I Cor. xvi. 13.
"__Watch ye; stand fast in the faith;
do manfully, and be strengthened.__"
We celebrate to-day the feast called "St. Peter's Chains," to
commemorate the miraculous union which took place between the two
chains that had bound St. Peter in prison--the one under King
Herod, and the other at Rome, under Nero--when they were brought
together.
Why was St. Peter willing to be bound and imprisoned for the
faith of Christ? Because he esteemed it more precious than
liberty, or any thing else that the world prizes; as he says when
he writes to others suffering for the same cause, "That the trial
of your faith (much more precious than gold which is tried in the
fire) may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the
appearing of Jesus Christ." [Footnote 76]
[Footnote 76: I Ep. St. Peter i. 7.]
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What is it that gives to faith its priceless value? Why is it to
be esteemed above liberty, the possession of wealth, more than
friends, parents, the whole world, and even more than life
itself? There are those who do not possess this gift, and who, to
all appearances, are as happy as those who do. Nations have
existed, and now exist, strong and prosperous, and are without
faith. What is there in faith that makes it worthy of being
praised as the "pearl of great price," as "more precious than
fire-refined gold," as something better to be desired by
men--yes, even by nations--than power, rank, or glory? The value
of things may be got at in two ways. The first is by estimating
them according to their real qualities; the second, according to
what men are willing to give or sacrifice for their possession.
Let us consider the value of faith weighed in each of these
balances.
There are many things which men prize highly. At certain seasons
they cross the seas, endure fatigue, spend a great deal of time
and money--and what for? To gaze on beautiful scenery, view works
of art, and visit great men and places renowned in history. They
are charmed with the aspect of the mountains, the trees, the
flowers, the streams, the glowing sunsets, and are filled with
admiration. These moments of joy outweigh with them all the
fatigue, expense, and time expended in reaching these favored
spots of nature.
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It is the same at home. We leave our busy cities in the summer,
and hasten to our mountains, our lakes, and the sea-shores. And
why do men prize these beautiful scenes? There must be, there is
something valuable in them. Their charms, the joy and pleasure
derived from nature, spring not from ourselves. What attracts us
in creation is the traces of God's beauty, and in contemplating
these the soul is drawn nearer to God, and its joy increased. It
is God in nature who dilates the soul.
Why do men love poetry, music, architecture, painting, and
sculpture? Why have the verses of a Homer, a Dante, a
Shakespeare, been the delight of ages? Why is it that a whole
nation feels honored in the possession of a work from the chisel
of Michael Angelo, or a Madonna of Raphael, or a Cathedral of
Cologne, or in having given birth to Dante or Shakespeare? Why
are our souls enlarged and raised above the senses in listening
to strains of music composed by a Palestrina or a Beethoven or a
Mozart? It is because art is a higher expression of the Divine,
and brings us nearer to the All-True, Holy, and Fair.
We know how men are devoted to science, to philosophy; how they
rival the severest ascetic in their self-denial, in order to
advance knowledge. The astronomer, gazing on the heavens,
discovers new planets, and finds out the great laws which govern
all material things.
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The geologist digs deep down into the bowels of the earth, and
reveals to us its secrets and its ages of growth. The philosopher
analyzes thought and the secret folds of the soul, and teaches us
its laws and dignity. Why all these studies--why so much time,
energy, patience, and devotion to the sciences? What sustains
these men of science? What pays them for all their trouble? What
is it that stimulates them in their pursuits? Is it pride and
love of fame, or selfishness? No! it is the hope of the discovery
of unknown truths. What is Truth? God is Truth. Then, at last
account, these men are seeking God.
You perceive that nature, art, science, are only different
channels of arriving at the one source of all truth and
beauty--God; for all truth is in harmony. The truth, whether in
nature or art or science, is derived from the same source, as is
also the truth in our souls or in the sacred Scriptures, which
the Holy Church infallibly teaches. If men sometimes fancy there
is a discrepancy between religion and science, it "arises chiefly
from this, that either the doctrines of faith are not understood
and set forth as the Church holds them, or that the vain devices
and opinions of men are mistaken for the dictates of reason."
