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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
CLERICAL LIFE—SOME OF ITS SERIOUS
AND HUMOROUS SIDES
lieve by the very men whom Christ had sent to teach
the world. Think of listening to Peter as he told them
the story of Naim, or spoke of the scene in Gethsemene,
or the Transfiguration, or the raising of Lazarus, or
some other of the wonderful things done by our Bless
ed Lord. They knew that the Master had given to Peter
the charge of the entire flock, and they listened to his
words as though they were listening to Christ Himself.
And when Peter had died for the faith of Christ they
listened to the one who succeeded him, and so as the
days and years passed by men were brought to Christ
by the messengers, who spoke His name and with the
authority which came to them as heirs to the promises
and mission given by the Redeemer to His Apostles.
And so today we listen to Peter’s successor, who has
Peter’s authority and Peter’s mission, and therefore
are there so many things in the Church building bring
ing back to us the memories of the olden days of
Christ’s Church.
“Now if the Church has been commissioned by
Christ to teach the world how can one who believes in
Christ as God think it wrong to accept the messages
of those whom He sent to teach? Am I deprived of my
freedom when I willingly accept the words of Christ?
You think you have in the Bible a command from
Christ to ‘search the Scriptures,’ and that you are
justified in accepting only what you find therein. Now
let us read that passage of the Holy Writ and see
what it means. It is found in the Gospel of St. John
Chapter V. Our Blessed Lord had cured the man at
the pool of Bethsaida on the Sabbath, and the Jews
seemed scandalized because it was the Sabbath, and
Our Lord took occasion of the cure and their action
to speak of His Father and the- testimony of His own
works as well as the testimony of John the Baptist
to the truth, and He reproached them saying: ‘And
you have not His word abiding in you, for Whom He
hath sent, you believe not’; then Christ added: ‘Search
the Scriptures, for you think in them to have life ever
lasting, and the same are they that give testimony
of Me’! These words of our Lord were not a command
to Christians but a reproach to the Jews. They had
the Scriptures and boasted of their possession thinking
in them they had everlasting life, and yet they refused
to bt lieve in Chriit of Whom the Scriptures gave such
clear account. Those outside the Church have the
Bible, and it gives such abundant testimony to the Di
vine claims of the Catholic Church, yet they will not
believe.”
Mr. W. sat for a time aaying nothing, and then sud
denly spoke: “But why have you not told me why you
kneel as you enter the Church?”
Christ in the Tabernacle
There is hardly time today to enter into a discus
sion of this central doctrine of the Church,” I said,
but it will suffice to tell you that we kneel when we
enter the Church because we believe that there in the
Tabernacle is the real and true Presence of our Divine
Lord.”
Do you mean that Christ is actually present there
inside that thing you call the Tabernacle?” “Yes,” I
answered, “that’s exactly what all Catholics do be
lieve. Why, that is not possible, Father.”
I have said already,” I replied, “that we have not
the time to give to a discussion of this doctrine of the
Catholic Church, now, but I will only ask you now to
read with me a part of the sixth chapter of St. John’s
Gospel. Here we see that the Jews at Capernaum were
in like manner very much surprised and in fact scan
dalized, when Christ told them that unless they ate
the Flesh of the Son of Man and drank His Blood they
would have no life in them; and that His Flesh was
meat indeed and His Blood was indeed drink. The
Jews were scandalized at these words of our Lord, and
they said: How can this man give us His Flesh to
eat? In response our Blessed Lord merely repeated
what He had said, and added: ‘Unless you eat the Flesh
of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you shall not
have life in you.’ They clearly understood Him to
mean that they were to eat of His very Flesh and drink
of His very Blood. And He never corrected the im
pression, and permitted them to leave Him with this
understanding of His words. He came to save all men
and He should and would have corrected their false
impressions, if it were false; but on the contrary He
tells them that their salvation depends on their doing
that which they declared He could not do, that is giv
ing them His Body and Blood as food for their souls.
From the earliest days this doctrine of Christ’s Real
Presence has been held by all Christians and ever
taught by the Church. It comes from the Apostles
and is delivered to us by that Society of which the
Master says: ‘He who hears you hears Me; and he
who will not hear you, will not hear Me.!
“You say that you can not believe it? and yet do
you not believe that the little Infant who was greeted
by the Shepherds on the first Christmas night was the
Redeemer of the world and a Divine Person? Assured
ly there was nothing to distinguish that Child from any
other infant, yet all Christians are bound to believe
that He was God. A man who accepts the Incarna
tion ought to have no difficulty in accepting the Real
Presence. Was there any evidence of the Divinity in
that man who staggered through the streets of Jerusa
lem under the heavy weight of a cross on the first Good
Friday? Was the Divinity so very evident when Christ
was nailed to the cross? Did men recognize the Divin
ity when the cross was raised and He in an agony pro
longed for three hours died thereon? You believe the
Christmas story and you acknowledge the Divine char
acter of the Victim of Good Friday; but you think that
the Real Presence is impossible. In the crib and on
the cross the Divinity was hid by Human Veils; in
the Blessed Sacrament both Divinity and Humanity are
concealed by the Sacramental Veils of Bread and
Wine.”
A Revelation
Mr. W. said: “Father I am going home to think
over what you have told me. It seems all so strange
to me. I confess I had always heard that the Catholic
Church was a corrupt Church, and had put the Virgin
and the Saints in the place of Christ, but I am begin
ning to think I have been mislead. But, Father, will
you tell me how it is that so many thousands of good
and sincere Protestants think and say such hard
things of your Church?”
“Well,” I answered, “do you remember the words of
Christ as given by Saint Mathew? Let me read them
for you, they are in the tenth chapter: ‘You shall be
hated by all men for my name’s sake.* And Saint
Mark and Saint Luke report our Lord as saying the
self same words; but hear Saint John repeating these
further words of His Divine Master, ‘Yea, the hour
cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he
doeth a service to God.’ I think one can readily un
derstand why the teachers sent by Christ are hated
and misrepresented. Now, no one can read the hearts
of men. If men are sincere and know no better and
lead good lives according to the light they have, who
shall judge them and condemn them for being inculp-
ably in error?”
“But,” said Mr. W., why can’t Protesants see the
things you told me about today; do such things appeal
only to Catholics?”
“Well,” I replied, “I am afraid they don't make as
strong an appeal as they ought to even to our own
people; but these have a strong and abiding faith in the
words of Christ and they cheerfully accept the teach
ing of the One, Holy Catholic Apostolic Church.”
Mr. W. came to see me almost every day after that,
and we always talked of the Church and her teaching.
I often saw him in the Church going from station to
station, and I asked him one day how he learned to
make the stations. He did not understand what 1
meant by “making the stations;” and when I explained
that beautiful devotion to him he told me he had never
had it explained; but he added: “I am going around and
looking at the pictures and the altars trying to find
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