Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion [1908]

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908


FORTY-FIRST OBJECTION. WHAT IS THE USE OF CONFESSION?

Answer. In the first place, it is evident that there is some good in it, since it is a divine institution, and God does nothing without a motive.

But you ask further what is the use of confession? Go to confession, and you will see what the use of it is.

You will see it is of use in order to become good, from bad that we were before; you will see it is of use in correcting our vices and causing us to advance rapidly in the practice of the most heroic virtues.

What is the use of confession? Ask that poor child whom shameful habits once degraded, while their brand was already stamped on his countenance . . . See him now completely changed in physical appearance as in moral condition. What has he done, then? He has been to confession, he goes to confession . . . formerly he went not.

What is the use of confession? Ask that workman, formerly so dissolute, and with such a passion for the grog-shop; now so chaste, so sober, so well-conducted, so industrious, become in a short time a model for all his comrades! His wife and children find that confession is of some use.

What is the use of confession? Ask that poor woman, overwhelmed with misery, burdened with several children, ill-used by her husband . . . She has often wished, the hapless creature, to go and end her sorrows in the river . . . The thought of God and of her children has arrested her. She approaches the confessional . . . I know not what were the words said to her, but see her returning to her home, with a peaceful heart, and cheerful countenance. She bears her sorrows more patiently; endures her husband's harsh treatment in silence . . . He is surprised at the change at first, then he admires it, then he loves it, then he imitates it. Reckon up: one suicide less; a mother preserved to her six or seven children; a well-conducted household and one virtuous family more in the world.

After this poor woman, it is perhaps a servant that we see, who, during many years, continued to make his small private profits somewhat boldly, at his master's expense. Remorseful feelings take possession of his mind; he seeks the priest . . . If the master takes heed to his affairs, he will see his expenses diminished, without his house being less well kept up . . . And one day he receives a banknote worth four or five hundred francs from an unknown quarter.*

Reckon up: a thief less in the world, perhaps the shameful stigma of the galleys averted from a respectable family; an honest servant more.

What is the use of confession? Ask the poor inhabitants of any district. The wealthy proprietor of the surrounding lands left them to suffer want and poverty; spending all his fortune on himself . . . Some little time since he went to confession, and still goes . . . and see him become the father of his unfortunate tenants; he even anticipates their necessities. They, poor creatures, find that confession is of some use!

Confession is the shield of perseverance and virtue. It is the bark, rough and harsh to the touch, I own; but the protecting bark which preserves intact that wonderful fruit which is called conscience.

Confession gives back and preserves that peace of mind without which there is no happiness.

It prevents innumerable crimes and misfortunes.

It raises up the poor sinner, whose weakness has separated him from God! It, above all, consoles the dying man about to appear before his God and his Judge!*

What a change would be visible in France if all were to go to confession, with all sincerity and seriousness, as they ought!

The laws and the police would be much less frequently called on for interference. In this single law of the Church, "you must confess all your sins, at least once a year," there would be power enough to regenerate the country, and arrest those revolutions which so frequently have disturbed its peace.

Judge the tree, then, by its fruits.

It is the same with confession as with religion itself; its only enemies are ignorance, prejudice, and the passions.†

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908


FORTY-SECOND OBJECTION. I DO NOT NEED TO GO TO CONFESSION. I HAVE NOTHING TO REPROACH MYSELF WITH; I HAVE NEITHER KILLED NOR ROBBED ANY ONE, NOR HAVE I INJURED ANY ONE. I SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO SAY.

Answer. And is this the result of your examination of conscience? My good friend, one of two things, then, must be true: either you are an exception to all men, or else you do not see clearly into your own conscience.

And shall I say it to you frankly? I am sure you are a man like the rest of men, and that the second supposition alone is the true one.

You have nothing to reproach yourself with? Let us examine a little. It would be singular enough, were I to see more clearly into your conscience than you do yourself.

1. Let us first consider how you stand with regard to God. You will acknowledge, of course, that you owe Him something. He is not your Creator, your Master, your Father, your last end, for nothing.

Do you adore Him? Do you pray to Him daily? Do you give Him thanks for His benefits bestowed on you?

Do you implore His pardon for your transgression of His law? Do you obey that law?