[Footnote 77]
[Footnote 77: Vatican Council.]
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This capacity to perceive the true and beautiful in nature, in
art, and from the discoveries of science, belongs to our natural
reason, and cannot be esteemed too highly. It is a sin against
its Giver not to improve it. It is the glory of the Holy Church
that, by her institutions of learning and her encouragement and
fostering care, she has ever been the promoter of science and of
the fine arts.
But what unaided reason can know in nature of God does not
satisfy man. The soul seeks to know more of God, to come nearer
to God. Nature, art, and science do not suffice to satisfy its
aspirations--aspirations after the real, of which nature, art,
and science are only imperfect images or limited conceptions. It
is to meet this want that the divine light of faith is given to
the soul. It gives to the soul a greater knowledge of God, by
revealing to it truths above nature and beyond the utmost reach
of man's reason. The strength which faith imparts brings the soul
nearer to and in closer union with God.
If, therefore, men value things because they give a clearer
knowledge of God, and bring them closer to Him, how much more
ought they to value the light of Christian faith? If men love
nature, art, and science, that is the reason why they should be
Christians, and all the better Christians, because Christianity
brings us nearer to the object of all our seeking than reason,
art, and science can ever possibly do.
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Reason brings us to God as His creatures, and makes Him known to
us as Providence. Faith brings us to God as His children, and
leads us to cry to Him with the inmost affections of our hearts,
"Abba, Father!" Reason, by science, art, and philosophy, leads
the mind to the contemplation of God as the great First Cause and
the Archetype of all beauty. But faith makes us participators in
the Divine nature, "heirs of God," and, when perfected by the
light of glory, enables the soul to gaze on the Divine Essence,
fills it with torrents of delight, and bathes it in the sea of
God's own beatitude. Is not everything else as nothing compared
with the Divine light of faith! O inestimable faith! the crown
and glory of human reason! the best of God's gifts to man!
Having learned that faith is inestimable on account of its
inherent qualities, now let us test its value by what men have
done and suffered to keep so great a possession.
Look upon the crucifix above the altar, that tells you what the
God-Man suffered to bestow this gift upon man. His wounds, His
blood, His life, is the price He paid in our stead for it. If a
thing can be estimated by what __men__ pay to suffer or do for
it, look at Calvary, at what God has paid and suffered for it,
and tell us what is comparable with faith.
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The Apostles, before they obtained it, were weak and timid; but
when they had received it, they suffered and gloried therein.
They lived, labored, suffered, and in turn laid down their lives
in testimony of the priceless value of that gift of all gifts.
And when the faith was preached in pagan Rome and throughout its
Empire, honors, riches, and all earthly joys and ties were, by
all classes of men, renounced for its sake, so highly did they
prize it. For it Stephen, Ignatius, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia,
Anastasia, and the millions of martyrs, "full of faith," poured
out their blood like water, and cheerfully laid down their lives.
It was the wish to communicate this rare gift to others that
stimulated the zeal of the apostles of the nations--a St. Patrick
in Ireland, a St. Augustine in England, a St. Boniface in
Germany, a St. Francis Xavier in the Indies, and led the saintly
Father Jogues to our land, who was martyred by the Indians on the
banks of the Mohawk. Columbus prized so highly the gift of faith,
that, to bring its light to the benighted savages whom he
supposed existed on this hemisphere, he encountered unknown
dangers, and sustained heroic sufferings, in the enterprise of
its discovery.
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Most of you, my dear brethren, are from the old country, and have
come to this strange land--and why? Did your native hills lose
their charms for you? Did the ruins of your land and the graves
of your ancestors awaken in your bosoms no longer any feelings of
attachment and veneration? Have you no affection left for those
parents, those brothers and sisters and kindred, left in the old
home? Have you forgotten the glories of your history, and think
it nothing to lose your nationality, and see your children after
you grow up the sons and daughters of another soil?
Why, then, have you renounced all that men hold so dear? It is
because you loved your faith above every consideration in life.
