independent of all human authority, and supreme in her own
sphere. Her rights, her property, and the persons of her
hierarchy must be sacred and inviolable. She must have full and
unrestricted liberty to exercise the powers and fulfil the
mission committed to her by her Divine founder, without any
interference of kings, rulers, or the people; of lawless
individuals, or any usurping, tyrannical state. It is most
necessary of all that the Supreme See and Sovereign Ruler of the
Church--that is, the Roman Church and Pontiff--should possess
this perfect liberty and independence. The Pope is the Vicar of
Christ, the supreme judge of all questions of doctrine and
morals. So far as the rights of religion are concerned, he is the
judge of all sovereigns and states, and they owe him obedience.
He is the judge, also, of the justice and morality of laws,
whether national or international, and of all practical cases in
which conscience and the divine or ecclesiastical law are
concerned. For this reason, he ought not to be the subject of any
temporal prince or state. And, in point of fact, Jesus Christ has
given him the rights and privileges of a sovereign.
{127}
When tribute was exacted of our Lord, before paying it, He stated
distinctly to his disciples that He Himself was above all human
jurisdiction and law, and insinuated, in an equally unmistakable
manner, that He designed to communicate this privilege to St.
Peter. "And when they were come to Capharnaum, they that received
the didrachmas came to Peter, and said to him: Doth not your
Master pay the didrachma? He said: Yes. And when he was come into
the house, Jesus prevented him, saying: What is thy opinion,
Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take tribute or custom?
of their children or of strangers? And he said: Of strangers.
Jesus said to him: Then the children are free. But, that we may
not scandalize them, go thou to the sea, and cast in a hook; and
that fish which shall first come up, take: and when thou hast
opened his mouth, thou shalt find a stater: take that, and give
it to them for me and thee." [Footnote 39]
[Footnote 39: St. Matt. xvii. 23-26.]
[USCCB: St. Matt. xvii. 24-27.]
The argument used by our Lord is very plain. The son of a king is
exempt from tribute. "I am the Son of the King of kings, and,
therefore, owe no tribute to the servants of My Father." But, if
our Lord owed no tribute to any temporal ruler, He owed no kind
of obedience or subjection. And as He paid tribute as a free act
of condescension, in order to uphold the authority of kings, so,
for the same reason, He respected that authority in other things.
{128}
His emblematic action in providing, miraculously, a coin for the
tribute-money, which He ordered St. Peter to pay in the name of
Christ and for himself also, insinuates in the most significant
manner that St. Peter was to obtain from Him a like privilege
with that which He possessed by natural right as the Son of God.
Christ is a sovereign in His own native right. The Vicar of
Christ is a sovereign by a delegated privilege. The obedience of
Christ to temporal rulers and laws was not due by the obligation
of a subject, but a mere voluntary conformity for the sake of the
common good. So, also, the Vicars of Christ, independent of all
temporal rulers and laws, should be bound to God alone, and not
before men, to subject themselves to the authority of an earthly
sovereign, only so far as times and circumstances might require
them to do so for the well-being of the Church. For several
centuries it was, in fact, necessary for the Popes to submit to
the sovereignty of the Roman emperors, pagan and Christian.
During this period they maintained their spiritual independence
and supremacy chiefly by an incessant conflict with the imperial
power--frequently ended only by their martyrdom. It was partially
secured by the voluntary respect and obedience of the Christian
emperors to the spiritual authority of the Vicar of Christ. But
this was an imperfect state, suited only to the beginnings of the
Church; and therefore the providence of God gave to the Popes the
temporal sovereignty over Rome.
