that you expect strict obedience.
As children grow older, they can be appealed to more and more by reason than by stern orders. A soft approach�'suggesting or requesting, rather than commanding-is usually more effective. If you create a home atmosphere of mutual confidence and loving trust, the need to issue strict commands should diminish almost to the vanishing point by the time your youngsters enter their late teens.
Forming good habits. Your need to direct your child's actions should also diminish in proportion to his age. It will do so if you establish good habits of living which enable him to fulfill his obligations as a matter of course. By instilling good habits, you can impress upon your child that he has obligations to God and family; that authority demands his respect; that he must be reverent at his religious duties, co-operate in the home, and sacrifice his own interests where necessary for the welfare of others.
By developing good habits in many different areas of life, your child will strengthen his character. He will get many of these habits simply by watching you. From you he should learn to accept his responsibility toward Church, country and family. He should begin the habit of contributing to the support of your pastor at an early age, and be responsible for putting a small sum in the collection plate each Sunday. He should be taught to tip his hat in reverence when he meets a priest or sister. He should also bow his head when he hears the name of Jesus. Many similar habits can be developed.
In the home, he also can learn habits of responsibility at an early age. As soon as he is able, he should do some work around the house as his contribution toward family living. The boy or girl of seven may set the table for dinner or remove the dishes after it. A youngster of nine or ten can help vacuum the floors and keep his own room in order. The older girl can wash dishes and prepare meals occasionally. The older boy can maintain the lawn and wash the car. By performing all these tasks in a regular fashion and without being bribed to do so, your children learn the habit of contributing to the common welfare.
Habits can be inculcated so that they become part of the daily pattern of living. The youngster who is taught to say his morning and night prayers will soon say them automatically, his parents will not have to remind him every day. Similarly, the youngster who is required to do his homework every evening after dinner develops a regular pattern of performance. It will become an automatic process. When he arrives at high school, he will be able to take responsibility for his studies entirely.
The art of self-denial. One of the most important things you can do for your child's development is to teach him to practice self-denial willingly. If he is to become successful as a human being, he must learn to deny himself immediate pleasures to achieve a future good. We must all deny ourselves to achieve eternal happiness in heaven. So too on a worldly level. The husband and wife who fail to deny themselves at least some material pleasures during their early years of marriage will reach old age penniless and dependent upon others. The student who cannot deny his impulse for pleasure when homework assignments must be done, pays the price ultimately by failing in his studies and finding that he cannot achieve a suitable station in life.
Learning to say no is therefore the most important single lesson that your child must learn. During his lifetime, he must say no to temptations that besiege him on all sides; he must say no to discouragements, defeatism and despair; if he is to reach any stature in the spiritual or even worldly order, he must say no to urges to take things easy, relax, or give up the fight. For this reason, parents who try to do everything for their child ultimately do nothing for him; by preventing him from developing self-discipline and the ability to say no, they prevent him from acquiring the most important attribute of a complete person.
How can you teach your child to practice self-denial? Mainly by setting up rules for his conduct and behaviour and adhering to them firmly. When you do this, you make him aware of penalties that he must pay unless he controls impulses of one kind or another. Must he be home for dinner every night at 6 p.m. or lose desserts for a week? He must then say no to playmates who urge him to play another game of ball that will last beyond the designated time. Must he maintain a certain scholastic average or spend extra hours at his books each day until the next marking period? He will then learn that it is easier to deny himself to achieve passing grades now than to make greater sacrifices later.
The concept of self-denial appeals to youngsters. It represents a challenge -an opportunity to prove their mettle as strong-willed boys and girls. When they learn how to win over their lower instincts, they prepare themselves in the best possible way for the greater challenges and battles they will face as adults.
Five principles of discipline. No laws can be effective unless penalties are imposed when they are violated. So too with rules governing your child's conduct: You will be unable to direct him properly unless he learns that undesirable conduct will cause more pain than it is worth.
The idea of disciplining a child is viewed with disfavour by some modern experts. In their progressive view, the child should be free to express himself, and 'parents who hamper this self-expression hamper the development of his personality.' Enough years have passed so that we can now examine the adult products of this progressive school of discipline, and we find that the general results are not good. Children who are permitted to do as they please without a control system to govern their actions tend to become insufferably selfish, thoughtless of the rights and needs of others, and incapable of exercising the self-discipline which adults need to live harmoniously together.
Fortunately, the let-them-do-as-they-please school of child training is rapidly becoming passé. Most authorities now recognize that a child not only needs but also wants checks over his actions. Even in adolescence, the socalled 'age of rebellion against parents,' youngsters have affirmed many times that they prefer to be guided by rules of conduct and expect to be punished for infractions. In fact, teen-agers often complain that their parents are not sufficiently precise in announcing what will and will not be allowed.
