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DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN
by

Rev. Dr. Edward J. Walsh, C. M.,

Vice-President of St. John’s College,

Brooklyn, New York

Eleven addresses delivered in the Catholic Hour,

sponsored by the National Council of Catholic

Men with the co-operation of the National

Broadcasting Company and its Asso-

ciated Stations.

I. The Seven Sacraments.

II. Soldiers of Christ.

III. Holy Orders.

IV. Bread for the Soul.

V. The Clean Oblation.

VI. Sons of God.

VII. The Tribunal of Mercy (Part I)

VIII. The Tribunal of Mercy (Part II)

IX. A Sanctified Society (Part I)
X. A Sanctified Society (Part II)
XI. The End of the Combat.

National Council of Catholic Men
Sponsor of the Catholic Hour
1314 Massachusetts Avenue

Washington, D. C.





DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN
by

Rev. Dr. Edward J. Walsh, C. M.,

Vice-President of St. John’s College,

Brooklyn, New York

Eleven addresses delivered in the Catholic Hour,

sponsored by the National Council of Catholic

Men with the co-operation of the National

Broadcasting Company and its Asso-

ciated Stations.

I. The Seven Sacraments.

II. Soldiers of Christ.

III. Holy Orders.

IV. Bread for the Soul.

V. The Clean Oblation.

VI. Sons of God.

VII. The Tribunal of Mercy (Part I)

VIII. The Tribunal of Mercy (Part II)

IX. A Sanctified Society (Part I)
X. A Sanctified Society (Part II)
XI. The End of the Combat.

National Council of Catholic Men
Sponsor of the Catholic Hour

1314 Massachusetts Avenue

Washington, D. C.

Printed and distributed by Our Sunday Visitor

Huntington, Indiana



Imprimatur:

JOHN FRANCIS NOLL, D. D.,

Bishop of Fort Wayne

Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1931

Imprimi Potest:

Germantown, Philadelphia, July 14, 1931.

Frederick J. Maune, C. M., Visitor,



AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION

There is a wealth of theology, liturgy and history in the

Sacraments of the New Law. In the time allotted for the
delivery of these addresses, there could be only a summary
of these things, but it has been my purpose to make each
address an adequate, and even complete, if not exhaustive,

presentation of each Sacrament. It is my hope that my lis-
teners were inspired to seek further knowledge of these

Divine Helps for Man.

It is the practical spiritual value of these treasures that

is of paramount importance. The Seven Sacraments might

be called the Bank of God’s Grace, for in them are countless

treasures of unique, divine value, and we may draw on them
as freely as we will. It is God’s Love that sets up that
Treasury and it is His Love that urges us to seek these Gifts

—to drink of these fountains of living water. God intends
our salvation and sanctification chiefly through these means

—

they are the channels of that grace He merited by His blood.

I have evidence that some hearts were touched by the
glorious story of Christ’s Love in His Sacraments; that some

hearts were inspired where the fires of Divine Love were

already burning; and that a spark was lighted in some that
were cold. May I dare to say it: I wish that millions of men
would appreciate the Sacraments more fully, and that all
men would use them to reach that Heaven which is most
surely and infallibly attained by a good use of God’s grace.
This is a prayer as these radio addresses, given over the

Catholic Hour, become the printed word.



DEDICATION

To

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal,
In Memory of Her Centenary:
The Mother of Divine Grace,

Who is a Munificent Creditor of mine

—

Who recalls another Mother of mine.



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 5

DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN—THE

SEVEN SACRAMENTS
(Address delivered by Rev. Dr. Edward J. Walsh, C. M., in

the Catholic Hour, May 17, 1931)

Persons who have visited the great cathedrals of

Europe will remember what are called the “Treas-

ures of the Church,” the collection of sacred vessels

and vestments of intrinsic value or perhaps of his-

toric value. But let me say at once that the

“Treasures of the Church”—the real treasures, the
Spiritual Treasury that neither gold nor silver can

buy—are the Sacraments of the New Law which are
to form the subject of the series of addresses begun

today. I have called them Divine Helps for Man for

they are truly helps for man in working out his

destiny, his salvation
;
and they are truly divine be-

cause they come from God and God alone. Each

Sacrament is a precious treasure because it is wet

with the blood of Christ.

May I state at the very outset of this course that

there is no intention or desire to enter a field of con-

troversy? My purpose is to explain what we as
Catholics believe concerning the Sacramental Sys-

tem. It will be for the benefit of our Catholic people

to recall these solemn truths
;
and with the spirit of

good will and Christian love, we should be happy

to share these precious things with all sincere reli-

gious minded people, even though they are not con-

vinced of the truths which we as Catholics believe.

The scope of this address is to prepare the way

for the fuller development of each individual Sacra-

ment, and therefore to explain the spiritual ideas

and truths that underlie all the Sacraments. In the



6 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

treatment of these topics, no word will be more fre-

quently used, nor could any idea be more important,

than the word grace, and I beg to tell its meaning

briefly.

Grace is a supernatural gift of God given to man

to enable him to attain his salvation. It is a gift,

something perfectly gratuitous, altogether beyond

our power to deserve or merit. It is a supernatural

gift—above nature; altogether beyond our capacity
to attain by any combination of natural powers or

energies; altogether beyond any claims of our na-

ture, or natural humanity. Its point of contact with

the individual is the intellect and the will, the sup-

erior powers which give us our dignity as human

beings. It touches the soul, not in its essence, but in

its powers. It illumines, sharpens the intellect; it

strengthens, stimulates the will, to enable us to avoid

evil and to do good. Of course you will realize that

this covers the whole scope of life in reference to

God and the attaining of our eternal destiny^—avoid-

ing evil and doing good.

The purpose of grace is, therefore, to help i to

attain our salvation. Without God's grace it is un-

thinkable as it is impossible for man to reach the

supernatural destiny to which he is called. Now this

grace, so wonderful, so rich in value, so necessary,

is given to man by Jesus Christ, through the Sacra-

ments. Certainly our Lord can give grace in other

ways and often does so, but it is the teaching of the

Church, and tradition bears it out, that men are to

be saved ordinarily in the design of Christ through

the reception of the Sacraments, and are actually

saved by the graces given through these divine in-

struments of Christ’s power and love.

A sacrament is an outward sign of inward grace.



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 7

instituted by Christ. Sacramentum means a sacred

thing, a hidden thing and connotes the idea of reli-

gious worship. There must be an outward, a sensi-

ble sign, that is, something appealing to the senses.

This sign signifies an inward grace ; it stands for it

;

it is the pledge of it, as well as the symbol of it.

Thirdly, it produces grace in the soul through the

institution by Christ. God alone can give grace.

Certainly God alone can attach a spiritual value to

physical things and signs.

