AT THE DOOR OF THE CHURCH
THE first effect of Brownson's letter was to throw its recipient into
a state of great though brief perplexity. That final struggle,
strange and painful, in which the soul for the last time contends
against its happiness; in which it is drawn by an invincible
attraction, knowing that it will yield yet striving still to resist;
is one that must remain but half-comprehended by most of those to
whom Catholic truth is an inheritance. And yet there is an
explanation which Father Hecker himself would possibly have given.
"Do you know what God is?" he said to the present writer in 1882, in
that abrupt fashion with which he often put the deepest questions.
"That is not what I mean," he went on, after getting a conventional
reply: "I'll tell you what God is. _He is the eternal Lover of the
soul."_ That shudder of blind aversion which is a part of the
experience of so many converts, is an instinctive testimony that the
call to the truth is more than natural, while the overpowering
attraction which attends it witnesses that nature must needs obey or
perish. The Church, too, is not heard by the soul merely as the
collective voice of many men and ages of men agreed upon the truth,
but as a mystic personality which makes her the imperative
ambassadress of Christ. For she is the Spouse of the Lamb, and in her
the Incarnate Word obtains a voice which is no less single in its
personality than multitudinous in its tones.
Much as Isaac Hecker had considered the matter, studying, reading,
praying, assuring himself from time to time that if any church were
true this was the one, and that to enter it was probably his duty,
now that Brownson's weight was likewise thrown into the scale and it
went down with a warning thud, he thrilled through with apprehension.
"I feel like throwing all up," he wrote in the diary on the day the
letter reached him. "Some cannot rest. _How much better would it have
been could I have remained in quietness at my daily pursuits, and not
been led to where I now find myself."_
Then he questions himself: "What have I against the Catholic Church?
At this moment I cannot say that I have anything that is essential.
And she meets my wants on every side.
"Oh, this is the deepest event of my life! I would have united myself
to any one of the Protestant sects if I had found any that would have
answered the demands of my nature. Why should I now hesitate when I
find the Catholic Church will do so? Is not this the self-will which
revolts against the involuntary will of the Spirit?
"The fundamental question is, Am I willing to submit my will to the
guidance and direction of the Church? If she is the body of Christ;
if she is the channel of the Holy Ghost; if she is the inspired body
illumined by Christ's Spirit; in a word, if she _is_ the Catholic
Church; if I would serve God and humanity; if I would secure the
favor of God, and heaven hereafter; why should I not submit to her?"
But however painful this final indecision may have been, it was of
short duration. Brownson's letter reached Concord on Friday morning,
and on Saturday Isaac Hecker went into Boston to see Bishop Fenwick
and put himself under instruction. That done, his peace not merely
returned, but he felt that it rested on more solid grounds than
heretofore. Yet, curiously enough, it is at this point we come upon
almost the first trace of his stopping seriously to consider the
adverse sentiments of others with regard to any proposed action on
his part. Now that he means to range himself, he turns to look back
at the disorderly host which he is quitting, not so much, or at least
not primarily for the sake of the order and regularity and solidity
of that to which it is opposed, but because a true instinct has
taught him that unity is the external mark of truth, as equilibrium
is the test of a just balance. In his diary of June 11, 1844, after
recording that he has just returned from Boston, where he has seen
the bishop and his coadjutor, Bishop John Bernard Fitzpatrick, and
received from the latter a note of introduction to the president of
Holy Cross College, at Worcester, Mass., he adds:
"I intend to stay there as long as it seems pleasant to me, and then
go on to New York and there unite myself with the Church.
"I sigh, and feel that this step is the most important of my life. My
highest convictions, my deepest wants, lead me to it; and should I
not obey them? There is no room to harbor a doubt about it. My
friends will look upon it with astonishment, and probably use the
common epithets, delusion, fanaticism, and blindness. But so I wish
to appear to minds like theirs; otherwise this would be
unsatisfactory to me. Men call that superstition which they have not
the feeling to appreciate, and that fanaticism which they have not
the spiritual perception to perceive. The Protestant world admires,
extols, and flatters him who will write and speak high-sounding and
heroic words; who will assert that he will follow truth wherever it
leads, at all sacrifices and hazards; but no sooner does he do so
than it slanders and persecutes him for being what he professed to
be. Verily it _has_ separated faith from works.
