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MAY 28. 1938
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
NINETEEN
Challenge of Non-Church-Goers Answered
Father Rapier, S.M., Replies
to American MagazineQuery
and Brief Inadequate Answer
Former Atlanta Pastor Discusses Fallacies in Both the
Original Objection and the Prof erred Explanation
(By N. C. W. C. News Service)
Some months ago hundreds of thous
ands of Christians were shocked at
finding a purely secular publication.
TTie American Magazine, openly and
at length criticize the Church. In an
eight and one-half columns arti
cle entitled "Why. I Don't Go to
Church,’’ Mr. William Corbin claimed
that "the church, as a center of chari
ty, as a fountain of miraculous heal
ing, as the exorciser of devils, as the
cradle of education and the founder of
colleges, and as the inspirer of great
art and music,” has teen replaced by
the gland specialist, by the govern
ment or by other agencies; and ends
explicitly thus:
"What then, has the Church to offer
that is unique, peculiar to it, that Is
not to be found in a better form else
where?” Christians were pained to
read the editors’ endorsement of the
article as “a challenge’..
clear answer to the great questions of
the human heart.
They took hope, however, when
the editors invited replies to Mr. Cor
bin's criticisms, offering prizes for the
three best replies. But hope was
change to just and high indignation
when in a subsequent issue the editors
printed as the first prize a two-thirds
of a column reply which gave as its
reason for going to Church, explicity
and solely, an answer which Mr. Cor
bin had already in his attack qualified
"an evasion, and nothing more. (A
minister in Philadelphia had answered
that what the church has to offer. . .is
a meaning of life. . . .that lies be
tween you and God. I know my mean
ing. You must discover yours.” Then
Mr. Corbin commented: “Now, I con
sider that evasion, and nothing more.
Yet this is the very reply which the
editors crown with the first prize: I
go to Church for. . .” this understand
ing of life through the teachings of
Jesus. . .it is a ’sort of communion
with God.’ ”)
Mr. Corbin has been betrayed by his
editors; and the rest of us, laughed at
For reasons of their own, these editors
toy with those very realities which
Shakespeare affirms "must give us
pause”, they sport with religion and
firmest props of the duties of men and
morality which Geo. Washington in
his farwell address warns us to hold
to as "the firmest props of the
duties of men and citizens ;
they constitute themselve*. (.ac
cording to Who’s Who in America
they do not even profess belief in the
Divinity of Christ) judges of the
values of the replies sent in; and the},
cap their easy performance with
crowning as an answer the very ’evas
ion" repudiated by their ' challenge .
Yet more: Instead of giving one or two
of the other replies, they dress the
"evasion” in a five-column editorial
which rehearses the evasion six times.
The next number of The American
Magazine was silent on the matter not
even hinting to us what Mr. Corbin
may possibly think of this mockery.
Many Catholics looked for a Catho
lie reply in the American Magazine.
Though they saw Mr. Corbin s ’ lax
use of history”, yet they expected the
challengers to open their columns to
a defence of the Church which is a
center of charity, a fountain of miracu
lous healing, the exorciser of devils,
the cradle of education and the found
er of colleges, and the inspirer of great
art and music.” But the magazine fail
ed them although it had received the
answer now made available for publi
cation in the Catholic press by the
Rev. George S. Rapier, S. M., of the
Marist Seminary, Washington, D. C..
who sent in his reply under the pen-
name of Stephen George. Except for
a few paragraphs, omitted to save
■space, his reply appears below.
Father Rapier uses the arguments
and the tone of the famous apology to
the Areopagus. Entering gladly into
William Corbin’s appointed arena of
science, history, Scripture and mod
ernity, he shows that these thunder
forth the overwhelming Other-ness of
God and His Unapproachableness ex
cept by ways and means determined
by Himself; counters with the magnifi
cent challenges of the Christ: Christ
Himself establishing His Own Centr
ality with the pivot point the Bread of
Life: ritual sacrifice and the sacra
ment; and having summarized the
wonders done and still being done
through this Bread of Life, concludes
with Mr. Corbin’s own words: This is
what "the Church has to offer that is
unique, peculiar to it, that is not to be
found: in any form anywhere else. For
this Sacrifice, for this Sacrament, I go
to Church. Why not you?”
(Father Rapier was for a number of
years pastor of Sacred Heart Church.
Atlanta. Ed The Bulletin.)
Particular}- was I pleased by the
final note telling that you are a mod
em of the moderns, that you will not
"retreat from the front of action."
That is the most important starting
point We must look the world in
which we live full in the face and
speak to it in its own language. And
of all modem things, that which wears
the most modern dress is science—of
which we cannot have too much. I fan
cy your asking with the first of the
Modems, in terms of the geologist.