{129}
The personal sovereignty and independence of the Pope was given
him by a divine right, and conferred on him immediately by Jesus
Christ. This divine right did not, however, convey an immediate
title to the possession of any temporal kingdom of subjects. It
only gave the right to acquire such a kingdom by human right, and
made this human right, once acquired, sacred and inviolable. The
title of the Popes to the sovereignty of Rome is, therefore, in
its origin human, and based on principles of human law and
justice; but in regard to its inalienable, inviolable sacredness,
it is of divine right. It is not essentially contained in that
sovereignty which Christ gave to St. Peter and his successors,
but it is its natural and necessary consequence. It is annexed to
it for its maintenance and protection. Ever since the civilized
nations became Christian, this sovereignty has been necessary,
and it still continues, and must remain in future, necessary for
the due exercise of the spiritual supremacy of the Roman Church
and Pontiff. The sacredness and inviolability of the temporal
sovereignty of the Pope over the Roman kingdom, and the
necessity, under the present condition of things, of this
sovereignty to the well-being of the Church, have been repeatedly
and solemnly declared by the sovereign pontiffs and by the
Catholic episcopate.
{130}
It is impossible for any true and loyal Catholic to think
otherwise; and the events which have occurred and are now
occurring make it clearly and plainly manifest that this judgment
is just. God has given to the Roman Pontiff a temporal throne and
kingdom, a country and a capital, that it might be a Christian
Sion and Jerusalem, a holy and inviolable sanctuary, in which the
Vicar of Christ can possess and exercise in sovereign freedom and
independence all the rights of his spiritual supremacy over the
universal Church.
From what I have thus far said, which is the expression not of my
opinion merely as an individual, but of the common belief of the
whole body of sincere and faithful Catholics throughout the
world, I draw the following evident conclusion: In that combat
which the Holy Father has been so long waging, he has defended
only what God has given him for the spiritual and eternal welfare
of the human race. This determined and glorious conflict with
unprincipled governments and the detestable horde of
revolutionists for the defence of the temporal princedom of the
Roman Pontiff, is a combat between infidelity and faith, hell and
heaven, Satan and Jesus Christ.
{131}
The real and final aim of those who have conspired together to
overthrow the temporal sovereignty of the Pope has been and is
the subversion of his spiritual supremacy, and of the freedom and
independence of the Catholic Church; the abolition of the kingdom
of Christ upon the earth; and the emancipation of human society,
together with all the individuals who compose it, from the law of
God. It is true that many of those who have taken part in this
conspiracy have not clearly foreseen or intended this final and
inevitable tendency of their movement toward communism and
atheism. But these are merely the purblind followers and
accomplices, the servants and tools of more clear sighted and
desperate leaders, who make use of them, and who despise them.
All together are but the instruments and agents of one who is far
more clear-sighted and more desperate than any of them, the great
enemy of Jesus Christ, the original author of all rebellion, the
apostate archangel, Lucifer.
The Holy Father and his devoted adherents have been fighting for
the principles of truth, justice, and morality, for the welfare
of society, the laws of God, the cause of religion throughout the
whole world. Rome is the sanctuary where these precious jewels
are treasured. Those good, brave men who have died in defence of
the Holy See have died as martyrs for the faith and law of
Christ. All Catholics owe them reverence and gratitude, and ought
to be stirred up by their glorious example to an equal zeal and
loyalty in the sacred cause of God and the Pope.
{132}
All Christians have sworn allegiance to Jesus Christ as their
King. The Pope is the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and, therefore, no
Christian can pay allegiance to Jesus Christ without paying
allegiance to the Pope. This allegiance is spiritual, but, by its
very nature as a spiritual allegiance, it binds every Catholic to
support and assist the Pope by all possible and lawful means to
defend and preserve those temporal rights, which are necessary to
him and to the Church, as the condition and the guarantee of the
freedom and well-being of both.
It is also the interest of all Catholics, as well as their duty,
to stand bravely and loyally by the Pope in his struggle against
the enemies of the Church and of religion. What is there so
precious to the Christian as the faith, the holy and divine
religion into which he has been baptized; the Church, which is
his ark of safety; the adorable Sacrament of the Altar, which is
the link between heaven and earth; the Communion of Saints,
through which he remains still united to the faithful departed
whom he once loved on earth; the hope of future glory and
blessedness in the kingdom of God? Health, wealth, pleasure,
honor, science, art, home, country, the whole wide world itself,
are of no value in comparison. But the treasure which each one
possesses in his religion he holds only by virtue of that charity
which binds him to all other members of the Catholic Church, and
to its Head.