The Sacraments are the product of the New Dis-

pensation that came with Christ. In the Old Law,

strictly speaking, there were no Sacraments. There

were religious rites set up by God and accepted by

Him, which foreshadowed the Sacraments, inasmuch

as they were evidences and tests of religious wor-

ship and practice, and inspired sentiments and emo-

tTons which could put the soul in a receptive dis-

position to receive God’s grace. And this is showing

how the whole idea beneath the Sacraments accords
#

with our human nature in its fullness
;
and how God,

as it were, adapts Himself to our nature. We are
body and soul, we are physical and spiritual, we have

an immaterial soul and material senses and mem-

bers. God surely is mindful of this when He uses

physical signs and symbols, physical things as means

of sanctification, as He does in the Sacraments. And

this is only one of the countless manifestations of

the consideration and love for men that Our Divine

Saviour lavishly gives us in the institution of the

Sacraments.

Christ alone could establish the Sacraments, that

is, give to physical things and human actions the

power to produce grace. So also Christ established



8 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

the number of the Sacraments
;
namely seven—Bap-

tism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Ex-

treme Unction, Holy Orders and Matrimony. The

Church from the very beginning has taught this and

in the Catholic Church—likewise in the Greek
Church—^there has never been any variance with
respect to the number seven. As there is a certain

fitness that our Divine Saviour should have estab-

lished the Sacraments as His chosen means of giving

grace to men, so we can readily see the fitness that

there should be seven Sacraments—no more, no less.
It is really remarkable how the spiritual life of man

parallels his physical and social life. He is born
;
he

matures by growth; he needs food for strength and

continued life and health
;
he falls a victim to the ills

that flesh is heir to; he dies. In the spiritual order

too he is born—that is Baptism; his spiritual life is
fostered and developed—^that is Confirmation; the
soul must have sustenance suited to its nature—^that
is Holy Eucharist; his soul, stricken by his own sin

needs power of recovery—^that is Penance; death
comes to the body, the separation of the body from

the soul and the final sentence : a tragic situation that

surely needs help from God—there is Extreme Unc-
tion. Again, man is a social being, placed in a society

established by God. That society has two characters,

the spiritual and the civic; each needs support and

development : the Sacrament of Holy Orders supplies

the government of the spiritual order of society.

Holy Matrimony lays the foundation of the home

which is the basis of the nation, of civil society. It

can thus be seen how full and complete are the graces

supplied for man’s need by the Sacraments. Every-

thing is provided for that man could wish or hope

for. There is no spiritual condition that could pos-



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 9

sibly arise that is not met by the generous love of

Christ in the Sacraments that He instituted.

The purpose of the Sacraments, in the mind of

Christ, is to sanctify and save men. The Sacraments

signify grace, symbolize it, stand for it; they also

produce it. They are therefore not only signs of

grace but causes of grace. All the Sacraments are

the vehicles of sanctifying grace which is a perman-

ent, static thing, the condition that renders man

pleasing to God. Baptism and Penance confer this

grace; that is, give it to the soul that lacks it. By

original sin man is out of harmony with God. Bap-

tism confers the grace which brings the soul into

harmony with God. By sin the soul becomes defiled

:

Penance restores grace and the friendship of God.

All other Sacraments, presupposing the existence of

sanctifying grace in the soul, increase this grace, give

it in fuller measure. Thus the reception of any Sac-

rament means the influx of grace and renders the

soul more holy, and therefore dearer to God.

The Sacraments give grace of their own power,

their own intrinsic character. The technical term,

which is very expressive, is that they give grace ex

opere operato, by the fact of the work done, of them-

selves, unless, of course, the person should put an

obstacle in the way. But they produce their own ef-

fects independently of the worthiness of the min-

ister. Thus, even if the one who confers the Sacra-

ments be unworthy or sinful it does not affect the

flow of grace into the soul. That may only be done

by the person himself placing an obstacle
;
e. g., re-

ceiving Confirmation or Matrimony in a state of sin.

But by itself the effect of the Sacrament is infallible.

It is as if our Saviour said : “If you use this sign, this

water, this oil, in such a way and with such a form



10 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

as determines the words to the act, I promise to give

My grace
:
your act is the sign which I shall use as

the instrument for imparting grace/’

In addition to the conferring or increasing of

sanctifying grace, the Sacraments give another help

which is called sacramental grace. This is defined as

a special help which God gives to attain the end for

which' He instituted each Sacrament. Thus the sac-

ramental graces are different in the different Sacra-

ments, for each Sacrament has its own meaning and

purpose. By this grace the recipient is pledged cer-

tain helps that blossom, as it were, from each Sacra-

ment. It is the right to the specific helps, the actual

graces which one needs to carry out the purpose for

which the Sacrament was instituted. At a glance

one can see the value of these sacramental graces,

say, in Baptism or in Penance or in Matrimony. One

not only becomes conscious of the increased sanctify-

ing grace, but feels a strength and stimulation from

the consciousness of the pledged helps to meet the

conditions and necessities of the spiritual life.

What is the secret of these tremendous benefits To

man? What is the power that gives such efficacy to

these sacred rites? How explain the value of these

outward signs that Christ endowed with such mira-

culous effects? Just this—the Sacraments have the
power of giving grace from the merits of Jesus

Christ. “You are bought with a great price,” says

St. Paul. Our Saviour’s passion and death, the in-

finite merits of His life and acts, are the background

of the Sacraments. Once for all He lived on earth

and died, and men were sanctified and made holy by

the application of His merits to their souls. The or-

dinary way in which this is done is by the

Sacraments that He left in His Church as His price-



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 11

less heritage. We must take the salvation He offers

and take 'it through the Sacraments. We must not
allow His passion and death and the spilling of His

blood to become inoperative, in so far as they con-

cern us. We must apply them to ourselves—appro-
priate them—and this we do through His Sacra-
ments.

In the administration of the Sacraments there is

always a ceremonial that enshrines them. There is

never just the naked rite of the use of the matter'

and the form, though this is the only essential thing.

Each Sacrament has a ritual that is comprehensive,

majestic and of great antiquity. It would be wrong

to dispense with these ceremonies, unless in case of

necessity. The prayers are beautiful, uplifting, and

breathe real religious fervor and spiritual life.

There are exorcisms, anointings, significant acts, and

in their use lights and vestments are employed with

telling effect. It is not too much to say that the ad-

ministration of the Sacraments is, if simple, digni-

fied, likewise dramatic and touching. Ever3d:hing

tends to appeal to the highest sensibilities, to evoke

sentiments that are of deepest faith and religion,

an'd arouse dTspo^tions that in turn put the person

receiving the Sacrament in a position to gain a fuller

measure of profit and benefit. It surely means some-

thing to be warm and intense in these holy things

rather than cold, formal and sluggish.