Since children vary so greatly in temperament, along with their parents, it is probably unwise to set down hard and fast rules of discipline. However, five general principles can be adapted to fit most circumstances.
1. Keep in mind what purpose your discipline is intended to serve. You should discipline your child mainly to instill in him proper methods of behaviour and to develop his ability to control himself in the future.
This principle implies that you must subjugate your own personal feelings, likes and dislikes when exercising them might not serve a useful purpose. To illustrate: A father has often slept late on Saturday mornings while his young children raced about the house making noise. Usually he merely rolled over in bed and put a pillow over his head to keep out the sounds. One morning, however, he awakened with a headache while his children pounded their drums. His first impulse was to reach out from bed and spank them. But a second thought convinced him that his children were behaving properly in the light of their past experience, since they had no way of knowing that this was different from other Saturdays. Therefore, the father spoke to them reasonably, telling them that their noise disturbed him. If, after his explanation, they had continued to pound their drums, he could legitimately punish them to stress not only the importance of obedience but also that they must sacrifice their own interests for the good of others.
The child who knows that his punishment is dictated by his parents' love for him will become a partner in the punishment-at least to some extent-because he realizes that it is for his own good. That is why wise parents sometimes permit their youngsters to choose their own punishment when they have violated rules. The youngster who recognizes the need for punishment and who willingly accepts it takes an important step toward the goal of all his training-the disciplining of himself, a process which will continue until death.
2. Let the punishment fit the crime. In applying this principle, try to put yourself in the child's place. A four-year-old girl was playing in a side yard with several boys of her age. A neighbour observed her exposing her sex organs to them and reported the fact to her mother. The mother raced to the yard, grabbed the girl by the arm, dragged her into the house and beat her with a strap, raising welts upon her back. This mother should have realized that her daughter lacked the experience to know that her action was not proper. Moreover, the punishment was entirely out of keeping with the offence. It was based on the mother's own sense of shame and not that of the child. It was an exercise of hate-not of love.
What offences call for physical punishment? In the view of most experts, very few. However, reasonable corporal punishment, sparingly used, can be more effective than some educators like to admit. If a child's actions might cause physical harm to himself or another, his punishment should be strict enough to impress upon him the dangers of his actions. For instance, a child of two does not understand why he should not play with matches or cross the street without an adult. If he reaches for matches or steps from the sidewalk, you might spank him because this is the only way he can learn a vital lesson. The very young child measures good and bad in terms of his own pleasure and pain, and since most of his experiences are still on a physical level, physical punishment has its place. But wherever possible, love and affection should hold the foremost position. When your child resists the temptation to touch matches or cross a street unaided, use praise to assure him that he is doing the right thing. Spank him if nothing else works.
Some psychologists make much of the possible harm done to a youngster by physical punishment. But the Bible's teaching that 'He that spareth the rod hateth his son' (Proverbs, 13:24) indicates that physical punishment, as such, does not harm the child emotionally. When it is accompanied by indications of hatred, it is undeniably wrong. But the parent who applies the rod in a calm way and as evidence of his desire to help the youngster's development probably does not do lasting hurt. On the other hand, some of the most brutal punishments-the kind that leave wounds for years, if not for a lifetime-come from words. One little girl was never spanked by her father. But whenever she did things which he found objectionable, he shookhis head and commented that she was certainly 'a queer one.' The girl is now a woman of fifty, and her father has been dead thirty years, but his attitude still rankles deeply. She believes that it reflected his unwillingness or inability to understand her.
It should not be necessary to punish girls physically after they reach the age of twelve. Many teachers believe, however, that teenage boys can be held in line by-and respect-authority exercised in a physical way. Girls usually respond more readily to deprivations of privileges- being denied permission to visit friends on week ends, to attend parties, etc.
3. Punish only once for each offence. One advantage of corporal punishment which is often overlooked is that it usually 'clears the air.' Once it has been applied, parents and child generally feel free to forget it and go on to other matters. When their punishment is less decisive, parents may tend to keep harping on the offence-and the child never knows when it is going to be thrown up to him again.
To apply this principle, make sure that your child thoroughly understands what his punishment will be. For instance, if you decide to deny him desserts for a week, tell him so at the outset; do not keep him wondering from day to day when the punishment will end. And do not harp on the offence after the punishment ends. Let him know that when he pays for his conduct he starts with a clean slate.
4. Be consistent. Your child deserves to know exactly what kind of conduct is tolerated, and what will be punished. Unless he knows this, he will try to find out how far he can go. If you tell him that he must be home at 8:30, he will be uneasy if he arrives at 9:00 and is not called to task for being late. Next time, he will be tempted to remain out until 9:30, and he will continue pushing the hour ahead until you step down firmly. If you berate him for arriving home at 9:00 after he returned at 10:00 the night before without comment from you, you will leave him thoroughly confused as to where the limits actually lie.