Does the thought of Him who should be your first and chief occupation, enter at all into your daily life? The poor idolatrous savages honor their false gods. And you, who know the true and living God, do not you live as if He did not exist?

Here, then, is one point which you had not well examined, when you just now said that you had nothing to reproach yourself with, and that you would be puzzled to know what to say to the ghostly father.

2. And your duties toward others; are you always faithful to them? Look into your conscience an instant; here again how much is wanting?

Fraternal, sincere, and efficacious charity; devotion to others; mercy toward the poor; indulgence for the failings of your neighbors; respect for their good name; forgiveness of injuries; mutual assistance; good example; duties as a citizen; family duties — the duties of a good son, good father, of a good husband; of a good master and good servant; of a good and faithful friend; of a conscientious workman, or a just and humane employer, etc.; the list is a long one. Do you fulfil them all?

Here then, too, you have excellent matter for your next confession.

3. In your duties toward yourself, I think I can guarantee, that if you neglect the practice of religion, there will be still more matter for confession. Let us see:

You have an immortal soul; what care do you take of it? You live almost as if you had none.

When you perform some benevolent action, what are the motives which animate you? You know that the intention makes the action, as says the proverb. A bad intention renders the best seeming actions bad. Is it a motive of duty which inspires your actions? Is it the desire of accomplishing the will of God, of doing what is pleasing in His sight, or is it not rather personal interest, ostentation, the desire of being held in esteem and consideration by the world? . . .

How do you stand with regard to sobriety, to temperance?

How do you stand, above all, as regards purity? . . . Were your son to conduct himself in your presence as you conduct yourself in the presence of God who sees all things, would you not banish him from your house as a disgrace to you? . . . Did any other man speak to your wife, or sister, or daughter, as you have so often done to other women and to young girls, what would you think of him? would you not consider him to be highly culpable?

This scrutiny of your conscience might be pushed much further even; the mine is not exhausted, I assure you.

Enough has been here said, however, to convince you, if you wish to be convinced, that, notwithstanding your perfect innocence, you have done enough to make an excellent, long, and serious confession. You have on the one hand the sins; I have just pointed out to you the greatest; on the other, I doubt not, you have the good-will. You know some good priest, probably, who will be enchanted to see you, and to pardon you, in the name of God.

Go, then, and seek him, and with a willing mind.

It is only the first step that is hard to take; the difficulty, the shame, is soon over; the joy, the peace of mind abides.

"But I have not been for so long a time!" The greater reason have you for going, you stand in more need of it.

"But I should have so much to say." So much the better; the big fish are the best. Confessors like great sinners better than little ones, from the moment that they repent.

"But I can never recollect all." What signifies! Tell what you do recollect; repent of all, and God, who requires only the will to confess all, will pardon all. Repentance is the great thing in confession.

Take my advice, and go to confession. You will see that you will be happy, and quite enchanted, when you shall have got through with it.

True happiness on earth is in peace of mind, the fruit of a good conscience.

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908


FORTY-THIRD OBJECTION. IT IS SO TIRESOME TO GO TO CONFESSION.

Answer. Accordingly, I do not advise you to go for the sake of amusement!

Every thing which is good and useful is not always amusing. It is not amusing to take physic when one is ill. However, one takes it for the sake of being cured. It is not amusing to work from morning till night to gain a livelihood for oneself and family, to lay by savings for one's old age. But then it is useful, it is necessary to do so; and one works, although the work may be laborious, disagreeable, difficult.

So it is with confession. It is a remedy, a disagreeable remedy, so much the more disagreeable, in proportion as we have more need of it; but then it is an indispensable remedy. It is not for my amusement that I go to confession, but to be cured of my spiritual maladies, and to preserve my spiritual health.

Have a little more energy, then. Do not allow yourself to be overcome with the great disease of our age, which is a weakening of the relish for duty. Duty, that great and sublime word, conveys no meaning to many minds. They comprehend nothing but pleasure.

Beware of this deplorable weakness, and remember the judgments of God!

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908


FORTY-FOURTH OBJECTION. TO GO TO CONFESSION WAS ALL VERY WELL WHEN I WAS AT SCHOOL; BUT NOW!

Answer. But now, when I have ten times more need of it, I no longer go!

But now, that my passions are developing themselves, that I am surrounded with the dangers of the world, exposed to evil on all sides, what is the use of taking precautions? . . .

