It must, therefore, be clearly admitted that in the life of a Christian the intellect must be entirely subject to God's authority. And if, in this submission of reason to authority, our self-love, which is so strong, is restrained and made to suffer, this only proves the necessity to a Christian of long-suffering not only in will, but also in intellect. We would remind those persons of this truth who desire a kind of Christianity such as they themselves have devised, whose precepts should be very mild, much more indulgent towards human nature, and requiring little if any hardships to be borne. They do not properly understand the meaning of faith and Christian precepts. They do not see that the cross meets us everywhere, the model of our life, the eternal standard of all who wish to follow Christ in reality and not merely in name.

God Alone is Life

       All other beings partake of life, but are not life. Christ from all eternity and by His very nature of "the Life," just as He is the Truth, because He is God of God. From Him, as from its most sacred source, all life pervades and ever will pervade creation. Whatever is, is by Him; whatever lives, lives by Him. For by the Word "all things were made; and without Him was made nothing that was made." This is true of the natural life; but, as we have sufficiently indicated above, we have a much higher and better life, won for us by Christ's mercy, that is to say, "the life of grace," whose happy consummation is "the life of glory," to which all our thoughts and actions ought to be directed.

       The whole object of Christian doctrine and morality is that "we being dead to sin, should live to justice" (1 Pt. 2:24) — that is, to virtue and holiness. In this consists the moral life, with the certain hope of a happy eternity. This justice, in order to be advantageous to salvation, is nourished by Christian faith. "The just man lives by faith" (Gal. 3:11). "Without faith it is impossible to please God" (Heb. 11:6). Consequently Jesus Christ, the Creator and Preserver of faith, also preserves and nourishes our moral life. This He does chiefly by the ministry of His Church. To her, in His wise and merciful counsel, He has entrusted certain agencies which engender the supernatural life, protect it, and revive it if it should fail. This generative and conservative power of the virtues that make for salvation is therefore lost whenever morality is dissociated from divine faith.

       A system of morality based exclusively on human reason robs man of his highest dignity and lowers him from the supernatural to the merely natural life. Not but that man is able by the right use of reason to know and to obey certain principles of the natural law. But throughout life — even this is impossible without the aid of the grace of our Redeemer — still it is in vain for any one without faith to promise himself eternal salvation. "If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned" (Jn. 15:6). "He that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mk. 16:16). We have but too much evidence of the value and result of a morality divorced from divine faith. How is it that in spite of all the zeal for the welfare of the masses, nations are in such straits and even distress, and that the evil is daily on the increase? We are told that society is quite able to help itself; that it can flourish without the assistance of Christianity, and attain its end by its own unaided efforts.

What Blindness!

       Public administrators prefer a purely secular system of government. All traces of the religion of our forefathers are daily disappearing from political life and administration. What blindness! Once the idea of the authority of God as the Judge of right and wrong is forgotten, law must necessarily lose its primary authority and justice must perish: and these are the two most powerful and most necessary bonds of society. Similarly, once the hope and expectation of eternal happiness is taken away, temporal goods will be greedily sought after. Every man will strive to secure the largest share for himself. Hence arise envy, jealousy, hatred. The consequences are conspiracy, anarchy, nihilism. There is neither peace abroad nor security at home. Public life is stained with crime.

Jesus Christ is the Answer

       So great is this struggle of the passions and so serious the dangers involved that we must either anticipate ultimate ruin or seek for an efficient remedy. It is, of course, both right and necessary to punish malefactors, to educate the masses, and by legislation to prevent crime in every possible way: but all this is by no means sufficient. The salvation of the nations must be looked for higher. A power greater than human must be called in to teach men's hearts, awaken in them the sense of duty and make them better. This is the power which once before saved the world from destruction when groaning under much more terrible evils. Once all impediments are removed and the Christian spirit is allowed to revive and grow strong in a nation, that nation will be healed. The strife between the classes and the masses will die away; mutual rights will be respected. If Christ be listened to, both rich and poor will do their duty. The former will realize that they must observe justice and charity, the latter self-restraint and moderation, if both are to be saved. Domestic life will be firmly established by the salutary fear of God as the Lawgiver. In the same way the precepts of the natural law, which dictate respect for lawful authority and obedience to the laws, will exercise their influence over the people. Sedition and conspiracies will cease. Wherever Christianity rules over all without let or hindrance, there the order established by Divine Providence is preserved, and both security and prosperity are the happy result. The common welfare, then, urgently demands a return to Him from Whom we should never have gone astray; to Him Who is the Way and Truth and the Life — and this on the part not only of individuals, but of society as a whole. We must restore Christ to this His own rightful possession.

Return to
Table of Contents