St Philip Neri on adversity

"There is no surer or clearer proof of the love of God than adversity."

GKC foresees Assisi

Even where we can hardly call the Christian greater, we are forced to call him larger. But it is so to whatever philosophy or heresy or modern movement we may turn. How would Francis the Troubadour have fared among the Calvinists, or for that matter among the Utilitarians of the Manchester School? Yet men like Bossuet and Pascal could be as stern and logical as any Calvinist or Utilitarian. How would St. Joan of Arc, a woman waving on men to war with the sword, have fared among the Quakers or the Doukhabors or the Tolstoyan sect of pacifists? Yet any number of Catholic saints have spent their lives in preaching peace and preventing wars. It is the same with all the modern attempts at Syncretism. They are never able to make something larger than the Creed without leaving something out. I do not mean leaving out something divine but something human; the flag or the inn or the boy's tale of battle or the hedge at the end of the field. The Theosophists build a pantheon; but it is only a pantheon for pantheists. They call a Parliament of Religions as a reunion of all the peoples; but it is only a reunion of all the prigs. Yet exactly such a pantheon had been set up two thousand years before by the shores of the Mediterranean; and Christians were invited to set up the image of Jesus side by side with the image of Jupiter, of Mithras, of Osiris, of Atys, or of Ammon. It was the refusal of the Christians that was the turning-point of history. If the Christians had accepted, they and the whole world would have certainly, in a grotesque but exact metaphor, gone to pot. They would all have been boiled down to one lukewarm liquid in that great pot of cosmopolitan corruption in which all the other myths and mysteries were already melting. It was an awful and an appalling escape. Nobody understands the nature of the Church, or the ringing note of the creed descending from antiquity, who does not realize that the whole world once very nearly died of broad-mindedness and. the brotherhood of all religions.

 The Everlasting Man

 

Pope Pius XII on wars of aggression

Every war of aggression against any ordinance which God gives to man in the interests of peace and bids him respect and endorse, preserve and defend, is a sin and a crime. It is an attack upon the Majesty of God, the Creator and Orderer of the World. If any people threatened with, or already the victim of, an unjust aggression be minded to think and act in a Christian way, it cannot remain in a passive indifference. All the more does the solidarity of the family of peoples forbid the other members to behave like simple onlookers in an attitude of unconcerned neutrality.

Who can ever measure the harm done in the past by such indifference, so far removed from Christian feeling, towards aggressive wars? How pointedly it has given proof of the lack of security among the "great" and, above all, among the "little". Has it, on the other hand, brought any advantage at all? On the contrary, It has only reassured and encouraged the authors and favourers of aggression, by forcing single peoples, abandoned to themselves, to a necessary and indefinite increase of their armaments.

Resting upon God and upon the order established by Him, the Christian will for peace is, accordingly, strong as steel. It is of a temper very different from the mere humanitarian sentiment, too often nothing but a sensitiveness which detests war only because of its horrors and atrocities, its havoc and its dire results, but not also because of its injustice.

In such a sentiment, hedonistic and utilitarian in character, and materialistic in origin, there is wanting the firm foundation of a strict and unconditional obligation. It forms the kind of soul in which the empty sham of compromise takes root, the attempt to save oneself at the cost of others, and in every case the success of the aggressor.

So true is this that neither the consideration of the sorrows and evils following from war, by itself, nor the exact balancing of action and advantage, suffice for a final decision whether it is morally lawful or, in a given concrete case, morally binding, to resist the aggressor (supposing always a well-founded likelihood of success).

One thing is certain: the precept of peace is of Divine right. Its end is the protection of things that constitute the good of mankind, in so far as it is the good of the Creator. Now among these are some so important for human society that their defence against unjust aggression is beyond question fully lawful. The United Nations as a body are bound to defend them, having the duty not to forsake the nation assaulted.

Guide For Living

In Spain, there is a crucifix

 (I think this poem is by Fr Mateo Crawley-Boevey SSCC.)

In Spain, there is a crucifix, with one arm of Our Lord
Hanging down, not fixed thereon, they say with one accord -

It happened that a certain man fell deep in sin and shame.
He, to the priest for pardon, with deep contrition came.
The priest was loathe to give it, the man though pleaded sore,
And so the good priest pardoned him but warned, "Now sin no more!"

The sinner went off happy, but, sad it is to tell,
Into the rut of evil ways, again he weakly fell.
Back to the priest for pardon, he came with grief anew,
The priest refused it, saying, "Your sorrow is not true!"
The poor man begged and pleaded, and so the priest gave in,
But said that nevermore would he absolve such a grievous sin.

The sinner went off, full of joy, his weakness though was great,
And soon alas, he fell again, into his sinful state.
This time the priest was adamant, "I will not pardon you,
Your sorrow and repentance are shallow and untrue!"
In vain the sinner pleaded, for pardon as before.
The priest was now determined to absolve the man no more.

Suddenly they were disturbed by anguished sobs of pain,
So loud, so unmistakable, they listened once again.
It was as if the tenderest heart, with bitter grief was broken,
The sound just pierced their very souls, although no word was spoken.
They looked, the church was as before, but then they saw above
The crucifix was there alive, the sobs were those of Love.

Then Jesus to His own dear priest said tenderly, "My son,
You have not shed your blood for him, as I his Lord have done!"
Then that dear hand, transfixed by love, detached itself instead
To make a large "Sign of the Cross" over the sinner's head.

