I. No doubt, dear reader, the name of Voltaire, the infidel, the enemy of God, is not unknown to you. He lived in France, towards the close of the eighteenth century, and made it the chief aim of his life to carry into effect his well-known saying: Ecrasez Y infame, "extirpate the infamous thing!" Thus did he designate the holy Church of God. And surprising, indeed, it is to see what efforts this man made, and how persistently he endeavored by speech, writings, and actions, to give effect to his favorite saying, to extirpate this holy Church, to uproot it from the face of the earth.
But what did he gain by his proceedings? The outbreak of the most horrible, the most sanguinary revolution the world has ever seen, the slaughter of hundreds and thousands, the dissolution of all order and propriety, --- but never the destruction of Holy Church.
And Voltaire does not stand alone in this respect; in all ages there have been enemies of the Church and of God, who with similar fury and persistence, and with the like weapons, persecuted the Church of God, but never, never could they succeed in uprooting it. And why not? Because the Church is the work of God, because Christ founded it, because Christ reigns in the Church and through the Church.
II. Christ reigns; for (a) He founded a living, infallible authority (Church) commissioning and empowering her to propagate His religion pure and undefiled throughout the whole world; and (b) the Roman Catholic Church now represents this living authority in a legitimate manner.
III. Christ founded a living, infallible authority. At the very outset He gathered together twelve disciples, designated apostles. To them He said, shortly before His death: "As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you." Thus we see that Christ entrusted to the apostles His own mission; but Christ was sent by the Father as teacher, priest, and king.
As a teacher He taught everywhere, first of all in the Temple, then in the synagogues, in towns and villages, on mountains, on the Lake of Genesareth, in the desert, and so on. And since Christ knew quite well that the apostles were but human, and as such might err and make mistakes, He expressly added to the words we quoted above: "I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world."
Now everything was provided for. And with the consciousness of a mission that was directly divine, the apostles proceeded for the future. They did not ask permission of the emperor Tiberius, for they were sent by Christ.
IV. Furthermore, Christ was a priest; He officiated as such, He absolved souls and healed them, He offered up Himself on Mount Calvary. In like manner were the apostles also sent as priests. They had partaken of the Sacrifice at the last supper, and by Christ's command they were to offer it up in future: "Do this in commemoration of Me!" He gave them power to forgiven sins: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them"; Also to baptize: "Going, therefore, baptize all nations."
V. In a similar way was Christ sent as a shepherd, as a king: Ego sum rex, "I am a King." But He is not a king like other monarchs; "My kingdom is not of this world." Earthly kings care for the natural, temporal, civil welfare of their subject, Christ for the supernatural, spiritual, and eternal.
The apostles were likewise, shepherds and kings, and as such possessed a threefold power: to give laws, to pass judgment, and to inflict punishment. Of the possession of these peers the apostles were conscious from the very first, since they thus expressed themselves: "It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us," to lay such and such commands upon you.
VI. Thus we see that Christ founded in very deed a living, infallible authority, with the commission and command to transmit His religion in its entirety to all future generations; this authority is the college of the apostles. Equally certain is it that the Roman Catholic Church, as it exists in the present day, is the legitimate continuation of the college of the apostles. Such a continuation must indeed exist in all centuries after Christ as an infallible teaching authority; for Christ has said: "I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." Now among all religious systems there is only one which lays claim to the possession of an infallible body of teachers, and this is the Roman Catholic Church alone. When we assert that the Catholic Church is infallible, we mean that she can not err in matters of faith and morals." [The Church is infallible when speaking Ex Cathedra (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05677a.htm) on matters of faith and morals but the individual is capable of sin or error otherwise.]
"If this claim were unfounded, if it were a mere pretension, it would follow that the Church of Christ would to-day have vanished from the face of the earth. But this is not possible, for were it otherwise what would become of the promise of Christ: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it"? What would become of the divinity of Jesus Christ Himself?
Thus we see that in one Church alone, in the Roman Catholic Church, does Christ still reign as teacher, priest, and king. Our joy and pride it is that we are children of this Holy Catholic Church.
Calm when fiercest storms prevail,
See the Ship of Peter sail;
Still unarmed from age to age
Though wild winds and storms may rage.
Fashioned by a hand all-wise,
Hell's worst onslaught she defies."
(In blue are my own words.)
No comments:
Post a Comment