"This is a heavy task; it is a great undertaking, a serious, sacred,
sincere, and solemn step; it is the most vital and eternal act, and
as such do I feel it in all its importance, weight, and power. O God!
Thou who hast led me by Thy heavenly messengers, by Thy divine grace,
to make this new, unforeseen, and religious act of duty, support me
in the day of trial. Support me, O Lord, in my confessions; give me
strength and purity to speak freely the whole truth without any
equivocation or attempt at justification. O Lord, help Thy servant
when he is feeble and would fall.
"One thing that gives me much peace and joy is that all worldly
inducements, all temptations toward self-gratification whatever, are
in favor of the Anglican Church and in opposition to the Catholic
Church. And on this account my conscience feels free from any
unworthy motive in joining it. The Roman Catholic Church is the most
despised, the poorest, and, according to the world, the least
respectable of any; this on account of the class of foreigners of
which it is chiefly composed in this country. In this respect it
presents to me no difficulty of any sort, nor demands the least
sacrifice. But the new relations in which it will place me, and the
new duties which will be required of me, are strange to me, and hence
I shall feel all their weight at once."
His premonitions were speedily fulfilled, though probably not in the
extreme form which he anticipated. The spirit of courtesy which
prevailed throughout his family doubtless prevented any but the
mildest criticism on his action. But even that had hitherto been
spared him. There had been anxiety and much questioning about his
final course, but that it would end in this way does not seem to have
been seriously apprehended. On the same day on which he made the
entry just quoted he wrote the following letter to them:
"June 11, 1844.--On Saturday last I went into Boston and did not
return until this morning (Tuesday). . . . My purpose in going was to
see Bishop Fenwick of the Roman Catholic Church, to learn what are
the preliminaries necessary for one who wishes to be united to the
Church. I saw the bishop and his coadjutor, men of remarkable
goodness, candor, and frankness. I was chiefly interested with his
coadjutor, and spent some hours with him on Monday. And this is the
result to which I have come: That soon, probably next week, I shall
go from here to Worcester, where there is a Catholic college, and
stay there for a few days, perhaps a fortnight, to see the place,
become acquainted with their practical religious life and their
system of intellectual instruction. From there I shall go on home to
New York, and, after having gone through the requisite preliminaries,
be united to the Roman Catholic Church in our city. . . . Before I
make any unalterable step, I wish to see you all and commune with you
concerning this movement on my part. . . .
"Whatever theories and speculations may be indulged in and cherished
by those opposed to the Roman Catholic Church, their influence,
however important they may seem, is not sufficiently vital to prevent
me from being united to it. It satisfies and meets my deepest wants;
and on this ground, setting aside any other for the moment, I feel
like affirming, in the spirit of the man whom Christ made to see.* I
know not whether this Church be or be not what certain men call it,
but this I know: it has the life my heart is thirsting for, and of
which my spirit is in great need.
[* John 9:24: We know this man is a sinner. He said therefore to
them: If he be a sinner, I know not; one thing I know, that whereas I
was blind, now I see.]
"A case in point: The sermon of Dr. Seabury on the lamented death of
Arthur Carey is as far from satisfying my heartfelt longings as
Platonism would be to the Christian. Read the doctrine of the
Catholic Church on the Communion of Saints in the Catechism of the
Council of Trent attentively and devoutly, and you will see and feel
the wide difference in doctrine and life between it and that held
even by the high-church Anglican. It may be said in excuse for Dr.
