Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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- For Your Guild, Altar Society or Club $40.60 Gash—Quickly—Easily! Also beautiful and valuable gifts to members participat ing during our advertising campaign. NOT A CLUB PLAN— IT S NEW AND DIFFERENT! This sensational offer is strictly limited to a few select ed organizations. That means ACTION. Don’t risk the chance of losing out—ask your Pastor or the Presi dent of your organization to write for full details today. Advertising Manager GEORGIA MAID COMPANY BOX B-15 NELSON. GEORGIA.