To be effective, your rules must also be fair. One child should not be punished for actions which another commits with impunity. In one family with seven children, all know that they will lose their allowances for a week if they are not at home for dinner at a designated time. One evening one youngster came home late with the excuse that the bus was delayed. His mother said that she would not punish him. The father then insisted that the boy lose his allowance, because he knew that once any excuses were accepted, the parents would be besieged with them and the entire system of fairness for all would break down. As this example indicates, parents who do not apply rules consistently actually perform a disservice to the child.
5. Investigate before you punish. In order to discipline your child properly, you must necessarily know the facts in the case. Otherwise you do not know what purpose your punishment should serve. Parents may easily misinterpret a child's action. Sometimes he does things which are wrong because no one has told him not to do them and he does not know whether they are approved or not. Be especially careful before punishing a child involved in a quarrel or fight with another. It is often difficult to find out who is at fault, since both children usually contribute to a squabble to greater or lesser extents.
NIHIL OBSTAT: John A. Goodwine, J.C.D., Censor Librorum
IMPRIMATUR: Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York
The nihil obstat and imprimatur are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who have granted the nihil obstat and imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed.
August 22, 1959
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| Rev. George Kelly: Your Job as a Parent |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2021, 07:51 AM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors
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IF YOU could carefully study families that are genuinely happy -those in which father and mother truly love each other and their children, and where children obey, respect and love their parents-you would find that they have many traits in common. These characteristics are distinct and recognizable, and sharply differentiate these families from those in which there is unending tension, bickering and bitterness.
No institution has had the opportunity to observe the characteristics of happy families as has the Church. Through the centuries, she has recognized the family as the ideal means of helping parents and children to lead holy and happy lives, and she has carefully noted which factors best encourage holiness and happiness. What she has long known has been borne out in recent years by the studies of social scientists. These researchers have questioned thousands of persons who, by their own testimony, are members of happy families; and they have questioned other thousands who admit that their family life is not happy. From such beginnings they have uncovered the characteristics of happy families which are lacking in the other kind. The findings of the Church, tested over the centuries, and of sociologists, using modern scientific methods, agree that there are five main characteristics of a happy family.
First, it places full, unquestioned trust in God. Father, mother and children accept the Almighty as their Creator without reservation. They show love and respect for Him and His laws in the everyday conduct of their lives. They pray together; they attend Mass and receive Communion together; they practice other devotions together; they make their home a little sanctuary, with pictures and statues to remind them of Our Lord or the Blessed Mother.
The father who believes and trusts in God is best equipped to perform his functions as head of the family. Aware of his responsibilities to the Lord for his children, he strives to instill moral virtues by his own example. The mother who holds the Blessed Virgin as her model develops the love and patience which nurture the spiritual and emotional growth of her children.
When father and mother give living evidence of their faith in God, they no longer need spend so much time trying to decide which course to pursue in bringing up their children. They usually know what to do, because they have a standard to guide them. They only ask: What does God want of us as parents? When they seek to understand His way and to follow it, they free themselves of the confusion which besets parents without standards upon which to rest.
Children in a home where God is worshipped also know where they stand. They are taught to respect the Creator and, in respecting Him, to respect all lawful authority. They learn in a precise way what conduct is acceptable and what is forbidden. In their study of religion and religious truths, they learn at an early age that punishment will inevitably follow wrongdoing; thus they learn the major principle which will guide their conduct throughout their lives.
Many authorities have observed that a major sign of danger in marriage arises when one or both of the partners stops attending religious services regularly. Records of the nation's courts clearly prove that the home which worships God does not produce the child who appears before a judge on charges of juvenile delinquency. Studies of unwed mothers prove that the girl who has learned the virtue of purity in a religious setting at home is not the one who gets into trouble in her adolescence.
Second, the happy family puts interest in its home in first place. Father and mother fully recognize that the most important work they can do is to train their children to be a credit in the eyes of God.
One sometimes encounters a father who spends long hours at business during the week and then spends his week ends with business associates. In pursuing success or wealth-and perhaps believing that he is a good father in doing so-he refuses his children's fundamental need to know him as a human being. On the other hand, one often sees men who hold positions which, by the worlds standards, are low in social prestige. Perhaps they sacrifice material progress by devoting their leisure time to their children-playing and talking with them, sympathizing with their problems and encouraging them in their aspirations. Regardless of what the world thinks, the first type of father is a failure and the second type is a success.
In a happy home, parents often hold firm against other allurements which tempt them to put the needs of their children in an inferior place. Such allurements include the desire for an overly active social life, the constant pursuit of pleasure in the form of commercial entertainment and the exclusive choice of hobbies (golf, cards, dancing clubs, etc.) from which children are excluded.