{133}
Our interests are in common, and if any member, but especially
the Head, be wounded, the whole body and all the other members
must suffer with it. Each one has an interest in the well-being
of the whole Church. We have an interest in the preservation of
the sacred deposit of faith and grace in all nations; in the
salvation of our neighbor, in the spiritual good of our
posterity; in the prosperity of Christendom; in the conversion of
the world; in the triumph of Jesus Christ; in the glory of God.
All these are bound up in the cause of the Holy See, the Roman
Church, the Sovereign Pontiff. It is only by the Catholic Church
that mankind can be saved and that God can be glorified. Peter is
the Rock on which this Church is built. The successors of Peter
hold the golden keys by which hell is shut and heaven opened. The
See of Peter is the centre of unity, light, life, and strength,
for the whole Church throughout the world. It is against the Rock
of Peter that the forces, proceeding from the gates of hell to
make war on religion, morality, society, the spiritual and
temporal well-being of the human race, direct their most fierce
and obstinate assaults. The downfall of this citadel would cause
the destruction of the kingdom of God on earth, and give the
victory to Satan in his warfare against Christ.
{134}
"The gates of hell shall never prevail against it." God will
preserve the Roman Church until the end of the world. But He will
not do it altogether by miraculous and supernatural means, or by
His own immediate intervention in human affairs. God ordinarily
works through secondary causes, and by means of human agencies.
He has established the civil princedom of the Roman Pontiff as
the bulwark of his spiritual supremacy, and this bulwark must be
defended by the loyalty and valor of all true Catholics against
the assaults of the gates of hell. If faithless sovereigns and
wicked conspirators despoil the Sovereign Pontiff of his lawful
patrimony, rob the Roman Church of her possessions, and thus
weaken and embarrass the functions of the supreme government of
the Catholic Church, duty and interest alike require of the
faithful to repair this injury, and to succor the distress of the
Mother and Mistress of all churches by their generous and
abundant contributions.
This is the obligation of the poor and of the rich alike, though
not in equal measures. Upon those who are relatively poor, by
comparison with the wealthier class--that is, those who are
dependent upon their own hard labor for a modest livelihood--it
is not necessary to press this obligation in urgent terms. They
make up the great body of the faithful, and by their zeal and
charity it is in a great part that the enterprises of the Church
are sustained.
{135}
To those of you, my dear brethren, who belong to this class, what
I have said already will be enough--that is, to the greater part.
For there are some who waste in the service of the devil what
they can save from their earnings, and, therefore, have little or
nothing left to give to God and the Church. Those who give
themselves to excessive drinking--as some unhappily do, to their
own shame and ruin and the scandal of religion--waste their
hard-earned money in the service of the devil. So, also, those
who give their money to unlawful societies, and to foolish,
wicked enterprises, which are forbidden both by the laws of the
Church and of the country, waste it in the devil's service. All
such persons are bad subjects and rebels in the kingdom of God.
Therefore, I exhort them to return to their fidelity and
allegiance, to renounce the service of the devil, and to give a
part of what they have devoted to his wicked works to the holy
cause of God and the Church. Let those, also, who are led away by
foolish vanity to spend more money than is suitable and right
upon the decoration of their person, sacrifice those ornaments
which are not in keeping with the modesty of their state in life,
that they may have more to give to our Lord, and may merit more
precious and lasting jewels, which will never lose their lustre.
{136}
Those who serve the meek and lowly Saviour of the world, who put
on the form of a servant for our sakes, in humble labors and
offices, are ennobled by their Christian charity. Imitate,
therefore, the zeal, self-denial, and generous liberality of your
forefathers and brethren in all ages and countries, who, out of
their poverty, have made such great gifts to God and their
fellow-men, and whose alms have swollen from small rills to such
an abundant stream, fertilizing and blessing the earth. It will
come back to you a hundredfold, especially when it is bestowed on
the Vicar of Christ, who is, like his Divine Master, in a special
sense the father of the poor.