Poor human heart! how it wanders at random, when, instead of obeying reason, it pretends to guide it.

Confession is needful at every period of life, because it is always necessary to obey the laws of God, promulgated by the Catholic Church. Now, the law of God commands every man capable of committing sin, without any exception, to confess his sins at least once a year.

At every period of life, one stands in need of confession, because at every period of life we commit sin, because at any period of life we may die, and confession alone is the divine remedy which effaces sin, and keeps the soul in readiness to appear before God.

In proportion as man advances onward in this life, the combats he has to encounter become more violent, the attacks he has to sustain more frequent and formidable, his many foes more numerous still. . . . Is it, then, the time to lay down his arms?

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908


FORTY-FIFTH OBJECTION. I KNOW SOME DEVOTEES WHO ARE NO BETTER THAN THEIR NEIGHBORS. SO-AND-SO, WHO GOES TO CONFESSION, IS NONE THE BETTER FOR IT.

Answer. That proves,

1. That either the person you name does not confess properly, and is not seriously a Christian;

2. Or else, that his nature is singularly callous, since so powerful an influence as Religion does not render him better than most men;

3. Or else (and this is the most probable) that you are mistaken, and judge him unjustly.

Christians, please to remember, do not cease to be men because they are Christians. They retain the weakness and inconsistency that belongs to poor human nature, which has been so profoundly corrupted by sin; and, consequently, their actions are not always in accordance with their principles, their desires, and their resolutions.

But if religion does not correct all the defects of our characters, if it does not entirely and immediately destroy all imperfections, at least it diminishes them, and destroys them little by little. It unceasingly commands us to combat them; it offers very simple and powerful means of becoming not merely better, but as perfect as humanity allows. Look at the Saints; look at St. Francis de Sales, St. Francis Xavier, St. Vincent de Paul; they were real Christians, nothing more!

Thus, upright and courageous souls, who make use of these means, correct themselves promptly, and end by becoming first better, then good, and then by attaining to excellence.

What is very certain, is, that the majority of those who exclaim against devotees, are, three-fourths of the time, ten times worse than they: they see the mote in the eye of their neighbor, and do not perceive the beam which is in their own.

Religion cannot but render us better. He who has defects, and yet is a Christian, would have these defects, in a much greater degree, if he were not one.

And further, he would possess the great and capital defect which you do, who blame him for being religious; that of not rendering to God the worship which He requires from all men, that of adoration, prayer, and obedience.

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908


FORTY-SIXTH OBJECTION. HOW CAN THE BODY OF JESUS CHRIST BE REALLY PRESENT IN THE EUCHARIST? IT IS IMPOSSIBLE!

Answer. Your stomach is changing bread and meat into flesh and blood every day. You do not understand how this change is brought about; but you know that the change is possible, from the fact.

Now, if God, by the power of the stomach which He gave you, can change bread, meat, and wine, into flesh, blood, bone and sinew, what is to prevent Him from using the delegated power of the priesthood to change bread and wine into His own body and blood?

You say the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is impossible!

I have but one thing to say in answer to you, but it is sufficient.

It is so; therefore it is possible.

It is so; therefore you ought to believe it, though you may not understand how it can be so.

I say, then, that it is so, that Jesus Christ is truly and really present in the Holy Eucharist, and that after the consecration in the Mass, it is no longer bread on the altar, in the priest's hands, but the living body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, veiled under the simple appearances of bread and wine.

To convince you of this, I shall not spread before your mind the history of all Christian ages, from the Apostles down to the present day, believing, adoring, loudly proclaiming this Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. It would, certainly, be a grand and convincing fact, to see the greatest geniuses, the most profound and learned doctors, adoring with the most full and lively faith the Sacred Mystery of the altar.

But besides that this course would lead us into developments too diffuse for the space of this work, I wish merely to trust to your candid judgment and honesty; to these, only, I now address myself, and I will only cite to you word for word, and almost without any comment, the very words of Jesus Christ, who declares that the Eucharist is Himself, His body, His flesh, His blood.

He speaks of the Eucharist on two occasions in the Gospel: the first to promise its institution (about a year before His Passion); the second (on the eve of His Passion), to institute it, and thus to accomplish His promise.