Obviously, men must work to provide for their families. It is also obvious that parents are entitled to entertainment away from their children-in fact, an evening alone can have a pronounced therapeutic effect. Nor is the desire to succeed in business or to enjoy one's self blameworthy. But when a father becomes overly ambitious and sacrifices his children for his career advancement, or when a mother engages in an unending round of social activities, the great bond of unity in the family is weakened. Mutual love and respect, which are born and held only in intimacy, are the ingredients that make for true family life, and they cannot thrive when the father or mother places other objectives ahead of them.
Third, in happy families, father and mother occupy a position of equality, but there is no misunderstanding that he is the head. The importance of the mother is an accepted fact. She is the heart of the family-the custodian of love and warmth, the first comforter and educator of the children. In according her a just status, however, we must not weaken the father's traditional position.
By nature and temperament, he should exercise headship. When he fails to do so, his children lack an appropriate male model to guide them in their conduct, and they are likely to reach maturity without properly understanding the roles they must play as men or women. But while he must be the leader, he should not be like a common type of fathers of the past-the tyrant whose word was law, and whose wife and children constantly trembled before him. Such a father does more harm than good; his children either become submissive before everyone, or become so rebellious against authority that they cannot lead normal lives as law-abiding citizens. In happy homes, the father is the just dispenser of punishment, but he also wins the respect of his children by the reasonable rules he imposes and the merciful way he enforces them.
Fourth, the happy family is based upon mutual sacrifice. In such a home, Dad will forgo desserts at lunch to save for a family vacation which all members of the family may enjoy. Mother will wear a dress that is several seasons old so that her daughter may take piano lessons; and the children will save for weeks to buy her a special gift for Mother's Day. When Dad must do extra work at home for his employer and Mother can help him, she gladly does so. When guests are coming and the house needs a thorough cleaning, Dad rolls up his sleeves and does his share of the manly work. Johnny washes the windows as his regular chore, Billy sets the table for dinner, Mary washes the dishes while Mother rests, and after school Tommy sometimes watches the baby in her playpen while Mother shops. In this family, everyone makes sacrifices for the common good.
Fifth, the happy family runs on rules. The children know exactly what they can do without offending others, and what they cannot do. They know what their punishment will be if they break the rules. And they know that it will not vary from time to time or from parent to parent.
Establishing clear-cut family rules requires complete agreement between father and mother. Few things disturb a child more than when his father establishes one standard of conduct and his mother makes continuous exceptions to it. Once a father and mother agree, neither should change the rules without consulting the other, or the child will not know what is expected of him. And both father and mother must share in enforcing them.
Probably the happiest homes are those in which each family member imposes rules upon himself. One wife becomes unduly disturbed whenever references are made to the alleged inferiority of women in any area of activity. She becomes angry at jokes about women drivers, women who are late for appointments, women who can't balance a checkbook. Out of respect for her feelings, her husband never raises such subjects even in a joking way. Many husbands have similar quirks in their make-up which may be unjustified from an objective point of view but which their wives respect for the sake of harmony. Sometimes children also become sensitive about certain points. When family members are motivated by a spirit of Christian tolerance, they willingly impose the rule upon themselves not to raise such touchy subjects.
As this review of the characteristics of happy families suggests, achievement of a genuinely Christian environment in your home will not result from mere chance. Rather you must put into effect the principles that follow from recognition of the fact that the family should be a triangle with God at its apex, or else it is doomed to failure. For the very characteristics that make a home holy, happy, and a source of strength and solace for its members come from nowhere but Almighty God. The love which the mother displays for her infant, the just and consistent way in which the father exercises his authority-these are but human copies of the loving authority which God exercises over all His children. And the respect for God and each other that family members display in the truly happy and Christian home springs from the two greatest commandments-that we love God with all our minds and all our hearts, and that we love our neighbour as ourselves.
Advantages of the large family. Before marrying, many young couples decide how many children they will have-a decision which often reveals that they are more concerned with how few children they will have rather than how many. Thus they begin their marriage with intentions of limiting the number of off spring. In this respect they reflect the birthcontrol frame of mind so prevalent today-a frame of mind which regards children as a liability rather than a blessing.
Although the first purpose of marriage is the procreation of children, Catholic couples will not necessarily have offspring. There may be many reasons why they cannot have babies or why they are limited to one or two. Some wives have difficulty in carrying a foetus to full term and have many miscarriages. Sometimes the husband or wife may be sterile-unable to do his or her part in conceiving a new life. There may be mental, eugenical, economic or social reasons which make it justifiable to practice the rhythm method. The fact that a Catholic couple has no children, therefore, is no reason for concluding that they are guilty of any moral lapse.