The obligations of the rich in respect to giving are far greater
than those of the poor, but not generally so well fulfilled. The
spirit of the Catholic religion ought to inspire them with a
generous and lavish charity. The spirit of God is a princely
spirit; and in the early and middle ages this princely spirit was
manifested in a princely munificence. There are not wanting, in
our own times, many signal instances of this same generous and
noble magnanimity of Christian character in the great and
wealthy. The present needs of the Holy See have called forth, in
numbers of those who are noble or rich, a manifestation of that
same piety, devotion, and liberality which has adorned the
history of happier epochs, and given a purer lustre to so many
illustrious names.
{137}
But our age is one of luxury and self-indulgence. The rich are
exposed in an unusual degree to those temptations which have
always made their state so dangerous. Therefore, they need
special admonitions to administer well the goods entrusted to
them by Almighty God, and beware of that excessive love of money,
that pride, selfishness, and extravagance, which are so contrary
to the spirit of Christianity. They need to be stirred up to give
in proportion to their wealth to the sacred cause of God, and not
to stint themselves to the small measure which, for the poor, is
generous and honorable, but which for them is niggardly and
disgraceful. To the rich, therefore, I say that they should
imitate the example of those holy and noble persons who have
consecrated their wealth to God.
You serve an exacting Master. You are placed in a position which
is beset with responsibility and danger. It is a responsible
position, because of the great and important duties and
obligations which are annexed to it; dangerous, because of its
great difficulties and temptations. Those who are favored and
elevated above their fellows by Divine Providence, have not
received these blessings in order that they may make a display of
themselves or indulge their passions, but in order that they may
glorify God and do good to their fellow-men.
{138}
If they wish to be safe in the midst of the allurements and
seductions of this world, to derive real and lasting advantage
from their wealth, and to save their souls, they must consecrate
their riches to the service of God. There is but one end for
which one can live in this world which is worthy of a
Christian--the exaltation of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Princes, nobles, men of power and influence through their
talents, learning, station, or wealth, if they do not devote
themselves heart and soul to the advancement and extension of the
Catholic Faith and the Catholic Church, are recreant to their
trust. It is this treason of the great and rich in Catholic
nations to the sacred cause of Christ and His Church which is the
chief cause of irreligion and vice among the people, of rebellion
and revolution, political and social disorder, and which
threatens to produce convulsions still more extensive and
terrible, in which the privileged classes will become the victims
of a conflagration which their own folly and wickedness have
kindled. The throne of the Roman Pontiff is the keystone of the
arch of political and social order, public peace and prosperity,
civilization and good government. Those who have the greatest
stake involved in the social commonwealth have the greatest
interest in maintaining the rights of that august and sacred
throne.
{139}
It is a disgrace to Christendom that the Sovereign Pontiff of the
Catholic Church should be left to struggle almost alone and
single-handed with enemies who have plotted the overthrow of the
Holy See and of religion. It is shameful that he should be left
to bear the burden of debts and embarrassments which have been
created by those who have unjustly invaded and despoiled the
patrimony of the Church. The majestic figure and attitude of Pius
IX. is a condemnation of the nations of Christendom in this
nineteenth century before the tribunal of conscience and of
Almighty God. Only those can free themselves from this
condemnation who are found on his side, sustaining his cause by
word and deed, proving their loyalty to Christ and His Vicar by
their open renunciation of all sympathy and complicity with the
enemies of the Holy See, and by their zealous and active support
of the spiritual supremacy and temporal princedom of the Roman
Pontiff.
By the grace of God, my dear brethren, we will not incur that
condemnation. We are true and faithful members of that Holy
Catholic Church which was founded on the day of Pentecost.
Although remote in the distance of space from the See of Peter,
the Holy Roman Church, we acknowledge with pride and joy that the
Mother and Mistress of Churches is the Mother and Mistress of the
Church of this Western world.