To know the will of Our Divine Saviour is surely

sufficient to urge any religious man or woman to use

the Sacraments that are the dearest, most treasured

gifts He has left us. The Sacraments are the chief

means—far and away the chief means—of sanctifi-
cation, of spiritual development, of growth of the

soul. And this is the first duty of everyone—you



12 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

could almost say man’s only duty—sanctification.
“This is the will of God, your sanctification,” says

St. Paul. “Thy Will be done on earth (in Me) as it

is in Heaven,” says Jesus Christ. Nothing that we

could do ourselves, intensified to the highest degree,

could have the merit of a Sacrament; because in a

Sacrament what we do is lifted up out of the natural

into the supernatural order, and has a value from

the blood of Christ applied through the sacramental

idea of our Saviour. Therefore the Sacraments are

fhe chief means to help us lead a good, faithful life

;

the most powerful helps to practice virtue—meek-
ness, humility, purity

;
the most inspiring ambitions

to do good in this world in our relations with our fel-

low men. Every man knows the difficulty in keeping

from sin, the evil tendencies, and propensities that

lie deep in his breast. The Sacraments are the chief

means to enable man to keep from sin. The Sacra-

ments give man hope and encouragement in the

struggle against discouragement, against human

weakness, despair, and all because he is conscious

that with a Sacrament he is not alone, that he has

the help, infallibly, of Jesus Christ. Thus the Sacra-

ments enable man to get the most out of life (as we

often express it) and to have that peace which the

world cannot give and the world cannot take away,

the peace of Christ, the fruit of His Passion and

His blood
;
that happiness which is the natural yearn-

ing of our hearts—the happiness that is consistent
even with trial, suffering, failure and sorrow. The

Sacraments are the chief means in the design of God

of attaining salvation, of meriting heaven. We must
fight for heaven. “Work out your salvation with fear

and trembling” is the Scriptural command.

Need I mention the value of the Sacraments in



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 13

the regeneration of society? They are the leaven of

society, for society can only be what individuals are

and what they make it, and the Sacraments make

and mould the individuals.

But the sweetest word, the highest appeal is love.

We can interpret the Sacraments with their tremen-
dous, supernatural effects only in terms of love—Di-
vine Love—the love of Jesus Christ for the children
of men, whom He makes His brothers and sisters by

and through the Sacraments. This point must not

be lost, and I intend to emphasize it in every address

on the individual Sacraments. Here are sympathy,

consideration, tolerance, thoughtfulness, generosity

:

and these and more make up love, only realized in its

fullness in Jesus Christ.



14 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

SOLDIERS OF CHRIST
(Address delivered by Rev. Dr, Edward J. Walsh, C. M., in

the Catholic Hour, May 24, 1931)

All over the Christian world today, the Holy

Ghost, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, is

signally recalled, invoked, honored and adored. The

Feast is called Pentecost Sunday, and commemorates

the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles in

the Cenacle at Jerusalem. This extraordinary event

occurred fifty days after Easter and ten days after

the Ascension of Our Lord into Heaven. Thus is

emphasized the bond uniting the Resurrection of

Our Lord, which was the final, inescapable proof of

His Divinity; the Ascension of Our Lord, which He

had foretold, and which was visible from the

summit of Mt. Olivet; and the Descent of the Holy

Ghost, whom Christ said He would send when He

returned to His kingdom.

Obedient to fhe command of Christ, the Apostles

and Disciples, with Mary the Mother of Jesus,—some
120 in number,—repaired to the Cenacle, the holy
place where Jesus Christ ate the Last Supper and

instituted the Holy Eucharist, and said the first

Mass. There they waited in prayer for the coming

of the Holy Ghost. You will read the full account of

this in the second Chapter of the Acts of the Apos-

tles. About nine o’clock in the morning ‘There came

a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming,’*

and the Holy Ghost came down visibly upon the as-

sembled group in the form of fiery tongues. “And

there appeared to them,” says St. Luke, “parted-

tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon everyone

of them : and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,

and they began to speak with divers tongues, accord-



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 15

ing as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak.” Light

and fire from heaven—symbols of the spiritual il-
lumination of the mind, the full revelation of the

New Dispensation created by Christ—a warmth,
and strength and courage and zeal in the love and

service of God in accordance with His will

!

The visit of the Holy Ghost inaugurated the new

kingdom of Christ: the kingdom that was to know

no limits of nations, nor limits of time even to the

consummation of ages. It announced the new Law

of Grace, the new law of the sanctification of m.an as

a result of the Passion and death of Christ. It re-

generated, re-created spiritually, the Apostles whom

Christ made His successors under the primacy of

St. Peter. It sent them forth at once fearless, cour-

ageous, full of zeal and enthusiasm in their work of

salvation throughout the known world. It set up the

Church of Christ as an organization with definite

purpose and definite means to accomplish that pur-

pose; hence this Pentecost Sunday is the birthday of

the Church of Jesus Christ. Light and fire—splendid
symbols of the work of the Church—the consuming
spiritual fire that sp.arkles and burns throughout the

ages, and the tongues that teach men truth and the

way to reach that heaven whence the mighty wind

came ! -

But this is more than a commemoration of an

event, it is a renewal
;
for the visit of the Holy Ghost

to this earth was to reach into the souls of men, and

to accomplish their sanctification. The visit of the

Holy Ghost in the form of tongues of fire is histori-

cal
;
but the work of the Holy Ghost in the souls of

men has been going on ever since, is going on today

with fiery force, and will go on to the end of time.

The function of the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of



16 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

the Blessed Trinity, is to sanctify. He is the Sancti-

fier, as the Father is the Creator and the Son the

Redeemer. But it is all the one God, and where each

one Person is there are the other Persons
;
for does

not the Apostle describe the operation: ‘We will

come to him and make our abode with him that is,

‘Tf you keep My word,” says Jesus Christ.

It is with design that I have chosen the visit of

the Holy Ghost today in the treatment of the Seven

Sacraments. I am to speak on Confirmation, for this

Sacrament deals with the Holy Ghost. It is the visit

of the Holy Ghost to the soul in abundant measure,

and whilst the word is not used in the Sacred Scrip-

tures, there is frequent account of the conferring of

the Holy Ghost upon persons
;
and the producing of

the effects that the Holy Ghost means to accomplish

in the souls of men. Thus, Philip went down to Sam-

aria, we read in the Acts, and “when the Apostles

at Jerusalem had heard that Samaria had received

the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John,

who. . . prayed for them that they might receive

the Holy Ghost. . . Then they laid their hands upon

them. . . . and they received the Holy Ghost.” So

in Antioch, where the Disciples were first called

Christians, and so on through the years and the cen-

turies has the Holy Ghost fulfilled His mission of

sanctification through the Sacrament of Confirma-

tion.

Confirmation is a Sacrament through which we

receive the Holy Ghost to make us strong and per-

fect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ. In

Baptism we are initiated into the kingdom of God,

we are inducted into the supernatural order of grace.

In Confirmation, however, we receive the Holy Ghost

in fuller measure, in lavish abundance: His visit is



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 17

entirely more significant and effective. Baptism

means spiritual life; Confirmation full life, matured

life, speaking spiritually. It means a spiritual

growth, strength, vigor, health—life.
Confirmation is a Sacrament ; if so, it must meet

the three essential requirements for a Sacrament. Tt

is an outward sign—the prayer and anointing with
oil by the minister conferring it; grace is given to

make us strong and vigorous in our spiritual life;

and there is the institution by Christ, which may

have been at the Last Supper or, as some theologians

think, after His Resurrection when He taught the

Apostles the essentials of His new kingdom. But

always from the very beginning has the Church

numbered Confirmation among the Seven Sacra-

ments, and conferred it upon her children. The bish-

op is the ordinary minister of the Sacrament and

he is clothed with the full symbols of his power and

authority in conferring it. He wears the mitre on

his head, the cross is on his breast, the ring is on his

finger and he holds in his hand the crosier or staff,

the symbol of his authority. The matter used for the

anointing is chrism. In Baptism it is water, now it

is oil, almost as common as water. Water cleanses,

oil strengthens. Back in Greece and Rome, and since

then, oil was spread over the bodies of the athletes

;

swimmers today, in attempting feats, as the swim-

ming of the English Channel, use oil for their bodies.