Seabury, that he has to be prudent and cautious on account of the
state of mind of those whom he has to speak to. Well enough; but why
should one go to a weak and almost dried-up spring when there is one
equally near, fresh, always flowing and full of life? . . . There may
be those, and I do not question there are many such good persons, who
do not feel the deep demands of the spiritual nature as profoundly as
others do, and that the Anglican Church fully satisfes all their
needs. But even in her bosom there are many who think that if the
Oxford tendencies are Anglican, she is very idolatrous and
exceedingly superstitious, because they feel no need for so much
discipline and ceremony, and such faith in the invisible . . . all
reasons that can tempt one in my position are in favor of the
Anglican Church, and it is a source of much joy that there is no
conceivable inducement of a worldly or mixed nature for me to
join the Roman Catholic Church. If there were I should distrust
myself . . . It seems to me that the difference between my embracing
the Roman Catholic Church and any other is the same as the difference
between remaining as I am, and selling all that I have and following
Christ."
His deference for his friends' opinions, though he made their views
no condition of his action, is beautifully shown by the following
words: "John, and all who feel like giving me advice, you will not
hesitate in giving it freely and frankly. There are many reasons for
my present course; it is impossible for me to put them all on paper.
But when I return home and meet you all again, we will in love speak
of this in common communion: until then I will not take any decisive
step. I suppose you feel as little inclined to speak to others of the
decision I have come to as I do to have it prematurely known."
To the brother whose heart was most his own he devotes the concluding
words of the letter:
"What is brother George's mind respecting the need of receiving this
diviner life in order to bring us into a closer communion with God
and make us inhabitants of heaven? George, shall we go arm-in-arm in
our heavenly journey as we have done in our earthly one?"
While awaiting an answer to this letter he began another, in which he
summarizes more explicitly such of his reasons for becoming a
Catholic as might appeal on ordinary grounds of controversy to his
mother and his brother John, the latter of whom had recently become
an Episcopalian. Our extracts, however, will be made from the
passages more strictly personal and characteristic:
"Concord, June 14, 1844.--Until I hear from you I cannot say how you
may view my resolution or feel regarding the decision I have come to,
and therefore I am at a loss what to say to you respecting it. One
thing must strike you as inexplicable: that I relinquish my studies
here so suddenly. This arises from the fact that I have not kept you
perfectly informed concerning the change my mind has for some time
been undergoing with regard to the object and end of study, its
office and its benefits. I kept silent, thinking that my views might
be but temporary, and that it was unnecessary to trouble you with
them. My simple faith is, in a few words, that we must first seek the
kingdom of God, and then all necessary things will be given us. And
this kingdom is not found through nature, philosophy, science, art,
or by any other method than that of the Gospel: the perfect surrender
of the whole heart to God."
We stop here to remark that such expressions as these are neither to
be taken as evidences of a passing disgust for the drudgery of
text-book tasks, nor as signs of an indolent disposition. They are
the assertion of a principle which Father Hecker maintained
throughout his life. He never felt the least interest in studies not
undertaken as a result of some supernatural impulse, or pursued in
view of some supernatural aim. He looked with the coldest unconcern
upon such investigations of science as promise nothing toward solving
the problems which perplex humanity on the moral side, or which do
not contribute to the natural well-being of men. With the pursuit of
any science which does promise such results he was in the fullest
sympathy, and was himself an unwearied student. It was anything but
intellectual indolence which caused him to put away his books. He was
naturally of a busy temperament: if men who knew him but slightly
might think him visionary, no man could know him at all and consider
him a sluggard. We shall see in the sequel how, under extremely
critical circumstances, the assertion of this principle was wrung
from him by the constraining force of his interior guide. Much of
what follows illustrates this trait of character.
The letter last quoted from had not yet been sent when the answer to
his announcement of June 11 reached him, and he added a postscript.
The only point in it to which he alludes or makes any direct reply is
the gentle expression of his mother's disapprobation of his purpose:
"Your letter and draft, brother George, came this morning. You say
mother would prefer my joining the Anglican Church. The reasons why
she prefers this are such as would doubtless govern me if I did not
feel still deeper and stronger reasons to overcome them. . . . My
present convictions are deeper far than any I have ever experienced,
and are not hastily decided upon."
Turning now to the diary, the entries made at this time seem
especially characteristic:
"June 13, 1844.--I feel very cheerful and at ease since I have
consented to join the Catholic Church. Never have I felt the
quietness, the immovableness, and the permanent rest that I do now.