"When was the dust poured out on the
earth and the clods fastened together?”
I fancy your asking Professor Millikan,
"By what way is the light spread and
heat divided upon the earth”; give me
a satisfying last analysis. I fancy your
asking the astro-physicist of today —
as did the first of the modems—"What
is this thing we name gravity which
titanically anchors this fleeing world
to tha, central sun ninety-three million
miles away yet gently drops the apple
to the sod beneath?" Or. "Who shut
up the sea with doors,” using this same
mysterious key, gravity.
cooperation which He demanded on
our part; publicized the plan by pro
digies suited to the mind of each age
as Lourdes is to our scientific age—
prodigies which astounded the Phar
aohs, the Canaanites, the Assyrians,
the later Syrians; and brought it to
effulgent completion in the God-Men,
Christ-Jesus; “and we saw His glory,
the glory as it were of the Only-Begot
ten of the Father, full of grace and
truth!” And all of this by controlling
the free will of man and in the ordi
nary courses of events—an astounding
miracle in itself. Diis, I say, would
be told you by one who, as a Protest
ant Episcopalian, "motivated by the
desire for integral Catholicisim,”
found the answer, and now feels that
he must go to Church.
<6
Gone in the Wind
Poem Written by James Clarence Mangan
a Century Ago
9 9
Clear questions, these, on terrible
realities, as are the many other ques
tions asked by this first of the Mod
erns. You will be pleased in meeting
(again) the candid confession made by
another modem scientist, one of the
creators of experimental physiology,
who, in an address to the International
Association for the Advancement of
Science, affirmed that “We know no
thing of the nature of matter; nothing
of the nature of force; nothing of the
origin of motion; nothing of the origin
of life; nothing of the apparently de
signed order of nature; nothing of the
origin of sensation.. ;nothing of the
origin of consciousness; nothing of the
origin of rational thought; nothing of
the origin of speech; nothing of the or
igin of free will.'” Emil DuBois-Rey-
mond. Berlin).
(By REV. GEORGE S. RAPIER, S.M.)
Dear Mr. Corbin: —
I have read and reread your article
in The American Magazine; read it
with the joy with which we greet a
kindred spirit in a kindred quest; with
sympathy for you in your distress and
for the "millions of others” like your
self. And it is in this common hope
that I sketch the salient po'ats of the
Had you known him to be at hand
(after the Union Theological Semin
ary “most confusing experience ),
you could have gone to the Rockefel
ler Institute and asked the latest pro
tagonist on the great arena of modern
science, Alexis Carrel, if he had any
answer to your queries; and he would
have answ-ered your question for a
fountain of healing which offers mira
culous cures.” He would have told you
of the unanswered questions that beat
with each throb of the heart, that
thrill along each nerve fiber, that cry
with each contraction of our muscles,
that won't be hushed though buried
in the marrow of the bones of the hu
man body. And he would have told
you from his "MAN. THE UN
KNOWN” that “Science has to explore
the entire field of reality: that any
physician can observe the patients
brought to Lourdes and examine the
records kept in the medical bureau;
that Lourdes is the center of an In
ternational Medical Association com
posed of many members and that the
most important cases of miraculous
healing are recorded by the Medical
Bureau of Lourdes.” (pp.148-9) The
cures of Lourdes are on a par with all
other recorded facts of science.
And we come away astounded at
God; ever newly stunned into unex
pected realization that He is who is;
ever feeling the awe, yet the trust, so
well compressed by' Carlyle’s friend,
Sterling, in the four brief lines:
"O Source Divine, and Life of all
O Fount of being's fearful sea,—
Thy depths would every heart ap
pall
Which saw not love supreme in
Thee!” '
Here I say to you, reflect, realize,
for an adequate recognition of God
as God is a prerequisite for the ap
preciation of His vast plan and of the
means which He has determined for
its accomplishment.
This our God, then, being all that
He is,—has revealed to man His di
vine plan in terms unmistakable. Had
you not been too wearied by "the
hubbub and digressions” in your visits
to the Yale Livinity School, I would
have directed you to go a little fur
ther into "Old New England” to meet
Robert H. Lord, professor of history at
Harvard (technical expert with the
American Commission which accom
panied President Wilson to the Paris
Peace Conference), who, once like
you, was searching for the Divine
Flan. He would have told you that
plan is written large upon the walls
of time; that against the background
splendid of the visible creation, par
allelling our race history of unspecta
cular moral disintegration, of man's
inhumanity to man, but with a clarity
more smiting than that of the natural
marvels of creation. God, in that most
wondrous of wonders, prophecy, an
nounced His plan—and from the very
beginning; progressively added details
giving new interest: confirmed Kis
prophecies by fulfillment; chose the
men and the means through which He
would work His plan, as Abraham.