His first saying respecting it, is in Chapter VI. of St. John, 47th and following verses; it is this; I propose its consideration to your own good sense: "Amen, amen, I say unto you, he that believeth in Me hath everlasting life." He first exacts faith in His words; for what He is about to say is the profoundest mystery of faith.

"I am the Bread of Life."

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give* is my flesh for the life of the world."

The Jews, to whom He spake, said to themselves what you say to yourselves, "How can He give us His flesh to eat?" How can that be? And they would not believe Him.

See how our Lord Jesus Christ affirms again His real presence in the bread which He promised to them: "Amen, amen, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.

"He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life; and I will raise him up in the last day.

"For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

"He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in Me, and I in Him. . . . He that eateth this bread shall live for ever."

What do you say to this? Do you not believe Jesus Christ's own words, affirming to you that the Eucharist is His body and blood, and with an undeniable clearness of expression, so overwhelming, that Protestants have struggled vainly during three hundred years, and racked their brains in every way to escape from the evidence which these words carry with them?

2. If these first words relating to the promise are as clear as noonday, those relating to the institution of the Eucharist are not less so.

On the eve of His Passion, our Lord, after the supper, takes bread in His divine and venerable hands, blesses it, and gives it to His Apostles, saying: "Take ye and eat, this is My Body."

Is this clear or not? This which I hold and give to you, is, what? My Body.

Then He gives to His Apostles, who were His first priests, the command and the power to do what He had just done Himself, by adding these words, "And you, as often as you shall do these things, you shall do them in commemoration of Me."

A judge takes good care that jurymen understand the law, and the charge to the jury, before they hang a man. On the two occasions in question our Lord took good care that his hearers understood His meaning. Some of them said: "This saying is hard, and who can hear it?" . . . After this many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him. Then Jesus said to the twelve: "Will you also go away?" As if to say: You can go if you wish, but I mean what I say: "The bread that I will give, is my flesh for the life of the world." And Simon Peter answered Him: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." This means: "Your words settle the matter for ever."

The apostles and other hearers evidently understood our Lord's meaning: "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and giving thanks, broke, and said: Take ye and eat; this is my body which shall be delivered for you. . . . This chalice is the new testament in my blood. This do ye, as often as you shall drink, for the commemoration of me. . . . Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." (1. Cor. xi. 23.)

Now, how could one be guilty of profanation of the body and blood of the Lord, if that body and blood be not there? This passage from St. Paul, as well as the above words of St. Peter, shows how the apostles understood our Lord.

Again; set up the whole Christian world as a jury in the case. All Christians for sixteen hundred years, and most Christians for nearly two thousand years, understood our Lord to mean a real presence in the Eucharist, and not a figurative presence. If they were wrong they were idolaters; and Christ would be the cause of that idolatry.

Does it not seem strange that a small section of Christians, who appeared on earth sixteen hundred years after Christ, should be the first to whom Christ revealed His true meaning? For history shows that the doctrine of the Real Presence was always believed in the Catholic Church.

The same argument holds for the Infallibility, and every other doctrine of the Church.

Men of honesty and truth, hear and judge: This is My Body!!!

For myself, I declare this one saying is sufficient for me, and not only is it to me the convincing proof of the presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, but it proves to me, in a no less irrefragable manner, His divinity. No man has ever said, or ever could say such a thing!

A very simple observation will perhaps facilitate your belief in the Eucharistic mystery; it is this:

Nature offers to our sight numerous examples of the so-called impossible change of one substance into another.

The most striking of all is that of corporal nourishment. The bread which I eat is changed, by the mysterious process of digestion, into my body, my flesh and blood. The substance of bread is changed into that of my body.

That which God causes daily to take place in us in a natural manner, why can He not cause to take place supernaturally in the mystery of the Eucharist?

You see, then, that it is not impossible that, through divine Omnipotence, the bread and wine should be changed upon our altars into the substance of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that the Church, in teaching the doctrine of His real presence in the Blessed Sacrament, does not teach, as the ignorant and unthinking declare, an absurdity, or that which is impossible and revolting to reason.

Now, how does this wonderful prodigy come to pass? I do not know, and the greatest doctors do not know any more than others. It is the mystery of faith, the secret of the Almighty. What we do know is, that it is so, and that is sufficient.