The oil penetrates, it gives a lithe character to the

body in its members and joints. It strengthens and

gives endurance. Transfer this to the spiritual or-

der and you will see what Confirmation is meant to

do for the soul. The chrism used is a mixture of olive

oil and balsam. Balsam is an aromatic plant, it has a

fragrance. One who uses well the graces of Con-



18 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

firmation will indeed be the “good odor of Jesus

Christ.” The Sacrament helps him to be such. This

chrism is solemnly blessed by the bishop in the

cathedral church on Holy Thursday with a ceremon-

ial that is unique and elaborate.

In the actual conferring of the Sacrament the

bishop raises his hand over those to be Confirmed,

solemilly invokes the Holy Ghost (in words the

Church formulates for him) to come down upon

those to be Confirmed. Then with blessing he places

the chrism individually on the forehead in the form

of a cross, saying “I sign thee with the sign of the

cross, I confirm thee with the chrism of salvation, in

the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the

Holy Ghost.” Then he gives a slight blow on the

cheek and concludes with a prayer, Pax tecum,

“Peace be with thee”—the peace of Christ, of course.
The anointing on the forehead, the dignified part

of the human body, means that the Christian re-

ceiving Confirmation should openly and resolutely

defend and practice his Faith, should under no con-

dition be ashamed of it, never deny it even under

penalty of death. And the little blow on the cheek

reminds him that he should be ready to bear hard-

ships, even to suffer persecution, if necessary, for

his Faith and for the sake of Christ. The whole

ceremony signifies that the Holy Ghost comes down

upon the soul with manifold and treasured graces.

Now the child of God, by Baptism, is a soldier of

Jesus Christ, he is in the royal army whose standard

bearer in his Big Brother, Jesus Christ, the God-man,

and this is stamped into his soul by the character;

for this is one of the Sacraments impressing the in-

delible mark that will be for his glory in eternity, if

he remains the true, loyal soldier of Christ, or his



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 19

shame should he be guilty of spiritual disloyalty or

treason.

As Confirmation is a Sacrament of the living, it

presupposes grace in the soul of the recipient. It

would be a sacrilege to receive it in mortal sin. Its

purpose, therefore, is to increase grace
;
to give grace

in fuller measure and in abundant measure, to de-

velop into splendid maturity the spiritual life en-

dowed in Baptism. To express it in terms of the

Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier, the effect of this Sacra-

ment is to give us the Holy Ghost with His Gifts, to

strengthen us as the Holy Ghost gave Himself to the

Apostles and Disciples on the first Christian Pente^

cost.

You will remember from the former address that

each Sacrament gives its own peculiar graces or help

in accordance with the nature and purpose of its^^^

institution. In Confirmation this sacramental grace^
is that which is conferred by reason of the Sacra-

ment, that g!ift which is a right to all those actual

graces which are necessary to serve Jesus Christ

with loyalty and fidelity, the spiritual strength and

courage to confess Christ in word and deed—^to be a
real Christian. It is the love of Christ on which we

can lean with perfect repose, for “It is I” He says,

as He said on the stormy Lake of Genesareth. It is

that note by which frail, helpless men can cry out

with force and power, “By the grace of God I am

what I am.'' And bolder still, “I can do all things

in Him Who strengtheneth me."

I believe this truth will be more evident if I re-

peat that in Confirmation the Holy Ghost comes to

us Himself, and with His Gifts. These Gifts are

seven, and I shall give them by name and add a word

of explanation : The Fear of the Lord is given us to



20 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

fill US with a dread of sin. Piety helps us to love God

as a Father and to obey Him because we love Him.

No fear here, but love. Knowledge is the Gift to en-

able us to discover the will of God in all things. The

supreme law: God’s will, the basis of all law, “Thy

will be done.” Fortitude strengthens us to do the

will of God in all things: something very difl:‘erent

from knowing it : the difference between the sinner

and the saint, the bad man and the good man. Coun-

sel is the Gift that warns us of the deceits of the devil

and of the dangers to salvation. How necessary is

that warning in a world of cross currents, of differ-

ent standards, of false, presumptuous prophets and

teachers ! By the Gift of Understanding we are en-

abled to know more clearly the mysteries of Faith

—

riot human faith but divine Faith, God’s Faith. The

Gift of Wisdom is the culmination: it gives us a

relish for the things of God and directs our

life and actions to His honor and glory. This is the

highest ambition. This is the crown on the head of

the saint.

While it is now the custom to give the Sacrament

of Confirmation to a miatured boy or girl, in the

early days it was given even to infants after Bap-

tism. It is not necessary for salvation absolutely,

as is the case with Baptism, but there is a severe

obligation for all to receive it and it would be a sin

to neglect it—this because of the conditions under
which we live, when faith and morals are so much

in danger
;
for we can not with impunity cast aside

the graces Jesus Christ has supplied to meet these

conditions. Thus, if Confirmation were for any rea-

son not received in boyhood or girlhood, one should

see to it that it is received at the first opportunity.

Always when the Sacrament is conferred on the hun-



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 21

dreds of children in our parish churches there are

also adults to receive it; not alone converts to our

Holy Faith but others v^ho for one reason or another

did not receive the Sacrament at the ordinary time.

The God v^ho is the Author of this Sacrament

alone can tell the glorious record of the Sacrament of

Confirmation. You have only to think of the count-

less army of martyrs of every age and clime, of both

sexes, of ail conditions of life, who have given their

blood for the Cause of Christ. Think also of the

hundreds and thousands and millions of all grades

and conditions who did not die for Christ but have

lived for Him
;
who did not give their blood but who

gave their sweat, their toil, their service, their love

for the kingdom of God. Verily, Jesus Christ will

confess them in heaven—these brave, warmhearted
confessors—before His Father who is in heaven, be-
cause they confessed Him in a world where confes-

sion called for courage, sacrifice and loyalty. Ana

how was all this accomplished—by their own efforts,
their own gifts? No; by the grace of God that was

in them, by the indv/elling of the Holy Ghost, by His

Gifts, communicated at least in part by the Sacra-

ment of Confirmation. Oh, it is glorious to speak

these things ! It is a privilege to speak them in God’s

name. It is romance to tell these wonderful things of

God to human hearts that know the meaning of

struggle, temptation and work in the battle of life.

And it is thrilling to apply these truths to life as

we live it and see it. We know the conditions of the
world today. We know the spirit of irreligion that
is abroad, the materialism and naturalism, the god-

lessness. We know the violent attacks on morality,
fundamental morality

;
the setting aside of the com-

mandments so as to reduce us to the level of beasts



22 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

—we who have kinship with’ angels. How shall we
keep true and loyal to Christ in the midst of this

poisonous atmosphere? By ourselves? No, else we

would lean on broken reeds : by the Grace of the Holy

Ghost, by using the graces of Confirmation, by “put-

ting on Christ,’" as St. Paul would say. His courage,

I His fortitude
;
leaning on Him, “working together,”

He in us, and we in Him.