You counted all else as nothing compared with it, and so that you
might keep it, you were ready to endure suffering, poverty, and
persecutions, and abandon all that men hold dear. This is why you
are here to-day and not in Ireland. Had your forefathers, or you,
chosen to apostatize from your Catholic faith, and deny the truth
of Christ, you could be this moment prosperous and smiling under
the favor of kings and princes in your native country.
Look, again, at the throng of converts who have cast aside
position, wealth, and fame for that holy faith, and in turn
become the heralds of truth to the world. A Prince Gallitzin
chose banishment and the sacrifice of a princely fortune in
becoming a Catholic; and when a priest, hiding even his rank and
name, lived and toiled like an apostle in the wilds of the
Alleghany Mountains.
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Look at an Ives, who esteemed it greater to possess the faith in
the humble position of a Catholic layman, than to hold the rank
of Bishop in the Protestant Episcopal Church without it.
Thousands have given up parents, brothers, and sisters, and
kindred, become poor and outcasts, to gain this pearl of great
price, the gift of faith, thus fulfilling the words of our Lord,
"He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of
Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not
worthy of Me." [Footnote 78]
[Footnote 78: St. Matt. x. 37.]
O holy faith for which the martyrs died, the missionaries and
saints toiled, and for which houses, lands, parents, and friends,
and all things, are counted as nothing! Do we prize thee, O
divine gift, as these have done? Art thou to us above all price?
If so, then to us the words of the apostle have a true and living
meaning:--
"__Watch ye__," or else this gift will be stolen from you.
Nations to which the Church gave birth, and under whose fostering
care they have grown great, have lost the faith. There is not a
people upon earth to-day, as a nation, to whom the Holy Church
can look for defence against persecution, spoliation, and
downright robbery.
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As in the days of paganism, she is surrounded by enemies, and has
no one to rely on but her Divine Founder. Why has the faith been
stolen from the nations? Because it has first been stolen from
the people. It will be stolen from each one of us, unless we keep
a constant watch over ourselves.
Watch over what we read. The literature of our time is filled
with misrepresentations, calumnies, and falsehoods concerning our
holy faith. The press, the most powerful engine of modern times,
is on the side of the enemies of our faith. The very atmosphere
we breathe is poisoned with scepticism, infidelity, and atheism.
"__Stand fast in the faith__." Claim our rights. To claim
these, we shall be charged with stirring up strife. But this must
not disturb us. The same charge was made against our Lord. "He
stirreth up the people," said the envious priests.
As to our rights, they are equal, if not prior, to all others.
Catholics discovered this continent. The feet of Catholics first
trod the native soil of these United States. Catholic
missionaries first reddened it with their blood for the Christian
faith. Catholics fought and bled for our independence, and for
its maintenance. Our right to breathe freely the air of heaven,
to religious liberty, to equal political rights, and equal
privileges with all other American citizens, is indisputable. We
ask for these--no more; and with no less will we be content.
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"__Do manfully__." Can men say what they please against our
holy faith, and we not lift up our voices in its defence! It is
our joy that our holy faith can never be opposed except by
ignorance or calumny. Shall all we hold sacred be caricatured,
calumniated, and we sit with folded arms in silence? Shall the
literature of the day undermine the faith of our people, and the
press caricature and falsify it, and we not employ this most
efficient weapon in its defence and for its propagation? A
Catholic invented the printing-press. Catholics first used it.
Are the children of darkness always to be wiser than the children
of light? Shall we not turn their own weapons against them? Let
us be up and do manfully.
"__Be strengthened__." Our faith is our force. Our forefathers
knew how to die for the faith. Can we not live for it? Be strong
in our convictions of its truth! Defend it publicly, politically,
and privately! We cannot suffer by so doing, for no man is
esteemed who is false to his own convictions. Acting thus, we
shall be strengthened, and though every one of the enemies of our
holy faith were ten thousand, we shall be victors. The hour of
death will then be the crowning point of our lives.
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We shall be able to say, with our great patron St. Paul, "I have
fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith: and, as to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of
justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that
day." [Footnote 79]
[Footnote 79: 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8.]
----------------------
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Sermon XIII.
The Supremacy Of St. Peter.