Through this adorable presence, Jesus Christ, the King of souls, the Life of Christians, the Head of the Church, the refuge of sinners, the merciful Saviour, the Consoler of all griefs, is ever in the midst of His people. God and Man at the same time, He is the living bond which unites us to His Father and our Father. He adores Him perfectly and supplies the imperfections of our homage. He asks mercy for the continual sins of the world.

He is present during all the generations of mankind, whom he loves and has saved alike, so as to receive from each succeeding one, to the end of the world, the homage of its faith, of its adoration, of its worship, and of its prayers.

If the Blessed Sacrament is the mystery of faith, it is, also, and still more so, the mystery of Love!

Let us, then, believe, love, and adore.

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908


FORTY-SEVENTH OBJECTION. I DO NOT NEED TO GO TO MASS: I PRAY TO GOD JUST AS WELL AT HOME.

Answer. Can you really pray just as well at home? Does not the holy silence of God's temple inspire you? Are you not affected by the evident devotion of the worshippers? And do you really pray to Him at home? Pardon me if I am wrong; but I have a slight suspicion that you do not pray to Him any more at home than at Church.

The real question, you see, is not to know whether you can pray to God as well at home as during Mass, but to know whether God wills that on Sundays and festival days you should hear Mass, and pray there instead of at home only.

Now, He does will it.

We have already discussed this together, and decided that the religious laws of the pastors of the Catholic Church are binding in conscience, because they are derived from the authority delegated to them by Jesus Christ. "He who heareth you heareth Me; and he who despiseth you despiseth Me."

When the Church commands us to be present at the celebration of Mass, on Sundays and festival days, it is disobedience toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and toward God, to neglect to go.

The reason which caused this law to be made is very important; the law itself, accordingly, is not less so. It is the absolute necessity of a public worship rendered to God.

We do not only live individually as men, as Christians; we are also a religious society; and this society, of which we are members, being established by God Himself, has duties to fulfil to Him, as well as each one of us in particular.

Now, the public worship of this Christian Society (or Church) is precisely this attendance at the Sacrifice of the Mass, which unites us all, in the presence of our God, in His temple, on days set apart for this purpose, some actually by God Himself,* others by our Lord, others by the Apostles or their successors.

To abstain from associating, at these solemn moments, with the rest of the Christian family, is to renounce, in some measure, the title of Christian, of child of God, disciple of Jesus Christ, and member of the Catholic Church.

Thus, it is a great sin to neglect hearing Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, without a real and good reason for so doing.

The serious nature of such negligence may be better understood as the grandeur, holiness, and divine excellence of the Sacrifice of the Mass is understood.

The Sacrifice of the Mass is the core of Religion.

It is the unbloody continuation, through all ages and generations, of the bloody sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

There is no essential difference between the Sacrifice of the Cross and the Sacrifice of the Mass. It is the same and the only Sacrifice, offered under a different form. The priest is the same; Jesus Christ in person offered the sacrifice on Calvary; on the altar He makes the sacrifice in the person of the priest. The victim is the same. His body poured forth His precious blood on Calvary; on the altar the same sacred body and precious blood are veiled in the semblance of bread and wine. The circumstances and appearance of the sacrifice are different; the substance is the same.

By the mysterious and divine words uttered by the priest, or rather by Jesus Christ, who speaks by His minister, the same miracle of love which was operated at the Last Supper, on Holy Thursday, is daily renewed on our altars. The bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, and only preserve the mere appearance of bread and wine; so that there is really nothing on the altar, after the consecration, but the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ living, and thus uniting in the Blessed Sacrament, all the mysteries of His mortal and of His glorious life.

Seek, then, to understand the grandeur of your faith, and alter your language regarding it.

Come with the rest of your brethren, come to your Saviour; it is for you that He descends upon our altars, it is for your salvation that He immolates Himself in this great mystery. Without Him you cannot save your soul: and yet you neglect Him, you despise Him, you prefer futile occupations, follies, trifles of all kinds to Him!

Return to yourself, I beseech you, fulfil a duty which is as easy as it is serious and necessary.

Go on Sunday and prostrate yourself before your good God, to take a review of the week past, and make a holy provision for the week following. God will bless you, and you will feel happy.

