neighbour (see the holy anger of Moses. Old Test. XXXVII). “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted!” At this moment there are many millions of heathens who do not know God. Let us pray for their conversion.
The causes of unbelief. Most of those who heard St. Paul’s words at Athens remained in their unbelief. They had neither the will to believe, nor any earnest desire to know the truth. They invited the apostle to speak, out of a mere spirit of curiosity (Acts 17, 21); but as soon as he entered on the great doctrines of the Resurrection and the Judgment, they refused to listen to him any more. Some of them, instead of examining his words, simply mocked at them, while the rest put him off with the excuse that they would hear him some other time. Frivolity, superficiality and religious indifference were then, as they are now, the principal causes of unbelief.
In his discourse to the Athenians St. Paul taught them 1. about God; 2. about men; 3. about Jesus Christ.
1. “God”, he said, “dwelleth not in temples”, in the sense that He can be shut in a temple. He is an infinite, immeasurable Spirit, to whom no limits of space can be allotted. He is “the Lord of heaven and earth” !
“He is not served with men’s hands, as though He needed anything.” He is infinitely perfect of Himself, so that He needs nothing and depends on nothing.
“He is not far from every one of us”, being near to each person, “for in Him we live and move and be.” He is in us, and about us, and everywhere present.
He “hath made the world and all things therein”. He “giveth to all life and breath and all things”. Without Him we could not be, nor live, nor move; for our being, our life, and our movement depend entirely on Him, who is the First Cause of all things.
He is indulgent and patient, and did not at once punish the errors of the pagans, but invited them to do penance. He is, however, just, and will one day “judge the world in equity”.
2. St. Paul proclaims the origin, dignity, and end of man.
Man, he says, was created by God, and in such a way that all men were made from one, that is, from Adam, and that all men are, therefore, brethren.
Man is far above all other visible creatures. He is, so to speak, “the offspring of God”, having an immortal soul made to the image of God.
God is the end of man, for He created him “that he should seek Him”. Man, therefore, is made to know God, to love God, and to be happy for ever with God in heaven.
3. Of our Lord Jesus Christ St. Paul says that God “raised Him up from the dead”, and that thereby He hath “given faith to all”.
