A Complete Catechism of the Catholic Religion/Concluding Remarks
CONCLUDING REMARKS
ON THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE TRUTH OF OUR DIVINE RELIGION.
1. We have now, in a small compass, surveyed the history of our Holy Religion, and considered the blessings it has conferred upon mankind from Adam, our first parent, to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and from Him, the Divine Head and Founder of our Church, to His present Vicegerent, Pius X. How sublime and beautiful is the Religion we profess! Everything connected with it calls out to us: God alone could have given such a Religion to mankind. Man has not invented it; Cod Himself has taught it to us, and has commanded us to observe it. He revealed it by holy men in the Old Testament (6, 11, 7); and in the New, precisely as the Prophecies of the Old Testament had foretold. His Only-Begotten, Eternal Son appeared on earth, and most convincingly confirmed His Divine Doctrine by numerous miracles, especially by His Resurrection from the dead (21, 22, 23, 26, 27). Cod has spoken, and no one has a right to "be indifferent to His word; to despise or reject it would be to condemn one's self to everlasting hell fire.
2. [1]The Religion to which we belong did not take rise only a few centuries ago; properly speaking, it dates from the creation of man. For its first seeds were laid in Paradise when Cod promised a Redeemer to our First Parents after their fall; and the whole of the Old Law, with its sacrifices and wonderful events, was but a figure of the New Law, which contains the fulfilment and accomplishment of the Old (2, 7, 9, 12, and others). The Old Law believed in the Redeemer to come, and the New believes in Him already come. But it is the same belief in the same Redeemer, and therefore it is essentially the same Religion.
3. [2]Although our Holy Religion is coeval with the be;ginning of mankind, yet its beginning is not lost in obscure fables of ancient times; on the contrary, its truth is evident and obvious to all. For it exhibits, from the remotest antiquity down to the present time, an uninterrupted series, as it were, of public and universally known facts and events, which perfectly agree with one another, and with all the monuments of past ages, and with the annals of the various nations of the world. They have been so manifoldly and irrefragably attested that he who would not believe them might just as well deny any other historical truth. We count the generations as they succeeded one another from Adam to Christ (Luke iii.; Matt, i.), and all the Supreme Pastors or Popes from St. Peter to our Holy Father, Pius X., who is now gloriously governing the Church established by the Son of God. What a wonderful chain of events^ and what an unparalleled succession!
4. [3]Even the Jews, the most obstinate adversaries of our faith, bear witness to its truth. For they carefully keep upon record, in their Holy Books, the whole history and all the Prophecies of the Old Testament, to which we appeal in order to prove the Divine Origin of Christianity; insomuch that no one can for a moment suppose that the Christians have perverted or invented such passages in the Old Testament as refer to our Saviour (17).
5. [4]Nor can it be denied that it is entirely through the mighty help of God that the Christian Religion has spread over the whole earth. The Apostles who first preached it were from the lowest class of the people, poor, unknown, even without eloquence or learning. Their doctrine of the Cross, which contains the inscrutable mysteries of penance, humility, and mortification, was not likely to please the proud and licentious pagans, who found in their abominable mythology (i.e., fabulous history of their gods), not only an excuse, but even a justification, for all their vices. The rich and the great looked with disdain upon the poor fishermen; the witty and the learned derided them; and the mighty rulers of the earth, as even pagan writers testify, took all possible pains to destroy them with fire and sword. During three centuries, persecution and martyrdom were the common lot of the Christians. Nevertheless, the doctrine of the poor fishermen, as we have seen, triumphed over all its enemies, and thus proved to be the Doctrine of God (29-35). It spread so rapidly that, soon after the death of the Apostles, St. Justin ventured to affirm before the whole world: ' There is no people, neither among the Barbarians, nor among the Greeks, nor in any other known nation, among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered up to the Father and Creator of the Universe in the name of Christ Crucified.' Who else but the Almighty could have performed such an inexplicable wonder? St. Augustine, the celebrated Father of the Church, makes a striking observation upon this: 'If the miracles,' he says, 'wrought by the Apostles could be denied, this would be the greatest miracle: that the world believed without miracles.'