(Feast Of Ss. Peter And Paul.)
St. Matt. xvi. 18.
"__And I say to thee: That thou art Peter;
and upon this Rock I will build My Church__."
The shortest, most direct, most conclusive, and most intelligible
method of proving the truth of any system is to find its
principle, its fundamental idea, and to establish the reality and
certainty of this idea. When this is done, the whole system which
is logically and justly built on this foundation is already
proved. In the case of the Christian religion, we have only one
thing to establish, in order to convince all pagans, Mohammedans,
modern Jews, and unbelievers, who are truly rational, of its
divine truth. That one thing is the divine mission of Jesus
Christ. When that is established, there is but one question which
can be reasonably asked--What is the authentic doctrine and law
promulgated by Jesus Christ?
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In the same manner, in order to convince all rational men that
the Catholic religion is entirely true, and the real Christianity
established by the Apostles, it is only necessary to prove its
fundamental principle, the Supremacy of St. Peter and his
successors, the Roman Pontiffs. This doctrine, held and
understood in its strict and complete Catholic sense,
distinguishes the Catholic religion from every other. This once
established in the conviction and belief of the mind, the truth
of the whole Catholic religion, in all its parts, follows as a
necessary consequence. It follows that the communion of which the
Pope is the Supreme Head, is the true Church established by Jesus
Christ--One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, incapable of falling
away, and infallible in doctrine. The foundation of this great
and world-wide Church is the Papal Supremacy of St. Peter and his
successors, and its principal portion is the Roman See. If I
prove that this foundation was laid by Jesus Christ, it will be
evident that the Church founded upon it is the true Catholic
Church, and the faith of that Church the true Christian and
Catholic faith. I will then endeavor to prove, first, that Jesus
Christ appointed St. Peter as Prince of the Apostles, His Vicar,
and the Supreme Pastor and Ruler of the Church; and, second, that
the Bishop of Rome is St. Peter's successor.
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First, Jesus Christ appointed St. Peter as Prince of the
Apostles, His Vicar, and the Supreme Pastor and Ruler of the
Church. This will be the theme of the present discourse.
The title, Prince of the Apostles, signifies that St. Peter was
the chief and head of the Apostolic college, and enjoyed a
pre-eminence of honor and authority over the other Apostles. This
preeminence of St. Peter is everywhere manifest in the New
Testament. He was not the first called, for St. Andrew was before
him, yet he is always placed first in the catalogue of Apostles,
and is expressly called the "First" by St. Matthew. He generally
appears as the leader and spokesman of the other Apostles, and is
always mentioned as the first of the three Apostles who enjoyed
the peculiar confidence of Jesus Christ, were witnesses of His
transfiguration and agony, and in other ways were preferred
before the rest, the other two being James and John. He was the
first of the apostles who saw the Lord after His resurrection,
and the angel at the sepulchre sent him a special message by
name, "Go, tell the disciples, __and Peter__." He was the
first who pronounced in the Council of the Apostles his judgment
that they must elect another Apostle in the place of Judas--the
first who preached Christ to the Jews, and the first who admitted
the Gentiles to baptism. He pronounced sentence in the Council of
Jerusalem.
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While the other Apostles confined themselves within a particular
circle, he visited the Church everywhere--"__pertransivit
universos__." He approved the writings of St. Paul, and the
same St. Paul went expressly to Jerusalem, as he says, "to see
Peter," commanded by "a revelation"; that he might submit his
gospel to the judgment of the Prince of the Apostles, of St.
James the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and the other Apostles there,
in order to obtain the approbation of St. Peter and his
fellow-bishops--"lest perhaps," as he writes to the Galatians, "I
should run, or had run in vain." Perhaps the most striking proof
that St. Peter had a real oversight over the other Apostles, as
the pastor of pastors, is found in the fact that Jesus Christ,
immediately before His passion, committed the other Apostles to
his care, and offered up a special prayer for him, to obtain the
grace necessary for this high trust. He said to all the Apostles,
speaking to St. Peter by name as their representative, "Simon,
Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have __you__ [in the
plural number, designating the eleven], that he may sift you as
wheat. But I have prayed for __thee__ [in the singular
number], that __thy__ faith fail not: and thou being once
converted, confirm thy brethren"--"__Aliquando conversus
confirma fratres tuos__." A remarkable passage! Our Lord, at
this awful moment, disclosed a portion of His divine knowledge,
and gave His Apostles a glimpse into futurity.