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908


FORTY-EIGHTH OBJECTION. I HAVE NO TIME.

Answer. Have you time to eat and drink? No doubt.

And why do you eat and drink?

What a question! To keep myself alive. Nourishment is the life of our bodies.

Which is of the greater value, your soul or your body?

What strange questions! My soul, of course.

In that case, then, take at least as much care of your soul as you do of your body! You find, you take time enough to insure the welfare of your body, and you do not devote any to that of your soul.

I should like to see your employer undertake to deprive you of the time for your meals! You would certainly quit him, him and his shop, without much ceremony, and say, before every thing else, one must live.

Well, I say to you, and much more urgently, too, before every thing else, before securing the welfare of your body, before every thing, do not let your soul perish, which is the principal part of you; your soul, which makes you a man; for by our bodies we are but animals; it is the soul which makes us men, and distinguishes us from the brutes.

Religion gives you the life of the soul in uniting it with God, and you say, I have no time to practice religion? Very well, then take it, this necessary time. Take it, at all costs, no matter how, or at whose expense.

No one in the world has the right to deprive you of it, neither your employers, your teachers, your father or mother; to this there is no exception!

The eternal salvation of your soul cannot be taken from you by any creature living, and if any one were to attempt to deprive you of this most sacred of all your rights, it would then be the moment to put into practice this great rule of the apostles: It is better to obey God than man.

"But my trade," you say, "prevents my laboring for my salvation."

Is that true? If so, it is most extraordinary; for we find among the Saints men of every condition; kings and shoemakers, laborers and doctors, mechanics, soldiers and priests.

Our Lord thinks differently; for He says: "What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?" (Matt. xvi. 26.)

Life passes quickly, indeed; but eternity remains. What advantage would it be to you, to gain the whole world, if you were to lose your soul?

But let us be honest. Is it really true that you cannot be saved, that you cannot live in a Christian way, in the condition of life you are in?

Is it this trade of yours which prevents you from offering up a short prayer morning and evening?

Is it that which prevents you from lifting up your heart toward God from time to time during the day, from offering up to Him your prayers, your labor, your privations?

It is not your trade which makes you swear and blaspheme the name of God, frequent theatres of bad repute, and dancing saloons, taverns, and haunts of vice and debauchery. The time which you thus spend would be a hundred times more than enough to make you a good Christian, were you to employ it in securing your salvation.

No more, then, is it your trade which hinders you, on the approach of the Church's festivals, from seeking in the evening, after your day's work is done, a confessor, so as to receive, together with the assurance of forgiveness for your sins, advice and encouragement to enable you to live better for the future.

In a matter of conscience, remember we have always time to do what we wish to do. But we must wish it earnestly, energetically, with perseverance.

Never say again, therefore, "I have no time to live as a Christian should do," for you would be deceiving yourself.

Say, if you will, "I have not as much time, as many facilities, as I should wish." Granted, but after all it is the heart and the will that God asks from us; and it does not demand much time to be able to love God, to avoid sin, and repent of one's faults; it is not absolutely necessary to spend a great deal of time every day in saying one's prayers; it does not demand much time to hear a low Mass said on Sunday, barely half an hour, in fact, and to go to confession four or five times a year.

Others do all this, and more besides. I know some who never pass a month without approaching the sacraments; and they are not the worse workmen for doing that. How do they find themselves able to do this? Imitate the good-will which they show, and like them you will live as a Christian; and like them, you will go to heaven instead of hell at your death.

To him who will not give his time to God, God will refuse his eternity.

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908


FORTY-NINTH OBJECTION. I CANNOT! IT IS TOO DIFFICULT!

Answer. Say rather that you will not. We can do all we choose to do, in whatever regards conscience and salvation.

What is wanting is not the power, it is the courage. We dread labor, we shrink from it. The true Christian is brave; like a good soldier, who is only the more stimulated to combat by the attacks of the enemy, he fears nothing. Resting on Jesus Christ, from Him he gains the strength which inspires him. If he falls, he rises again, and renews the combat with greater strength than he had before.

"I cannot!" The sluggard, who in the morning yawns, stretches himself, and again turns to sleep, instead of doing his work, says also, "I cannot!"

A day will come when you will see that you could. But the time will then be gone, the hour for working will have passed away.