In most marriages, however, there probably are no physical hindrances to births or justifiable reasons to limit them beyond those limitations which nature herself and unchangeable circumstance impose. Hence the typical Catholic family will have many more children than are found in the average family of other beliefs.
The large family provides many distinct advantages for both parents and children. For instance, it brings the mother and father closer together, giving them a joint source of love, and they achieve a closer sense of unity in planning for their children's welfare. Their love for each child extends their love for each other, and in each child they can see qualities which they love in their mates.
Children help parents to develop the virtues of self-sacrifice and consideration for others. The childless husband and wife must consciously cultivate these qualities, for the very nature of their life tends to make them think first of their own interests. In contrast, a father and mother who might have innate tendencies toward selfishness learn that they must subjugate their own interests for the good of their children, and they develop a spirit of self-denial and a higher degree of sanctity than might normally be possible.
The fact that children help to increase harmony in marriage has been proved in many ways. The sociologist Harold A. Phelps, in his book 'Contemporary Social Problems, reports that 57 per cent of the divorcees in one large group had no children and another 20 per cent had only one child. Other researchers have established that the percentage of divorces and broken homes decreases as the number of children in the family increases.
Large families also teach children to live harmoniously with others. They must adjust to the wishes of those older and younger than themselves, and of their own and the other sex. In learning to work, play and, above all, share with others, the child in a large family discovers that he must often sacrifice his own interests and desires for the common good. For this reason, the 'spoiled child who always insists on having his own way is rare in the large family, if he can be found there at all. For the child who will not co-operate with others has a lesson forcibly taught to him when others refuse to cooperate with him.
In the typical large family, one often sees a sense of protectiveness in one child for another that is the embodiment of the Christian spirit. Children learn to help each other-to hold each other's hands when crossing the street, to sympathize with each other in times of sadness or hurt, and to give each other the acceptance which we all need to develop as mature human beings. This willingness to help one another is often strikingly evident in schoolwork: the oldest child instructs his younger brother in algebra, while the latter helps a still younger one in history.
Another advantage of large families is that they teach each child to accept responsibility for his own actions. Unlike the mother with one or two children, the mother of a large family usually lacks the time and energy to concern herself with every little problem of her children. She must observe sensible precautions with her children, of course, but she is not guilty of supervising her child's life to such an extent that he has no chance to develop his own resources. Precisely because she cannot devote her full time to him, he must make decisions for himself. Moreover, he acquires a better understanding of the rules by which the family is run. He sees his brothers and sisters punished for various breaches of conduct and learns what he himself may and may not do. And as he watches the progress of older children, he learns what privileges he may expect as he too advances in age. This knowledge gives him a greater sense of security.
Another reward for members of the large family, to which those who are now adults can testify, is that it gives the children close relatives upon whom they can depend all their lives. Occasionally, of course, brothers and sisters cannot agree as adults and break off relations completely. More often, however, they retain a close bond of kinship with each other and the reunions and family get-togethers on occasions like Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter form one of the great joys of their lives. In most cases, the child brought up in a large family never feels utterly alone, regardless of adversities which may strike in adulthood. If he is troubled or bereaved, in desperate need of financial help or sympathetic advice, he usually can depend upon brothers and sisters to help. Forlorn indeed is the man or woman who, in time of stress, has no close and loving relatives to tell his problems to.
A final, but by no means least important, advantage is that they virtually insure the parents against loneliness, which has often been called the curse of the aged. How often do the father and mother of a large family remain young at heart because of the love they give to, and draw from, their grandchildren? In fact, many say that old age is their happiest time of life because they can enjoy to the fullest the love of the children and grandchildren without the accompanying responsibility. On the other hand, how lonely and miserable are the typical old people who have no children or grandchildren to love them?
One should not overlook the fact that there are some disadvantages to both parent and child in the large family. However, an objective review of these disadvantages would surely establish that they are outweighed by the advantages. For example, the large family may require the parents to make great financial sacrifices. They may be unable to afford as comfortable a home, own as new an automobile, or dress as well as can the husband and wife with a small family. But they have sources of lasting joy in the love, warmth and affection of their children-a joy that money cannot buy. The children of a large family may also be required to make sacrifices. Their parents may be unable to pay their way in college. But this need not mean that they will be denied educational opportunities. Thanks to scholarships, loan programs, and opportunities for student employment, the bright boy and girl who truly desires a college education can find the financial resources to obtain one. And having to earn at least a part of their own way will make them better students. Researchers have established that students who drop out of college most frequently have had all their expenses paid for them and have never learned the true value of an education.