It is inexpressible. I feel that essential and interior permanence
which nothing exterior can disturb, and no act which it calls on me
to perform will move in the least. It is with a perfect ease and
gracefulness that I never dreamed of that I shall unite with the
Church. It will not change but fix my life. No external relations,
events, or objects can disturb this unreachable quietness or break
the deep repose in which I am.
"The exoteric eye is double; the esoteric eye is single.
"The external world is divisional; the internal world is unity.
"The esoteric includes the exoteric, but the exoteric excludes the
esoteric.
"The man can move all faculties, organs, limbs; but they cannot move
the man.
"The Creator moves the creature, and the creature moves the created.
"We know God by looking towards Him with the single eye.
"To-morrow I go with R. W. Emerson to Harvard to see Lane and Alcott,
and shall stay until Sunday. We shall not meet each other, for I can
meet him on no other grounds than those of love. We may talk
intellectually together, and remark, and reply, and remark again."
We give the reader from the diary the following estimate of a
transcendentalist, mainly to serve as a background for the picture
which Isaac Hecker drew of his own mind in the succeeding pages:
"June 14.--A transcendentalist is one who has keen sight but little
warmth of heart; who has fine conceits but is destitute of the rich
glow of love. He is _en rapport_ with the spiritual world,
unconscious of the celestial one. He is all nerve and no
blood--colorless. He talks of self-reliance, but fears to trust
himself to love. He never abandons himself to love, but is always on
the lookout for some new fact. His nerves are always tight-stretched,
like the string of a bow; his life is all effort. In a short period
he loses his tone. Behold him sitting on a chair; he is not sitting,
but braced upon its angles, as if his bones were of iron and his
nerves steel; every nerve is drawn, his hands are closed like a
miser's--it is his lips and head that speak, not his tongue and
heart. He prefers talking about love to possessing it, as he prefers
Socrates to Jesus. Nature is his church, and he is his own god. He is
a dissecting critic--heartless, cold. What would excite love and
sympathy in another, excites in him curiosity and interest. He would
have written an essay on the power of the soul at the foot of the
Cross. . . .
"That the shaping of events is not wholly in our own hands my present
unanticipated movement has clearly demonstrated to me. . . I know of
no act that I could make which would have more influence to shape my
destiny than my union with the Catholic Church. . . . It is very
certain to me that my life is now as it never has been. It seems that
I live, feel, and act from my heart. That reads, talks, hears, sees,
smells, and all. All is unity with me, all love. Instead of exciting
thoughts and ideas, as all things have done heretofore, they now
excite love, cheerful emotion, and gladness of heart.
"To the Spirit within I address myself: So long as I struggled
against Thee I had pain, sorrow, anguish, doubt, weeping, and
distress of soul. Again and again have I submitted to Thee, though
ever reluctantly; yet was it always in the end for my good. Oh! how
full of love and goodness art Thou to suffer in us and for us, that
we may be benefited and made happy. It is from Thy own pure love for
us, for Thy happiness cannot be increased or diminished, that Thou
takest upon Thee all the suffering of the children.
"Lord, if I would or could give myself wholly up to Thee, nothing but
pure joy, complete happiness, and exquisite pleasure would fill all
my spirit, soul, and body. The Lord desires our whole happiness; it
is we who hinder Him from causing it by our struggles against His
love-working Spirit.
"Who is the Lord? Is He not our nearest friend? Is any closer to us
than He when we are good? Is any further from us when we are wicked?
His simple presence is blessedness. Our marriage with the Lord should
be so complete that nothing could attract our attention from Him.
"We shall speak best to men when we do not reflect on whom we are
talking to. Speak always as if in the presence of God, where you must
be if you would speak to benefit your neighbor.
"If we are pure before God the eyes of men will never make us ashamed.
"We must be blind to all things and have our single eye turned toward
God when we would act in any manner upon earth--when we would
heavenize it."
Here ends the contemporary record of his life in Concord. The next
letters are dated at Worcester; the next entry in the diary at New
York. There remain, however, some interesting allusions to it in the
articles in this magazine of 1887 concerning Dr. Brownson, and some
conversations, still more graphic, in the pages of the memoranda.
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