Meter, David, C;r.c; r.'celflci the
Naturally, you “made many discov
eries in modern books.” May I symp
athetically suggest that you will make
more important discoveries in that
first great book, the Old Testament
Through it you will be impressed by
the greatness of God manifest in the
visible creation, to the point of re
peating often and with deepening emo
tion the words of the first of the mo
derns, "For I have always feared God
as waves swelling over me, and His
weight I am not able to bear,” through
itYou will be confounded by the great
er greatness of God manifest in his
tory—recalling the stupendous inter
ventions in the past and with prophe
tic vision of the more stupendous
works to be, and cry out like Habacuc,
with refreshing human realism, ’T
have heard, and my bowels were
troubled: my lips trembled at the
voice!” In it you will see from the very
beginning to the very end that this
our God of Tremendous Majesty is
to be approached—as fully as He can
be by man—through ritual Sacrifice.
A brief review—from memory—will
bring that important point home. We
have no choice. His ordinance is there,
markedly and repeatedly and circum
stantially indicated to us. Reason con
firms the rightness of it; a ritual sacri-
•fice in which the partakers partake-
in some measure—The Aweful Source
of AIL He—offers—offers Himself to
us—and through means determined by
Himself. Only through due apprecia
tion of these three cardinal facts of
the Old Testament is one prepared for
an answer to your question. (For al
though the New Testament is the key
to the Old Testament, this Old Testa
ment is still the preparatory lesson in
appreciation for the New). What has
God—not the Church—what has God
to offer us through the Church?
And, now. The Christ, the Alpha and
Omega of the plan in which we both
believe.
Challenge?—Has authentic history
recorded challenges like those of the
Christ, in importance, in detail, in
number, in publicity, in clarity, in
nobility, and in love, presented with
such dramatic force and with such
finality? Would you read the mind of
Christ? Then you must of necessity
become familiar with the sixth chap
ter of SL John’s Gospel: reflect with
a prolonged familiarity, which will
The following poem by James Clarence Mangan, reprinted in the Irish
World about twenty-five years ago and sent to The Bulletin by the Rev.
Wm. A. Tobin, pastor of St. Anthony's Church, Florence, S. C., is of in
terest because of its title, -because of its intrinsic worth and because of
the nature of its subject matter. Mangan. who was bom in Dublin in 3803
and died there in 1849, wrote between 800 and 900 poems.
“Gone in the Wind” is of particular interest because of the success of the
famed novel, “Gone With the Wind” Margaret Mitchell says she was not
familiar with the poem and had not heard of it when she named her noveL
"Gone With the Wind” or "Gone in the .Wind” is a common expression
among the Irish people, and Margaret Mitchell s mother coming Lem a
cultured family of Irish extraction, it is probable that this explains her
(familiarity with it Whether Mangan originated the expression or adopted
:a __ ru_ * v:_ nn xuViir-Vt umniormefL lil€
it as the title for his poem is a point on which we are uninformed,
poem follows:
Solomon! where is thy throne? It is gone in the wind.
Babylon! where is thy might? It is gone in the wind.
Like the swift shadows of Noon, like the dreams of the blind,
Vanish the glories and pomps of the earth in the wind.
Man! cans! thou build upon aught in the pride of thy mind?
Wisdom will teach thee that nothing can tarry behind;
Though there be enthroned bright actions embalmed and enshrined
Myriads and millions of brighter are snow in the wind.
Solomon! where is thy throne? It is gone in the wind.
Babvion! where is thy might? It is gone in the wind.
All that the genius of man hath achieved or designed
Waits but its hour to be dealt with as dust by the wind.
Say, what is Pleasure! A phantom, a mask undefined.
Science? An almond, whereof we can pierce hut the mind,
Honor and Affluence? Firmans that Fortune hath signed
Only to glitter and pass on the wings of the wind.
Solomon! where is thy throne? It is gone in the wind.
Babvion! where is thy might? It is gone m the wind.
Who is the Fortunate? He who in anguish hath pined!
He shall rejoice when his relics are dust in the wind!
Mortal! be careful with what thy best hopes are entwined;
Woe to the miners for Truth—where the Lampless have mined!
Woe to the seekers on earth for—what none ever 11 °d.
They and their trust shall be scattered like leaves on the wind.
Solomon! where is thy throne? It is gone in the wind.
Babylon! where is thy might? It is gone in the wind.
Happy in death are they only whose hearts have consigned
All Earth’s affections and longings and cares to the wind.
Pity, thou, reader! the madness of poor humankind
Raving of knowledge—and Satan so busy to blind!