Considerations for parents of small families. If you have but one or two children, you should try to create for them opportunities such as exist in larger families to develop their characters. In particular, you should discourage selfish tendencies-a natural hazard in the small family. Since you can concentrate all your attention upon your child, you may tend to worry about him to a greater extent and to bow to his whims more often than do parents of a large family. There is a natural danger, therefore, that he will become accustomed to having his own way and will not recognize that others have desires which should be accommodated too.
In training an only child, it may help you to remember that self-denial is the virtue from which other virtues spring. You should therefore strongly resist the tendency to do everything for him and not permit him to want for anything. So that he may learn to get along with others, encourage him to cultivate friends. Invite them to your home where he will be the host and thus must exert himself to please them.
Finally, give him the freedom to develop in his own way. You must control the impulse to worry unduly about every ailment, to stand guard over him at play, to check up constantly on his teachers to make sure that they are doing their job right. Such actions would betray a tendency to interfere abnormally in your child's affairs. Unless you avoid them you may find yourself ultimately trying to dictate where he should work and whom he should marry, and you will make it difficult for him ever to make decisions for himself.
How to be a good father. Probably nobody denies that the typical father exercises less authority in his home today than at any time in history. Reasons for this decline probably are of no interest or help in the present discussion; but the effect of it cannot be overlooked. For evidence accumulated by psychiatrists, social workers and similar experts proves unmistakably that when children lack a strong father to guide them, they suffer serious damage in many important ways. Consider these facts:
There is a startling growth in homosexual tendencies among the young, and most authorities agree that the boy who develops feminine characteristics usually has had unsatisfactory relations with his father in one or several important respects. Increases in juvenile delinquency-a headlined trend in every part of the country-are also due to the weak position of the father; the lack of an affectionate and understanding relationship between father and son is a prevalent characteristic in the background of boys charged with criminal offenses. Many authorities also blame the shocking rates of divorce and marriage breakdowns to this cause. The fathers of those who cannot succeed in marriage often never gave their children a realistic example of how a man should live with his wife in this relationship.
The importance of the father as an example of manhood to his son and daughter probably cannot be overestimated. For example, one day your son may marry and have a family. To be a successful father, he should know how to train his children; how to treat his wife and their mother in their presence; what to discuss with them about his work; how to show them manual skills, such as repairing a chair or painting furniture; how to perform in countless other important areas. The best way to learn how to act as a father is to observe one in action.
What ideals will he display as husband and father? To a large extent, that answer will depend upon those he has learned from you, his father, in your own home. What part will he play in the religious education of his children? The answer will largely depend upon whether you have led the family to Mass each Sunday, whether you say grace before meals in your home, whether you take an active part in the spiritual life of your parish. How should he act toward his wife-aloof, affectionate, domineering, docile? Here too the answer will mainly depend upon your example.
The adage, 'Like father, like son, is firmly based on fact. No matter how much he may resist your influence, your son will be like you in many different ways. If your influence is wholesome, the effect upon him will be wholesome. If you are a bad father, you will almost surely corrupt him in some significant way. Remember also that you represent God before your child because you are-or should be-the figure of authority in your home. He will be taught that he can always depend upon the mercy and goodness of the eternal Father, but it will be difficult for him to grasp the full importance of that teaching if he cannot rely upon the goodness of his earthly father.
It has been said that, in addition to giving wholesome example, a good father follows four fundamental rules in his dealing with his children. First, he shows himself to be truly and sincerely interested in their welfare. Secondly, he accepts each child for what he is, and encourages any special talent which the youngster possesses. Thirdly, he takes an active part in disciplining his children. And finally, he keeps lines of communication open with them at all times. Each of these rules is worth detailed consideration, because the typical American father often ignores one or more of them.
1. Show an interest in your child's welfare. You can do this by devoting time to him, every day if possible. Try to discuss with him his experiences, problems, successes and failures. By giving yourself to him in this intimate way, you give him the feeling that he can always depend upon you to understand and help him in his difficulties. In a large family, it is especially important that you find time for intimate moments with each child. Every youngster should know that his father is interested in him as an individual, and is sympathetic with him and devoted to his welfare.
Modern fathers may find it more difficult to make their children an intimate part of their lives than did men of a few generations ago. Today's fathers often work many miles away from home. They leave for their jobs early in the morning and do not return until late in the evening, perhaps after the children are in bed. Unlike the men of an earlier age who often worked close to their homes, today's fathers may seldom see their youngsters during the week. To offset this condition, they should try to devote as much of their week ends to them as possible. This does not mean that you should be a 'pal to your children or that you must act like a juvenile, when aging bones may not permit this. But at family gatherings, picnics, trips to the ball park or even visits to the school, you are sharing leisure moments with them.