You will be before the tribunal of Jesus Christ, and you will hear His awful words, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels."* On that day, you will understand that you could!

However, there is one thing true enough in what you say. You certainly cannot conquer your evil passions, and practice the lofty virtues of the Christian, if you do not seek the necessary strength, in the place where it is to be found.

No, you cannot avoid the sins which you habitually fall into, if you do not employ those means which Jesus Christ your Saviour has placed for this purpose in the hands of His Church.

You know what these means are; in those happier days when you were good, pure, honest, because you were a Christian in fact, you adopted them, and you know by experience all their sweetness, all their efficacy. They are —

Prayer;

The sanctification of the Sunday;

Religious instruction;

The frequenting, above all, of confession and Holy Communion;

The avoidance of the occasions of sin, of unlawful amusements, bad companions, and bad books.

Without these means, no, you certainly cannot be good. With them, not only you can be good, but there is nothing more pleasant or easy.

How many young men there are, men, too, of every age and condition of life, who have more violent passions than you have, and yet who subdue them, and who have mastered them! Many are more exposed to temptations than you are, and have more obstacles of every kind to surmount. What they do, why cannot you do?

I knew an old soldier who had been in the habit of swearing by the name of God from his childhood. He could not utter two sentences without swearing. One day, touched by a good exhortation he heard, he resolved to fulfil his duties as a Christian. He determined energetically to conquer this defect; and in a fortnight's time he succeeded. Every time that the name of God escaped his lips, he said to himself: "My God forgive me, Thy holy name be blessed!" He did the same whenever he heard his comrades fall into the same sin. "I am obliged," he said to me, "to do my best; I catch myself more than fifty times a day."

We have often seen men addicted to the terrible vice of drunkenness, obtain a still more difficult victory over it, with a like courage. The celebrated General Cambronne, when a common soldier, had this detestable habit. One day, when intoxicated, he struck an officer, and was condemned to death. His Colonel, who was much attached to him, because of his brave and loyal character, obtained his pardon on condition that he would never drink any more wine. Twenty-five years after, Corporal Cambronne was General Cambronne, and immortalized by his heroic retreat at Waterloo. Surrounded by his family in Paris, he lived quietly, loved and esteemed by all. His old colonel invited him one day to dinner, with some old comrades in arms. The place of honor at the host's right hand was reserved for Cambronne. Some very exquisite wine, kept for great occasions, was put on the table. "Ah! General," said the old Colonel, "you will tell me that this is something rare, this wine;" and he was about to fill Cambronne's glass. He declines it, the other insists; Cambronne becomes annoyed. "But, General, I assure you, it is excellent!" "That is not the question!" Cambronne replied, quickly; "it is a question of my honor! my promise when a corporal, have you forgotten it, Colonel? Since that day I have never touched a single drop of wine. My word and my conscience are of more consequence than your wine!"

There was energy of character! That was a man to admire!

Be of good courage then; that is what is wanting. A man is a Christian from the moment that he wills it.

[Stone]

Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908


FIFTIETH OBJECTION. I SHOULD BE LAUGHED AT! WE MUST NOT BE SINGULAR; WE MUST DO AS OTHERS DO.

Answer. A very weak argument. When Christ was condemned, many of the Jews did not protest against His condemnation because they did not wish to be singular. They preferred to do as others do; in other words, they condemned our Saviour to death.

Alas! How many are like sheep in this respect! How many go to hell because others do!

"We must not be singular!" you say. Why not? We profess to be followers of Christ. He was singular.

Evil abounds, and good is rare; there are many wicked men and few good ones, many heathens and few Christians. The bad are those who form the mass; it is they who establish the fashion, the customs. Those who desire to follow the other road, which is the right one, are then compelled to be singular.

Very well! This very singularity you must adopt. It is the sign, the necessary condition of your eternal happiness.

Our Lord Jesus Christ has declared this in positive terms: "Enter ye in," said He,* "at the narrow gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!"

"And fear ye not them," He adds in another part of the Gospel, "that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body in hell."* "He that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father, who is in heaven. But he that shall persevere to the end," in spite, that is, of all obstacles, all scorn and derision, in spite of the examples and temptations held out by the wicked, "he shall be saved."