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 23

HOLY ORDERS
(Address delivered by Rev. Dr. Edward J. Walsh, C. M., in

the Catholic Hour, May 31, 1931)

On this day, called in the -Liturgy Trinity Sunday,

a day set apart to worship the three Persons of the

Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, hun-

dreds of newly ordained priests are ascending the

altar to oifer for the first time the Holy Sacrifice of

the Mass. It is quite customary for these ordinations

to take place in Ember week, that is, the Quarter

Tenses, and it is on the last day of the spring Quar-

ter Tense that Orders are given and the priesthood

conferred. It would be proper and profitable, there-

fore, when the mind of the Catholic world is center-

ed on the priesthood, to consider the Sacrament of

Holy Orders, established as one of the seven sources

of grace by our Divine Saviour.

There are two phases under which we may re-

gard society: the religious and the civic: two con-

cepts which comprise all that concerns man in the
destiny given him by Almighty God. Under the

civic aspect it is plain that there must be organiza-

tion for the welfare, prosperity, even the existence,

of society. So must there be organization in the

religious society whfch claims man’s allegiance if,

again, man’s genuine welfare, prosperity and spirit-

ual life are to be conserved. Antecedently we should
suppose that when our Divine Lord would establish
His Kingdom on earth—His Church—He would pro-
vide for its nature, its scope, its structure, its organ-

ization. By parable He spoke of His spiritual society
as a sheepfold, a house, a city; and all of these de-

mand some bond of unity welding together the dif-
ferent elements that enter into the structure. In-



24 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

deed, antecedently we should expect that, since the

chief reason for the coming of Christ was the spiri-

tual health and life of His creatures, and since by

every law or just estimate the spiritual is beyond

the civic, the material, He would surely set up an

organization and make it clear, defined, detailed.

Consequently, when we study the history of man-

kind we should be led to believe that Jesus Christ

would indeed create an organization, a “city seated

on a mountain” that could not “be hid.” This Christ

has done if we are to believe the Holy Scriptures,

and it may be said that at the summit stands the

priesthood—His priesthood—His priesthood multi-
plied and extended throughout time and space in the

many individuals who share it with him. The Sacra-

ment of Holy Orders is one of the two Sacraments

set up for the welfare of man as a social being. It

is the provision for the demands of man’s spiritual

nature, and the means supplied by Christ for the

promotion of the destiny of men, for their sanctifica-

tion and salvation.

Holy Orders is a Sacrament of the New Law, by

which bishops, priests and other ministers are or-

dained and are given the grace and power to per-

form worthily the sacred functions of their spiritual

ministry. It all centers around the priesthood. You

might call the Sacrament of Holy Orders the Sacra-

ment of the Priesthood. However, you will notice

the plural form to designate the Sacrament of Holy

Orders. There are therefore different ministries

that are conferred, culminating in the episcopacy,

which is the fullness of the priesthood. The Orders

are comprised in the terms Minor Orders an'H Major

Orders. Before any one of these is given, the

aspirant to the priesthood receives the tonsure,



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 25

which is the introduction to the Orders. It places

him in the clerical state. The candidate takes Christ

for his ‘‘portion” and this is symbolized by the cut-

ting of the hair. There are four Minor Orders

which are not Sacraments but Sacramentals, estab-

lished by the Church
;
namely, Porter, which confers

the power of opening and closing the church, calling

the faithful to sacred functions and excluding the

unworthy
;
Lector, which gives the power of reading

publicly the Sacred Scriptures, singing the lessons,

teaching the rudiments of Faith and giving some

lesser blessings; Exorcist, bestowing the power of

imposing hands upon those possessed by the devil

and using the prayers provided by the Church for

the expelling of demons
;
and Acolyte, which allows

the recipient to minister at the lesser functions

around the altar. The Major Orders are Suh-

diaconate, Diaconate, and the _ Priesthood. The

Priesthood has the indelible mark or character of

the Sacrament. So has the Diaconate and probably

the Subdiaconate. By his office, the subdeacon may

assist the celebrant at the solemn Mass, chant the

Epistle and care for the sacred linens used in divine

services. The deacon by his office may assist im-

mediately the priest in the solemn Mass, chant the

Gospel solemnly, and under certain conditions sol-

emnly baptize and even administer but not conse-

crate the Holy Eucharist. With these two Major

Orders comes the obligation to celibacy and to the

daily recitation of the Divine Office. The priesthood

gives the power over the real and mystical body of

Christ, of consecrating the bread and wine into the

body and blood of Christ at the Mass, and of for-

giving or retaining sin
;
also of dispensing the other

Sacraments (excepting Confirmation and Holy Or-



26 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

ders)
;
of teaching Christian truths and invoking

blessings on the people. The Bisho'pnc is the Order

which perfects and completes the priestly power and

gives the right and power to confirm, to ordain and

to rule by legitimate jurisdiction. Beyond this there

is no Order. The Archbishopric is not an Order,

neither is the dignity of cardinal, nor is the papacy.

The bishop is a priest, the Pope is a priest—both in
fullness of priestly power—but these exercise power
of ruling and governing, culminating in the full

power and jurisdiction over the whole Church, con-

ferred by Jesus Christ on the Pope, the successor of

St. Peter.

In saying that Holy Orders is a Sacrament, there

must be found the three essentials : the outward sign,

the inward grace and the institution by Christ. In

all the Orders there are the matter and the form.

Sacred Orders are conferred by the imposition of

hands and by the words of the Bishop, the use of

instruments which symbolize the end and purpose

of each Order. And these are the outward, physical

signs that stand for the grace given for the attain-

ing of the spiritual ends for which they were insti-

tuted. Nothing could be more plain than that Our

Lord left in His Church certain rites to be used for

the spiritual welfare of man. He explicitly com-

manded the Apostles, “Do this in commemoration of

Me,” after He had instituted the Holy Eucharist and

said the first Mass. He commanded them after His

Resurrection to exercise His power of forgiving

sins: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you

shall forgive, .they are forgiven them; and whose

sins you shall retain, they are retained.” He orders

them to preach the Gospel to the whole world. On

another occasion to “preach the Gospel to every



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 27

creature.” He gives them the Holy Ghost that they

may give the Holy Ghost to others. He promises that

“he that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved.”

His Apostles and their successors must baptize in

His name and must preach in His name, for “faith

cometh by hearing.” And as showing that His min-

istry is not committed to any one indiscriminately.

He asked the question, which supplies its own an-

swer, “How shall they preach unless they be sent?”

The ceremony for the conferring of these Orders

is very striking, very ancient, especially in respect

to the ordination to the priesthood and the consecra-

tion of a bishop. These functions are elaborate, and

soul-stirring. They leave the consciousness on the

newly ordained priest or consecrated bishop that he

is indeed the “Minister of Christ and the dispenser

of the mysteries of God.” Here, then, are involved

the ministrations of angels. More than that, there

are the deeds of the divine Son of God. Here are the

human vessels which will hold divine treasures. Here

enters grace, that vital thing in the Sacraments

which tests their institution by Christ; grace, that

tremendous thing that is divine.