{140}
We are the loyal and devoted children of our Holy Father, Pius
IX. His rights we will sustain while life shall last. Our prayers
shall never cease to ascend to heaven for his success and
triumph; our generous contributions to his temporal necessities
shall never fail him. We rely on the unfailing word and almighty
power of our Lord Jesus Christ to give victory and triumph to the
cause of His crowned and anointed Vicar and of His Holy Church;
and we will, therefore, do our duty zealously and faithfully to
promote that victory, that we may share in its glory and reward.
---------------------
{141}
The Sermon IX.
The Living God.
(For Trinity Sunday.)
Jer. x. 10.
"__The Lord is the true God:
He is the living God__."
To-day the Church makes a solemn profession of faith in the
mystery of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. It is true this is a
profound, inscrutable mystery, which we could never have
discovered, and which, even now that it is revealed, we cannot
fully grasp with our reason; but it is not so absolutely
impenetrable that we may not reason about it in so far as to see
a fitness in it, and to recognize its truth and conclude its
necessity from its perfect harmony with the other mysteries of
the Christian faith. We can see how the whole system of religion,
which shows us God as the Creator of the universe, and the
Redeemer and glorifier of the human race, finds its fittest
sanction and most reasonable explanation in its truth; while the
rejection of it would leave the mind oppressed and bewildered
with a thousand difficulties impossible of solution, and of such
a nature as to lead us to abandon the belief in God as a living
personal Being, and seek for their explanation in some theory of
Pantheism or Polytheism, the first of which denies the
personality, and the second the unity, of God.
{142}
If I needed an apology for endeavoring to show the reasonableness
of this doctrine, it would be that in our day it is famentably
true that the great body of so-called Christians, who have cast
off the primary authority of revealed truth, and set up the
destructive theory of private judgment in its stead, are fast
losing their faith in this necessary truth of Christianity, and
falling away into Rationalism and Infidelity. It becomes the
Christian preacher, therefore, to raise his voice in defence of
this fundamental doctrine of Christianity. Christianity is true
only because the Trinity is true. Abandon that, and belief in
Christ the incarnate Son of God is impossible.
Let us consider, then, with all due reverence, the mystery of the
being of God, and express the reasons which our own mind can
present to confirm the faith of the Christian, when, signing
himself with the sign of Christ, he adds the solemn declaration
of his belief in God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
{143}
First of all, it is proper to state distinctly what the doctrine
of the Trinity is. We believe that there is one infinite, eternal
Being, whose nature is in no way divided, nor can be conceived of
as partly one thing, and partly another thing. We believe that
God, though one in being, is a Trinity in person. This Trinity of
person in God does not separate His being into parts any more
than His attributes, such as His wisdom or His justice, could
divide Him, making His wisdom or justice one thing, and Himself
another thing, which is not wisdom or justice.
It is God who is both wise and just, and His wisdom and justice
have no existence but in Him. So it is God, one Being, who is
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and these three Persons, taken
together, or one by one, are not something else besides the being
of God, but they, each and all, are God. God __is__ the
Trinity. So that the Father cannot regard the Son, or the Holy
Ghost, as some other being--some other God, because the Son and
the Holy Ghost are the same God as the Father is. In being God is
not three, but one. Nor does the fact of there being three
Persons add anything to the being of God, or lessen the absolute
perfection of His unity, by introducing an element of division:
on the contrary, we shall see that a perfect being must exist in
three persons, and a being with only one person, such as we are,
is necessarily an imperfect being.
{144}
And when we say that the three Persons are distinct one from the
other, so that the Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Holy
Ghost, that again in no manner can affect the unity of the Divine
Being, which in all three is identically the same. God, whose
being is one, lives in three persons, and we can address
ourselves to any one of the three separately, to God living as
the Father, to God living as the Son, or to God living as the
Holy Ghost; but the Being who __lives__, either as Father, or
as Son, or as Holy Ghost, is One, and cannot be addressed in any
manner as if He was double or triple. This very reasonable
distinction between a being and the person of that being seems to
be something which many wise and learned men appear either unable
or unwilling to understand.