6. [5]But the Christian Church is not only founded on miracles; her duration itself is a continual and perpetual miracle. Kingdoms and empires, in spite of their power, perish in the course of time; the Kingdom of Christ alone, outlasts them all, and is constantly increasing. If it decreases in one part of the world, it spreads so much the more in another (45). From the time of its foundation, it has been assailed by innumerable enemies from within and from without; their power is terrible, their hatred implacable. The Church of Christ, on her part, has no army to repulse their assaults, no sword to oppose their rude violence. Had not the arm of God protected her, she would long since have been overcome by the force and fraud of her enemies (32, 36, 38, 39, 42, 43, 47,48).
7. [6]The Christian Church appears still more glorious, if we consider the benefits and blessings which she has at all times conferred on mankind. It was she that subdued the brutality of the barbarians, that abolished slavery and human sacrifices, and promoted public and domestic happiness. It was she that founded charitable institutions and innumerable hospitals for the reception of the sick and distressed; it was she that amended the existing laws or made new ones; it was she that taught concord and charity, and diffused learning and true enlightenment (30, 38, 41, 45, 46). She can truly be called the Tree of Life which God has planted, that all men should peacefully rest under its shade, and refresh themselves with its fruit. Never has a nation abandoned this Tree of Life without plunging itself into religious confusion and misery. We know very well what has become of the nations in Asia and Africa who were formerly so happy, and what fruit the anti-Christian Freethinkers have produced in Europe (39, 47, 48). If 'the tree is to be known by its fruits' (Matt. vii. 16), every one must see that the Christian Faith, which diffuses nothing but happiness and blessings, is the most valuable gift of God; that, on the contrary, infidelity, which produces but misery and vexation, can only proceed from the spirit of evil.
8. [7]Now, this Church which Almighty God has founded on miracles, nay, which is 'herself a continual miracle; this Church which incessantly pours out the greatest benefits over the universe, can be no other but the Roman Catholic Church. History clearly proves that it is she, and no other, that forms that community of the faithful which Christ has established for the salvation of the world, in which the bishops, as the successors of the Apostles, under the supreme authority of the Pope, the Successor of Saint Peter, exercise their Teaching and Pastoral Offices in an uninterrupted succession (22, 30, 31). It is impossible that any Sect, whatever may be its name, should be the Church founded by Christ; for it is well known that every one of them began to exist long after Christ, and that even then they owed their origin to their defection and separation from the Church of Christ (36, 42, 43). We see, therefore, that in all these Sects the words of Jesus are sooner or later fulfilled: ' Every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up' (Matt. xv. 13). Their existence is not lasting; they spring up, make some noise, and disappear again (36 at the end; 47 at the beginning) . It is not so with the Catholic Church. Thousands of years pass away; neither does she vanish, nor does she grow old; for to her was made the promise of our Lord: ' Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her' (Matt, xvi. 18).
- ↑ How old is our Religion? How do you explain and prove its great age?
- ↑ Is the history of our Religion perhaps uncertain, because it dates from the creation of man, and embraces so long a period? Why not?
- ↑ What evidence do even the Jews give to the truth, of our Religion? What does this prove?
- ↑ How do you prove that the Christian Religion was spread through the help of God? About what time did St. Justin live? What does he testify of the propagation of Christianity? What observation does St. Augustine make?
- ↑ How do you prove that the duration or permanent continuance of the Christian Church is a miracle?
- ↑ What fruits did the Christian faith produce for mankind? What, on the contrary, were the fruits which heresy and infidelity brought forth? What conclusion must we draw from these different fruits?
- ↑ How do you prove from history that the Church established by God can be no other than the Roman Catholic? What has Christ foretold of all Sects? What promise has He given to the Catholic Church?