Raving of glory,—like me,—for the garlands I bind
(Garlands of Song) are but gathered, and strewn in the wind.
Solomon! where is thy throne? It is gone in the wind.
Babylon! where is thy might? It is gone m the wind.
I Abul-Namez. must rest; for my fire hath declined,
And I hear voices from Hades like bells on the wind.
livion—and our own utter frailty; but among all the races of the werld, giv“
petition for that great good beyond
our natural reach—to see Him face to
face in all His glory.
see as outstanding: His claim to Di
vinity to being The Resurrection unto
everlasting life, His insistence on our
belief in Him, His repeated affirma
tion that He is the Bread of Life, that
through eating this Bread -we will be
made partakers of His Divinity! The
setting of the scenes, the objections
with which He was interrupted in
these His great affirmations, the de
falcation of many of His disciples. His
challenge to the Twelve who were to
be the leaders of His Church their pro
fession of faith and the two dire verses
with which the chapter ends, impress
the mind arid the heart and the imag
ination with these greatest of truths
and blessings ever given to men. That
was the crisis of the world!
And here and now is the reason why
I go to Church and why you should
go -to Church:
"For I have received of the Lord,"
says St. Paul to the Corinthians, "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
do for the commemoration of me.’ ”
This "body which shall be delivered
for you.” was delivered on the Cross,
in the Sacrifice of Calvary: “this do
for the commemoration of me,” is His
divine injunction for the Sacrifice of
our altar. For “we have an altar
whereof they have no power to eat
who serve the tabernacle.” (Heb. 13:-
10) "Nobody nowadays have a hand
ful of vulgar fanatics," said the Pro
testant Augustine Birrell. English edu
cator and essayist, "speaks irreverent
ly of the Mass. If the Incarnation be
indeed the one Divine event to which
the whole creative moves, the miracle
of the altar may well seem its rest
ful shadow cast over a dry and thirsty
land for the help of man who is apt to
be discouraged if perpetually told that
everything really important and inter
esting happened once and for all long
ago in a. chill historic past. . .It is the
Mass that matters.” (ESSAYS AND
ADDRESSES. “What, Then. Did Hap
pen at the Reformation?" p.45).
This “event” is the one through
which the Christ infused His own di
vine life in Holy Communion into the
sons of men: into His Apostles—mar
tyrs every one; into the glorious phal
anxes of the martyrs of the steel-gold
first three centuries, blood-red, who
rendered unto Caesar what was
Caesar's and unto God what was God s
and accomplished the most astound
ing revolution in history—the great
reformation of a cruel and disgusting
paganism into the free and honorable
Christianity of Western Europe. This
event is the one through which the
Christ fired the souls of the great mis-
sioners who tamed our barbarian fo re
fathers, who, in .their turn, through
this same event, spread the fire in
every widening circles; of the legions
of celibate men and women who hand
ed down the better culture of Hebrew
and Greek and Roman to each rising
generation. Through this event Christ
gave the inspiration for all the institu
tions of our Western civilization, of
which, says Carlton J. H. Hayes of
Columbia University, our America is
a child. This is the "event” through
which in our trying days the Christ
directs and strengthens the 350 million
Catholics who are plentifully scattered
ing them His light, His strength. His
urge to keep on “the front of action”;
in the home, in business and civic
life, in the mission fields, in hospitals
and in leper homes, and in our Calho-
lic schools. Not mainly for instruction j
or inspiration, do we go to church. It i
is not so much we Christians who do
these things as it is the Christ who does j
them through us.
Yet more, yes even more: through
this, we worms of the earth, made
partakers of the Divinity, actually j
seek God Himself, and give back love j
for love—the love that is in Christ [
Jesus, from which neither tribulation, ■
nor distress, nor famine, nor naked- |
ness, nor danger, nor persecution, nor ,
the sword shall separate us. After a
brief combat here we are to share
High God's own self-control.
O Soul "on the front of action,” this
is the magnificent voluntarian philo
sophy which can easily be seen under
our sincere humility and the apparent
ly apologetic attitude of our daily
lives—this is the power of the strong
Son of God who “has overcome the
world!”
This, then, is what "the Church has ;
to offer that is unique, peculiar to it, j
that is not to be found in a better form [
elsewhere.”
For this Sacrifice, for this Sacra- J
ment, I go to Church. Whv not you?
STEFHEN GEORGE.
This "Divine event,” this Sacrifice
of Calvary, this Mass is the one and
only act of adoration through which
the man of deep heart feels that he
has fittingly worshiped the great
First Cause, the God of history, the
Father of man. This alone is a worthy
thank offering; this alone is atone
ment for sin; this is the most power
ful petition for His care, not only amid
the terrific forces on all sides round—
of v he': we walk in such childish ob-
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