2. Accept your child and encourage his talents. One man hoped for a son, and found it impossible to conceal his disappointment when a girl was born. He now spends much time trying to inculcate masculine virtues in her and berates her constantly because she is not proficient at sports. A successful lawyer prides himself upon his intellect and once hoped that his son would achieve great scholastic success. But the lad, now in high school, has shown no pronounced ability in academic work; however, he is skilled at working with his hands. He must face unending sneers from his father about his 'stupidity. A third man married a beautiful woman and expected his daughters to be beauties too. One girl is extremely plain, however. Even at the age of ten she knows that she is a complete disappointment to her father.
All of these examples indicate ways in which fathers display a lack of acceptance of their children. It is a fact that the qualities a child inherits-his physical attributes, aptitudes, and many other characteristics-are the result of chance. He may be a genius or an idiot: you should not claim credit if the first possibility occurs any more than you should feel ashamed for the second. The moral is plain: your children are a gift from God, and you should always accept each of them in a spirit of gratitude. In fact, the saintly father will accept a defective child with greater gratitude, for God has offered him an opportunity to provide more love, affection and direction than the ordinary youngster might need.
Remember also that your child is an individual, with talents which you perhaps cannot appreciate. Let him develop them in the best way possible. In attempting to learn why many gifted children do not go to college, researchers have found that their parents often have actively discouraged them. In a typical case, a father became wealthy through real estate investments and could easily afford college for a son with a strong aptitude in science. But the father accused the boy of trying to 'put on airs whenever college was discussed. Thanks to him, the son is now a misfit.
3. Don't shirk unpleasant tasks of parenthood. 'See your mother; don't bother me is a remark commonly made by one type of father. He returns from work, eats his dinner and then settles down to an evening behind his newspaper or before the television screen. When his children seek his aid with their homework or when they become unruly and require a strong parental hand, he is 'too busy to pay attention. Such an attitude tells a child that his mother is the true figure of importance in the family, while Dad is only the boarder who pays the bills.
It is not fair for fathers to enjoy all the pleasures of parenthood -to play with the children, to boast about their growth-and to give mothers all the painful duties. A father should discipline as often as the mother. If he fails to do so, he gives the children the idea that he does not stand with the mother in her efforts to instill proper manners and acceptable forms of behaviour. As a matter of fact, in major matters the good father is likely to be the court of last resort. This is as it should be for his authority is more impressive and its effect more lasting than that of the mother.
4. Keep lines of communication open with your children. Teenagers often say that they cannot talk to their fathers about questions which disturb them. This breakdown in communication usually stems from one of three factors, or a combination of them. The father may be so severe in his discipline that he appears as a dictator in the youngster's mind; in the past he has always been 'too busy to keep on close terms with his boy; or he has not given his youngster the respectful attention he should have.
Stalin-type fathers fortunately are on the way out in America, for most men have learned that it is easier to train a child with loving kindness than with brute force. But some stern unyielding fathers remain. They may beat their child into patterns of behaviour that offend no one, but in the process they often create a bitter adult who is never able to confide fully in another human being.
The second and third possible explanations for a child's unwillingness or inability to confide in his father may have even worse effects than the first. In the first instance, unless the father is a calloused brute, his child may at least discern evidence that his father is interested in his welfare. But when a father does not even care enough to concern himself with the child's upbringing in any serious way, he evidences a complete absence of love or interest.
There are many things that human beings prefer to keep to themselves, and it is probably good that this is so. Your child should not feel that he must lay bare his innermost thoughts and desires. But he should know that in times of stress and strain he has a sympathetic and loving adviser to turn to. You will fulfill that role if you strive always to treat him with courtesy and sympathy, and with an understanding based upon your memory of the difficulties, problems, fears and aspirations of your own boyhood. Never ridicule him: it is the opposite of sympathy and probably locks more doors between father and son than any other action.
How to be a good mother . In view of the many social evils resulting from the decline in the father's influence, one of the most important functions the modern mother should perform is to help maintain or restore the father's position of authority in the family. In doing so, you will fulfill your own role as a wife and mother to a greater extent than is possible when you permit your husband to be the lesser figure. This was the secret of the success of olden fathers. Even though they worked twelve hours a day, their dominant role in the home was guaranteed and protected by the mother.
You can make your greatest contribution to your family as the heart of your home -not its head. From you, your children should learn to love others and to give of themselves unstintingly in the spirit of sacrifice. Never underestimate the importance of your role. For upon you depends the emotional growth of your children, and such growth will better prepare them to live happy and holy lives than any amount of intellectual training they may receive.
Most of us know persons who have received the finest educations which universities can bestow, who yet lead miserable lives because they have never achieved a capacity to love. On the other hand, we also know of men and women whose intellectual achievements are below normal but whose lives are filled with happiness because their mothers showed them how to love other human beings. It follows that in helping your child to satisfy his basic emotional needs to love and be loved, you give something as necessary as food for his full development. So do not be beguiled by aspirations for a worldly career or by the desire to prove yourself as intelligent as men or as capable in affairs of the world as they. The father must always remain a public figure. The mother is the domestic figure par excellence. In teaching your child the meaning of unselfish love you will achieve a greater good than almost any other accomplishment of which human beings are capable.