As a Sacrament of the living. Holy Orders in-

creases sanctifying grace which it finds resident in

the soul. It therefore enriches the soul of the recipi-

ent in the sight of God. If this is true in the case of

any Sacrament of the living, how logical that here

the increase of grace would be not only great, but

greatest, because it is the very Sacrament which is

to provide for the spiritual needs of the souls of men

in general, and is to be the human source, let me say

the human fountain,—in contradistinction to the Di-
vine Fountain, Jesus Christ Himself—whence the
waters of the spiritual life are to fiow, through the



28 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

channels of the religious society called the Church.

There is another point that has value. The recipient

of the priesthood and the bishopric has gone through

a long spiritual process of development and refine-

ment—prayer, meditation, self-sacrifice, self-control,
exercises of devotion, spiritual readings and confer-

ences, the use of the Sacraments themselves. All of

these enter in and thus is prepared the soil for a tre-

mendous outpouring of grace when the Sacrament of

Holy Orders is conferred upon him.

Now, too, there is the peculiar sacramental grace

which is present, a certain right and promise of

those helps of grace which will enable the priest to

be faithful to his great vocation and trust
;
to enable

him to discharge fully, worthily, effectively those

duties impressed upon him by the Order he receives.

The Sacrament of_ Holy Orders gives the spiritual

power by virtue of which the one ordained exercises

the sacred functions of the Order received.* In his

ordination, the Holy Ghost is invoked upon the can-

didate by the imposition of the hands of the bishop

;

he receives the power to consecrate in the Mass, he

receives the power to absolve and retain sin, he re-

ceives the power to confer the other Sacraments, to

perform the sacred rites and offices of the Church,

to preach and to teach. His hands are anointed with

holy oil blessed by the bishop and he is told plainly

“what these hands bless shall be blessed.’" In this

Sacrament, too, a character is impressed upon the

soul—^that indelible mark that distinguishes him as
a minister of Christ—^the Ambassador of God—

a

“priest forever according to the order of Melchise-

dech.”

The priesthood of Christ is continued and per-

petuated through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, and



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 29

the priests of the Church share the priesthood of

Christ. It is indeed a baffling thought that such

power should be given to men as that which resides

in the ordained and consecrated priest, but is it any

more baffling than that that Person who is called

Jesus Christ, who is like us in all things, save sin, a

man, apparently a human Personage, should be the

Man-God, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity?

If Our Divine Saviour came into the world to exer-

cise a ministry that He considered vastly important

and even necessary for man’s spiritual welfare and

his salvation, is it not consistent that we should ex-

pect Him to make His ministry permanent, that it

should be given for all men for all times? Society

would always need sanctiflcation, man would always

need spiritual health, spiritual recovery from sin,

spiritual food for his soul, spiritual truth for his

mind. In physical life man is weak, sometimes help-

less; in the spiritual life he is doubly weak
—

“the

strain of sin fills his whole being,” he is of himself

helpless, a moral failure, and it is only by grace he

can say “by the grace of God, I am what I am,” and

“I can do all things in Him who streng-theneth me.”

This is the purpose of the ministry of the priesthood

and by every law of human association there must

be organization, and organization means a series of

officials. These are priests supplied by Jesus Christ

through Holy Orders. It is not merely an expediency,

it is not merely an advantage, a benefit—it is a
downright necessity.

The dignity of the priesthood on earth is just

this : it is the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Now there

are not two priesthoods nor two high priests, but

one priesthood and one priest, and the priest that

stands at the ajtar to offer Sacrifice, who raises his



30 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

hand to dare absolve from sin his fellow man, who

utters truth from the pulpit is, as the Fathers of the

Church say, an alter Christus, “another Christ,"’ be-

cause he is acting in the name of Christ, by the

power of Christ, with the commission of Christ,

handed to him, burned into his soul at the solemn

moment of his ordination, when by every sacred law

he vows himself to the service of God and is made

in turn the agent of Christ, His representative, the

ambassador of God.

Is it necessary to say that here there is no ques-

tion of mere whim or fancy in the choice of such a

life ? Here is not a business, an avocation, or a voca-

tion in the ordinary sense. “No man taketh this

honor to himself, save he that is called by God as

Aaron was.” This is a call from God which the can-

didate must prove. His training is long, serious, ar-

duous, searching, and on his ordination day he is

advanced to Orders only after the solemn avowal of

his superiors that as far as human frailty allows this

man is worthy. Such is their answer to the solemn

question of the ordaining prelate, “Do you know—
not think, nor hope, but know; do you know that he

is worthy?”

It is indeed great power that the priest holds
;
it

is indeed great dignity that he possesses. It is also

tremendous responsibility that he accepts. In the

humility of Christ that adorns his soul no one knows

better than he that he carries his treasure in an

earthen vessel. There is no pride here, nor arro-

gance, nor sense of superiority over his fellow men..

He knows he can fail, and will fail if he be not sup-

ported by the Christ he represents and serves. If he^

can do the spiritual things no other m^ can do he
knows that Apollo may plant and Pau\ water,, but it



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 31

is God that giveth the increase. He knows that. If

he can impersonate Jesus Christ as he stands at the

altar changing bread and wine into the body and

blood of Christ, he is appalled that, knowing himself

as he is, Christ should do these things in him and

through him.

It is an article of divine Faith that Christ died

for all men. For all men, for all ages, for all times

He shed His blood, the ransom He paid for the souls

of men. And is it not the mark of His supreme love.

His matchless love. His divine love that there is a

priesthood. His priesthood that should apply con-

stantly, faithfully. His blood to the needs of men in

the Sacraments He instituted ? Is not His priesthood

on earth—Himself on earth—^the undying, unmis-
takable proof of His love for the children of men?



32 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

BREAD FOR THE SOUL—THE

HOLY EUCHARIST
(Address delivered by Rev. Dr. Edward J. Walsh, C. M., in

the Catholic Hour, June 7, 1931)

The Church Year gives us the Sacrament that is

to be the topic of the address today—the Holy Euch-
arist, greatest Sacrament of all, for here is the Auth-

or of all the Sacraments. On Thursday last, the

Catholic world kept one of its loveliest, most signifi-

cant feasts, that of Corpus Christi, the Body of

Christ, the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament. So

great is the mystery involved that the Church cele-

brates it with an Octave, and on this day the “sol-

emnity” is observed everywhere with gorgeous rit-

ual, deepest faith, thanksgiving and popular acclaim

that are altogether unique. The solemnity rises to a

wonderful degree of splendor in Catholic countries,

in superb cathedrals and majestic churches, but

there is no little church so poor and lowly that it

does not have its procession of the Blessed Sacra-

ment today; nor is there any place, even where the

atmosphere is indifferent or hostile, where the Cor-

pus Christi is not honored publicly by those who

love and adore Jesus Christ, present in the Sacra-

ment of the Holy Eucharist. I think you might call

Corpus Christi People’s Day, for the people, in their

numbers, faith and gratitude, constitute the celebra-

tion of Corpus Christi, the Body of the Lord.