Until this day that loving Hand so often raised in blessing,
Has not returned to where it was, but now all priests addressing -
Says, "Pardon, pardon, mercy, mercy, on sinners pity take.
Ah, draw them to My loving Heart, and love them for My sake!"

Dorothy Day on abortion and birth control

Context here.

The relevance of camels while discussing gnats

In the aftermath of the EU referendum, I'm seeing a lot of judgments being made about the fitness of those who voted Leave (of whom I am one), and worry about what lies ahead.

We're a bunch of racist xenophobes, apparently. And even if many of us are not personally, we've enabled a bunch of racist xenophobes to usher in a Fascist state.

And people are very worried about that prospect. (I do not relish the idea either.)

But, what do we actually have today? What are we tolerating? What doesn't bother us too much? In fact, what do many actually support?

Well, if you point out that, while worrying about racism and xenophobia, we're tolerating the murder of unborn children, you'll be told that that is a separate issue, totally irrelevant, beside the point.

Now, let's go back to the Gospel and imagine an exchange between Our Lord and a Pharisee. The latter is criticising someone over a gnat-like matter. Our Lord points out that the Pharisee is actually swallowing a camel.

The Pharisee says, "We're not talking about that camel! This is about a gnat! Don't change the subject!"

Or, maybe the Pharisee is telling someone to address a mote that is in his eye. Our Lord comes along and says, "Erm, what about the beam that is in your own eye?"

The Pharisee says, "This is about that man's mote, not my beam! My beam has nothing to do with it!"

We live in a world where abortion is not merely tolerated. It is defended as a right. And we vote for politicians who support it. Even if we oppose abortion personally, we still hold politicians who support it in esteem.They are not beyond the pale. Why? Why is racism, or xenophobia, the only thing that would put them beyond the pale?

If we tolerate abortion, we are in no position to take exception to xenophobia.

To trust in God, by Pope Pius XII

What does it mean to trust in God?

Trust in God means the abandonment of oneself, with all the forces of the will sustained by grace and love, in spite of all the doubts suggested by appearances to the contrary, to the wisdom, the infinite love of God. It means believing that nothing in this world escapes His Providence, whether in the universal or in the particular order; that nothing great or small happens which is not foreseen, willed or permitted, directed always by Providence to its exalted ends, which in this world are always inspired by love for men.

It means believing that God can permit, at times here below, for some time, pre-eminence of atheism and of impiety, the lamentable obscuring of a sense of justice, the violation of law, the tormenting of innocent, peaceful, undefended, helpless men. It means believing that God at times thus lets trials befall individuals and peoples, trials of which the malice of men is the instrument in a design of justice directed towards the punishment of sin, towards purifying persons and peoples through the expiations of this present life and bringing them back by this way to Himself; but it means believing at the same time that this justice always remains here below the justice of a Father inspired and dominated by love.

However severe may seem the Hand of the Divine Surgeon when he cuts with the lancet into the live flesh, it is always an active love that guides and drives it in, and only the good of men and peoples makes Him intervene in such a painful way.

It means, finally, believing that the fierce intensity of the trial, like the triumph of evil, will endure here below for only a fixed time and not longer; that the hour of God will come, the hour of mercy, the hour of holy rejoicing, the hour of the new canticle of liberation, the hour of exultation and of joy, the hour in which, after having let the hurricane loose for a moment upon humanity, the all-powerful Hand of the Heavenly Father, with an imperceptible motion, will detain it and disperse it, and, by ways little known to the mind or to the hopes of men, justice, calm and peace will be restored to the nations.

We know well that the most serious difficulty for those who have not a correct sense of the Divine comes from seeing so many innocent victims involved in suffering by the same tempest which overwhelms sinners. Men never remain indifferent when the hurricane which tears up the great trees also cuts down the lowly little flowers which opened at their feet only to lavish the grace of their beauty and fragrance on the air around them. And yet these flowers and their perfumes are the work of God and of His wonderful designing. If he has allowed any of these flowers to be swept away in the storm, can He not, do you think, have assigned a goal unseen by the human eye for the sacrifice of that most unoffending creature in the general arrangement of the law by which He prevails over and governs nature? How much more, then, will His omnipotence and love direct the lot of pure and innocent human beings to good.

Through the languishing of faith in men's hearts, through the pleasure-seeking that moulds and captivates their lives, men are driven to judge as evil, and as unmixed evil, all the physical mishaps of this earth. They have forgotten that suffering stands at the threshold of life as the way that leads to the smiles of the cradle. They have forgotten that it is more often than not the shadow of the Cross of Calvary thrown on the path of the Resurrection; they have forgotten that the cross is frequently a gift of God, a gift which is needed in order to offer to the Divine Justice our share of expiation. They have forgotten that the only real evil is the sin that offends God. They have forgotten what the Apostle says: "The sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that will be revealed in us", that we ought to look on "the Author and Finisher of Faith, Jesus, Who for the joy set before Him, endured a cross.".

Do you, too, dear children, look upon your sufferings thus, and you will find the strength not merely to accept them with resignation, but to love them, to glory in them as the Apostles and saints. . . .

Look upon your sufferings and difficulties in the light of the sufferings of the Crucified, in the light of the sufferings of the Blessed Virgin, the most innocent of creatures and the most intimate sharer in the Passion of Our Lord, and you will be able to understand that to be like the Exemplar, the Son of God, King of Sufferings, is the noblest and safest way to Heaven and victory.

Guide For Living, Radio address on "Divine Providence in Human Events", June 29, 1941