You are the most important person your child will ever know. Your relationship with him will transcend, in depth of feeling, any other relationship he probably will ever have-even the one with his marriage partner. As noted above, from you he will learn what true love really is. From the tenderness you show and the security you give, you will develop his attitudes toward other human beings which will always remain with him.
However, his dependence on you begins to wane soon after birth -and continues to wane for the rest of your life. In his first years, naturally, he will rely upon you almost entirely-not only for food, but also to help him perform his most elementary acts. But soon he learns to walk and to do other things for himself; when he goes to school he can dress himself; when he reaches adolescence and strives for the freedom that adults know, he will try to throw off his dependence so violently that you may fear that you have lost all hold upon him.
Your job is to help him reach this state of full and complete independence in a gradual fashion. And your success as a mother will depend to a great extent upon the amount of emancipation you permit him as he steps progressively toward adulthood. Therefore you should try to judge realistically when your child truly needs your help and when he does not.
If you can reach the happy medium wherein you do for your child only what he cannot do for himself, you will avoid dominating him or overindulging him. The dominant mother makes all decisions for Johnny and treats him as though he had no mind of his own; the overindulgent mother will never permit her Mary to be frustrated in any wish, or to be forbidden any pleasure her little heart desires. The overindulgent mother may do without the shoes she needs to buy a doll for her Annie; she may stop what she is doing to help Johnny find the comic book he has misplaced; she may eat the leftovers in the refrigerator while she gives the freshly prepared food to her children.
The overindulgent mother is a common character in literature. Probably every American woman has seen movies and television programs, and has read stories in magazines and newspapers, in which these defects were pointed out. Yet every new generation of mothers seems to practice the same extreme of behaviour. Some excuse themselves by saying that they want to give their children every advantage in life. Such an intention is laudable, perhaps, but the method is impractical. If you want to do the best for your child, let him develop so that he can face life on his own feet. Overindulging him denies him his right to develop his own resources and thus defeats the purpose of your mission as a mother.
Someone once remarked in jest that as part of her education for motherhood, every woman should visit the psychiatric ward of an army hospital. If you could see the countless examples of mental disorders caused largely by the failure of mothers to sever the apron strings to their child, you could easily understand why-for the sake of your child's emotional self-you must make it a primary aim to help him to develop as an independent person.
Priests and psychiatrists often see problems from different angles, yet they display striking agreement in pinpointing other kinds of maternal conduct which do great harm to the child. Their advice might be summarized as follows:
Don't be an autocrat who always knows best. Your child may have his own way of doing things, which may seem to be inefficient or time-consuming. Have patience and let him do things his way, thus giving him the opportunity to learn by trial and error.
Don't be a martyr. Naturally, you must make sacrifices. But do not go to such extremes that your child feels guilty when you deny yourself something which rightfully should be yours, in order to give him what rightfully should not be his. A typical martyr worked at night in a laundry to pay her son's way through college. Before his graduation, he asked her not to appear at the ceremony-he said she would be dressed so poorly that he would be embarrassed.
Don't think you have the perfect child. Some mothers, when their child receives low grades, appear at school to determine, not what is wrong with him, but what is wrong with the teachers. When such a mother learns that her son has been punished for disobedience, she descends upon the school officials and demands an apology. By her actions she undermines the child's respect for all authority-including her own. You will probably be on safe ground, until your child is canonized at St. Peter's, if you conclude that he has the same human faults and weaknesses that you see in your neighbours' children.
Don't use a sick-bed as your throne. The 'whining mother feigns illness to attract sympathy and to force her children to do as she wills. Who would deny the last wish of a dying person? In this vein she often gets what she wants-for a while. The usual, final result, however, is that her children lose both sympathy and respect for her.
Don't be a 'glamour girl. Motherhood is not a task for a woman who thinks that ordinary housework-preparing meals, making beds, washing clothes-is beneath her. Of course, mothers should strive to maintain a pleasing appearance, but they should also realize that they are most attractive when they are fulfilling the duties of their noble vocation. You would embarrass your family if you insisted on acting and dressing like a teen-ager; and, if you adopted a demeaning attitude toward household tasks, you would teach your children that motherhood and its responsibilities are unworthy of respect.
NIHIL OBSTAT:
John A. Goodwine, J.C.D., Censor Librorum
IMPRIMATUR:
Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York
The nihil obstat and imprimatur are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who have granted the nihil obstat and imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed.
August 22, 1959
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