Is this warning plain? It is the eternal Judge who declares it to us. It is He who never speaks in vain, and who proclaims with His own lips that "heaven and earth shall pass away," but that "His words shall not pass away." We must, then, under pain of eternal damnation, be in the world as different from the world.

We must glory in this singularity, far from dreading it, and being ashamed of it. It is that which makes us Christians.

"But I shall be laughed at!" Do you give up your political opinions because a neighbor laughs at you for holding them? Not at all. You try to show him that his opinions and principles are wrong. Why not do the same in regard to religion? Because you are too weak, too cowardly. Well! let those laugh at you that like; you will not die of being laughed at! Laugh at those who laugh at you; they are the most worthy of ridicule, and you are, in reality, the wise man of them all. Which ought to laugh at the other? the fool at the wise man, or the wise man at the fool?

If any one were to laugh at you because you eat and drink, or because you walk with your feet, and not on your head, would you leave off eating, and begin to walk on all-fours? No. And why not? Because what you did was right and rational, and what you were asked to do was absurd.

How much more absurd and foolish is it, then, to lose your soul for the sake of pleasing some silly madcaps, whose want of principle you despise in the bottom of your heart! The praise of people of that stamp is the thing to be ashamed of: their blame is an honor. It is a sign that you are not like them.

Do not, however, exaggerate the thing. You will not be alone in the right path. Though, it is true, there are more bad than good men, the number of the good is not so small as is supposed; above all, at the present day, when religion is resuming her wholesome influence over men's minds more and more. In the enlightened classes of society, it is now an honorable recommendation to be a Christian.

A few years ago, young C., one of the most distinguished pupils at the Polytechnic School, happened to lose his beads. One of his comrades found them, and during their time of recreation he called together the school, fastened the chaplet to one of the trees in the court, and with an air of defiance called out, "Let the person who owns this chaplet come and claim it." "It is I who have lost it," young C. quietly replied, coming forward into the midst of the assembled pupils; "that chaplet is a souvenir given to me by my mother; I set a great value on it, and recite it every day." "Bravo!" a loud voice was heard to exclaim. They all looked round; it was the general in command of the school. "Well done, my young friend," he added, shaking the young Christian's hand; "you are a man of feeling and energy. Go on thus; you will make your way well in the world!" Young C. was the first who left the school; but during the whole time of his stay there, he was the most esteemed and best liked of all the pupils.

Be good-humored, obliging, amiable with every one; laugh with them about things which you may laugh at without displeasing God; and they will soon let you alone about religion, if it so happens that they have attacked you on that point.

I know an Alsacian, a good Christian, who, on joining his regiment, was laughed at by several of his comrades. They called him devotee, bigot, hypocrite, and such like words. One day, when this sort of battle was being carried on more sharply than usual, he asked his captain's permission to assemble his company in the barrack-room. He mounted on a bench, and thus addressed them: "You may ridicule me as much as you please: you will not make me change my ways at all. God is of more importance than you are, is He not? Well! I would rather please Him than please you. Go to bed, if you are sulky about that!* The whole regiment might turn to, but I would never yield an inch." His comrades began to laugh and applaud him, and from that time they never said an offensive word to the worthy fellow.

One day, a traveller made his appearance at a table d'hôte; it was Friday; he called for abstinence fare. Some of the persons at dinner began to titter; and one, bolder than the rest, addresses him:

"Monsieur abstains?" says he, with a bantering air.

"I do, Monsieur," replies the traveller, in the same tone: "and Monsieur, he eats meat?"

"I do, Monsieur," said the first, a little discomfited at finding himself laughed at in turn.

"So much the worse for Monsieur," replies the traveller. "Does Monsieur think, then, that a man of honor ought to prefer a cutlet to his conscience? For my part, I prefer my conscience to a cutlet."

Those who had been turning him into ridicule now took his side of the question; and better still, one person present, looking toward him, congratulated him on his firmness in performing this duty: "I should be sorry, Monsieur, to see you the only person here who did so," he said; "I shall profit by the delicate lesson you have given us; for I am also a Catholic. Garçon, bring me, too, du maigre." (abstinence fare).

Never shrink weakly before a word, before a look, before a smile.

Let those lose their souls who have them to lose: you, who know what your soul is worth, save it. Let him laugh who wishes to laugh. He will laugh to the purpose who laughs last, says the proverb.