It is difficult to think and to speak calmly when

there is question of the Holy Eucharist. It baffles

and staggers every concept of the mind, save only

implicit trust in the truth of Jesus Christ, and in

His divine words and promises. I^et me tell you the



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 33

whole story at once. The Holy Eucharist is the Sac-

rament which really, truly and substantially con-

tains the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord

Jesus Christ, under the species or appearances of

bread and wine. The Holy Scriptures give us a de-

tailed account of tne promise made by our Divine

Saviour to institute this Sacrament
;
of the actual in-

stitution itself
;
and also of the literal belief in, and

consequent use of, the Sacrament in the very begin-

ning of Christianity. The sixth chapter of St. John’s

Gospel is the classical account of the detailed pro-

mise of our Saviour to give us His flesh and blood for

the spiritual nourishment of the souls of men. With

signiflcance and wisdom our Divine Lord performed,

in the desert, the miracle of feeding 5,000 men, not

counting the women and children, with five bar-

ley loaves and two fishes, and the left-over twelve

baskets of fragments accentuated the miracle. It

was natural that the people in admiration should de-

clare that “this is of a truth the prophet that is come

into the world,” and should desire “to take Him by

force, and make Him king.” The Prophet disap-

pears, and the same day He is seen at evening when

the Disciples are struggling with the rough waters

while rowing in the Sea of Genesareth, and He ap-

pears to them walking on the troubled waves, with

the calm assurance “It is I
;
be not afraid.” What a

background for a great truth ! Well might the Sav-

iour on the next day, with the memory of such mir-

acles fresh in the minds of the people, declare that

He would give bread from heaven, and boldly say,

“I am the bread of life.” He continues : “I am the
living bread which came down from heaven. . . If

any man eat this bread, he shall live forever; and
the bread that I will give is My flesh, for the life of



34 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

the world. . . He that eateth My flesh and drinketh
My blood, hath everlasting life : and I will raise him

up in the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed : and
My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh

and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me and I in him.

A-s the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the

Father
;
so he that eateth Me, the same also shall live

by Me.” So much for the Promise.

Turn now to St. Matthew, twenty-sixth chapter

(MARK xiv; LUKE xxii,) and read the inspired
word of God which narrates the fulfillment of the

promise—^the actual institution. It is at the Paschal
Supper of the Jews which was eaten by all the fol-

lowers of Moses. But now it is another Paschal

Feast, newly established by Jesus Christ, who had

come to set aside the Old Dispensation, and to estab-

lish the New Dispensation. “And whilst they were

at supper, Jesus took bread and blessed, and broke:

and gave to His disciples, and said : Take ye and eat

:

This is My body. And taking the chalice. He gave
thanks, and gave to them, saying: Drink ye all of

this. For this is My blood of the new testament,
which shall be shed for many unto remission of

sins.” There are frequent references in the Sacred

Scriptures that attest the literal belief in the mys-

tery of Christ’s body and blood; and we can recall

St. Paul chiding the people for customs growing up

that tended to profane the celebration of the Lord’s

Supper, and his severe, positive statement has mean-

ing only in the literal acceptance of the words of

Christ
—

“Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink

the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of

the body and of the blood of the Lord. . . he eateth

and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning

the body of the Lord.”



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 35

In the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the in-

stitution by Christ stands out prominently and the

outward signs and the inward grace are present.

Again, our Saviour makes use of common things

—

bread and wine : bread, the commonest form of food,

the very symbol of food. With men, give us bread

;

with Christ, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Wine

is the common drink rather than water in that part

of the eastern world where Christ lived, and also for

millions and millions of people in other lands. The

matter is bread, wheaten bread, unleavened, and

wine, the juice of the grape. The outward or sensi-

ble sign of the Sacrament is the species, the appear-

ances of bread and wine
;
that 'is, whatever falls un-

der the senses, as taste, color, odor, figure, etc. These

elements, bread and wine, are used with the form of

words presented by Jesus Christ Himself, in fact His

own Words : “This is My body,” “This is My blood ;”

and when this act takes place at what is called the

Consecration in the Mass, the bread and wine are

changed into the body and blood of Christ by the

priest at the altar, acting in the name and with the

power of Christ, and in accordance with His com-

mand, “Do this in commemoration of Me.” By this

act, which is called transubstantiation—a Latin word
designating the change or crossing of substances

—

the substance of the bread is changed into the sub-

stance of the body of Christ, and the substance of

wine 'is changed into the substance of the blood of

Christ. The appearances of bread and wine remain.

This is all done by the power of Christ. Of

course, it is a miracle, something infinitely beyond

the power ol nature. There is nothing against rea-

son in all this, as can be shown by science and phil-

osophy, but it is beyond and above reason. There is



36 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

nothing strange in this, as Christ is the one who ef-

fects the Sacrament, and He is God. He does all this

because He wills. If He had not done it, we should

never have guessed it. But He has done it, and why

is another story, the Mystery of Love. Let it be noted

that whilst a two-fold consecration is made with

bread and wine, Jesus Christ is whole and entire

under each species. There is question here not even

of the dead Christ but the living Christ; therefore

always the body, blood, soul and divinity. By the In-

carnation God became man, and never can there be

separation of His humanity from His divinity.

Here indeed is mystery, something beyond the

kingdom of man’s senses and man’s intellect. The su-

pernatural world here supplants the natural world.

There is rriystery in the world around us. Man is

baffled, is impotent, before the mystery of the grow-

ing corn, the forces of nature. Man can play with

electricity yet cannot explain its nature and power,

except to use it and to give names to the operations.

But here in the Eucharist the mystery is deeper.

When our Saviour first proclaimed it openly, many

said, “This saying is hard, who can hear it,” and

many of His disciples walked away from Him, aban-

doned Him. He did not stop them. He leaves man

physically free, but He asked the faithful group that

remained “Will you also go away?” The millions

who acknowledge with faith in Christ and His word

the mystery of His body and blood in the Sacrament

of the Eucharist are the successors of those whom

Peter represented when he said simply, humbly, sub-

limely, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the

words of eternal life.”

This is indeed the most treasured thing in the

Church of Christ—^the Real Presence of Our Lord



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 37

in the Blessed Sacrament. In the other Sacraments

there is grace, grace in abundance, but here is the

very Author of grace. In the other Sacraments He

gives grace, here He gives Himself. The Holy Euch-

arist is the very summit of the sacramental system.

In Its light we can see them all. In Baptism and

Confirmation there is given and perfected that

spiritual life which it is the purpose of the Holy

Eucharist to sustain and nourish. Penance makes

ready the soul to receive It, and Extreme Unction

disposes the soul to receive the Viaticum to make

the journey into eternity when the shadows fall at

life’s close. Holy Orders is the Sacrament which

gives the priesthood, which, in turn, is the divine

instrument for the effecting of the Holy Eucharist

Itself. In Matrimony we can learn its dignity be-

cause St. Paul tells us that the bond of love between

husband and wife is symbolized by the bond of love

between Christ and His Church.

In the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist we are

face to face with the manifold expressions of mira-

culous deeds, and in no other Sacrament is there such

lavish display of the power, wisdom and love of God.