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He showed them Satan, exerting his utmost to destroy them as the
guardians of the faith, and the custodians of all the hopes of
the human race. He intimates very plainly that but for Him they
would be inevitably swept away. But He had prayed for them, and,
when He prayed with an unconditional will that His prayer should
be heard, its effect must be infallible. His prayer was
especially for St. Peter, that __his__ faith should not fail,
in order that he might confirm his brethren. So that it was by a
special grace conferred on St. Peter, by which he was enabled to
watch over them, that they were to be confirmed in faith. Who
does not see here that pre-eminence of St. Peter over his
colleagues which is expressed by the title, Prince of the
Apostles? [Footnote 80]
[Footnote 80: Matt. x. 2; Mark iii. 16; Luke vi. 14; John i.
33-41; Luke xxiv. 34; Acts i. 15 et seq.; ii. 14 __et
seq__.; x. 34; xv. 7; ix. 32; 2 Pet. iii. 15, 16; Gal. ii.
2; Luke xxii. 32. __Conf. Perrone Loc. Theol__. De
Primatu.]
I cannot sum up all this testimony of Scripture better than in
the grand, concise language of Bossuet, in his sermon on the
__Unity of the Church__:
"Peter appears in every respect as the first: the first to
confess the faith; the first in the manifestation of love; the
first of all the Apostles who saw the Saviour raised from the
dead, as he was the first witness of the fact before all the
people; the first, when it was necessary to fill up the number of
the Apostles; the first who confirmed the faith by a miracle; the
first to convert the Jews; the first to receive the Gentiles; the
first everywhere.
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It is impossible for me to mention every proof. Everything
concurs to establish his primacy; yes, even his very faults. When
power is given to several, the exercise of the power by each one
is restricted by the fact that others share it with him. But
power given to a single individual over all, and without
exception, necessarily implies the plenitude of power. ... All
the apostles receive the same power, but not in the same degree,
or with the same extent. Jesus Christ commences by the first, and
in this first one He develops the whole, in order that we may
learn that the ecclesiastical authority which was originally
constituted in the person of one man is not imparted to others,
except on the condition of remaining always subordinate to the
principle from which its unity is derived, and that all those who
shall be charged with its exercise are found to remain
inseparably united to the same chair."
This is enough to show what some of the most eminent Protestant
writers even have acknowledged, that St. Peter was the first, the
chief, the most pre-eminent, the Prince of the Apostles. St.
Peter was also the Vicar of Jesus Christ, the Supreme Pastor and
Ruler of the Church.
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The title of Vicar of Christ implies that Jesus Christ delegated
to him His own jurisdiction over the Church. A vicar is one who
exercises the authority vested in the principal by delegation
from him. A viceroy or vice-king governs a subordinate kingdom,
__vice regis__, in place of the king. A vicar-general
exercises episcopal jurisdiction, __vice episcopi__, in place
of the bishop, and governs the diocese during his absence. So
when St. Peter is said to have been made by our Lord His Vicar,
it means that he received jurisdiction to govern in the place of
Jesus Christ Himself, Who is by personal and inherent right the
High Priest of the Catholic Church, but Who, being absent from
the earth, must exercise His functions by a substitute. It is
unquestionable that, under the Old Law, the high-priest was the
vice gerent of God, and the supreme head of the Jewish Church. It
is equally unquestionable that, in establishing the New Law,
Christ appointed St. Peter His Vicar and the Supreme Head of the
Christian Church. There is nothing clearer in the New Testament
than this. Jesus Christ distinctly promised to St. Peter that He
would build His Church upon him, and would give him the keys of
the kingdom of heaven; and He actually fulfilled these promises
before He ascended into heaven, by committing His universal flock
to him alone to feed and rule it. This promise is recorded in the
sixteenth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel:
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