The Holy Eucharist is indeed the very heart of the

Church, the distinguishing badge, let us say. It is

no wonder that, entering our churches, we bend the

knee in adoration. It is no wonder that we remain

there with reverence and awe. It is no wonder that

we love the very walls, the very floors of our

churches. It is no wonder that there is a ceremonial

that surrounds our worship, that subdues the mind

and heart and that suggests the heaven we do not

see,—for here is the Man-God, Jesus Christ, the Sec-
ond Person of the Blessed Trinity; the living God,

really, truly and substantially present.



38 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

Would it not seem that in establishing this Sacra-

ment, our Divine Saviour had in view His own glory,

primarily ? Certainly the adoration that He receives

through this Sacrament and the splendid ceremonial

and pious devotions that it has inspired would seem

to make earth the counterpart of heaven. But we

should m'iss the secret of Its institution if we did not

know that it was for us—for us men and for our
salvation—^th~at our Lord primarily instituted this
Eucharistic Sacrament. Let us recall the purpose of

Christ in giving us the Holy Eucharist. By this

Sacrament a union is effected of Christ with the

soul—Communion is the word we use for the recep-
tion of the Sacrament. This union is again and again

emphasized by Christ : “Abideth in Me and I in him”

are His own words. A sort of mystical incorporation
that is the deepest yearning of love! By grace the

soul is pa/rticeps divinitatis—partaker of divinity

—

in the daring words of St. Peter. What must be the

union effected when the Author of grace takes pos-

session of the soul by the Holy Eucharist? No phy-

sical union of chemical elements could be closer, or

so close, and no human tongue would dare describe

the action “He in me and I in him.” This is the very

essence of heaven, with only the veil of time and

physical nature between. Then the Sacrament nour-

ishes the soul. It is the bread for the soul : “I am the

living bread.” “My flesh is meat indeed : and my blood

is drink indeed,” and thus does our Saviour plainly

say that as bread and meat and drink are absolutely

necessary for the health, vigor and life of the body,

so are His flesh and blood the sustenance for the soul,

for its health, its vigor, its life. His burning words

break down that fear and dread to do such a tremen-

dous thing as to take Him into our bodies, for we are



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 39

made bold to do so by the severity of His tone when

He says : “Except you eat the flesh of the son of man,

and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.”

How can we estimate in word and thought—we
simply cannot—the measure of grace that He gives
to the soul already sanctified at the reception of the

Eucharist, and what limit can we set to the growth

of the virtues of Christ in our soul when the source

of sanctity and virtue is inundating our soul whilst

He 'is reposing sacramentally within our breast?

The Holy Eucharist has relation to sin in various

ways, and we know that this is the one thing that

stands between us and God. The Holy Eucharist

is the surest and best remedy against mortal sin and

is an antidote against the venial sins that disfigure

our souls. It helps to break the force of passion and

evil tendencies. It roots out ingrown habits of sin,

and without doubt It is, as the Council of Trent as-

sures us, the power that best of all checks the fire of

concupiscence and fleshly sensations and desires. In

every sense the Holy Eucharist helps us to lead a

worthy, honorable, dignified spiritual life and It is

the the very pledge of a glorious resurrection. Amen,

Amen, I say to you, if any man eat My flesh and
drink My blood, he hath everlasting life; he hath,
mark you, and I will raise him up in the last day.

amen, I say to you, if any man eat My flesh and
last day. It is the purpose of the Holy Eucharist to

fit the soul and the body for a glorious immortality.

No wonder the Church insists that it is the will and

desire of Jesus Christ that all should receive Holy

Communion frequently and even daily, as was the

custom of the Christians of the first days of Chris-

tianity.

The Holy Eucharist gives us the continued pre-



40 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

sence of Our Saviour in the Blessed Sacrament, kept

on our altars, and the Holy Viaticum for the wel-

fare of the dying. It inspires such popular devotions

as the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, the For-

ty Hours Devotion and the Benediction of the Bles-

sed Sacrament—all of them very dear to the lovers
of Christ. The love of our Saviour in this Sacra-

ment is so obvious, so marvelous, that it has become

known as the Sacrament of Love. Here is love run

to its farthest limits—far beyond the horizon of
man’s thought and imagination. Jesus Christ gives

Himself for our benefit, for our sanctification, for

our salvation. Not to angels is this gift, but to men.

Not for saints is it given, but for sinners, poor, weak

men who in moments of prayer and moments of lone-

liness yearn to become saints. Not as a reward of

merit is it given, but as a help to be good and holy.

In heaven we shall have the God of the Eucharist,

the only difference being that we shall then meet

Him in His glory, whereas now He tests our faith,

He is hidden behind the veil of the Eucharist. It will

be a thrilling moment—may you all experience it

—

when we shall see Him face to face and recognize

that it is He that we have often welcomed into our

breasts in Holy Communion!



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 41

THE CLEAN OBLATION—THE MASS
(Address delivered by Rev. Dr. Edward J. Walsh, C. M., in

the Catholic Hour, June 14, 1931)

How often does an emotion, springing from the

very depths of the soul, represent the summit of

truth. I can easily picture the Apostle Thomas com-

pletely overwhelmed, on the occasion of Christ’s sec-

ond visit to the Apostles in the Cenacle at Jerusalem,

falling on his knees before his Risen Lord, and burst-

ing forth, “My Lord and my God !” It seems to me

that when we think of the Holy Mass, or better, as-

sist at it, there is nothing else to say
—“My Lord and

my God!” That is the Holy Mass, and at the Con-

secration of the species of bread and wine into the

body and blood of Christ, the soul must instinctively

cry out, “My Lord and my God 1 Body and blood of

Jesus Christ I adore Thee 1 Blood of my Saviour, save

me!”

It is not all the truth of the Holy Eucharist to

tell of Its institution and Its benefits in Holy Commu-

nion, though here is “life, more abundant life.” For

the Holy Eucharist is a Sacrifice as well as a Sacra-

ment, the one Sacrament that has the double char-

acter of Sacrament and Sacrifice. There are points

of variance to be noted between the Eucharist as a

Sacrament and the Eucharist as a Sacrifice. The

Eucharist as a Sacrament is meant for our sanctifica-

tion : “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood,

abideth in me and I In him.” As a Sacrifice, it is the

supreme act of worship and adoration of God. Thus

the value of the Sacrament lies in its reception by us,

whereas the purpose of the Sacrifice is the offering

to God. Moreover, the Sacrament is meant for our

spiritual nourishment : “I am the bread of life. . . .



42 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

My flesh is meat indeed : and My blood is drink in-

deed.” As a Sacrifice, it is the satisfaction of God’s

justice for sin. The Holy Eucharist as a Sacrament

is for the benefit of the individual soul that will take

It, but the Sacrifice is for all the world—the whole
Church of Christ, the living and the dead.

There is so much emphasis on the Mass as a Sac-

rifice—it is nearly always called the Sacrifice of the
Mass—that I should like to say something about
Sacrifice in general. Sacrifice is an old idea, and

goes back tO' the beginning of time. I might almost

say that, when you speak of creation by God, you

speak of sacrifice—to bridge over the chasm between
God and man. Sacrifice is the offering of an object

made to God alone, by a priest to attest the Creator’s

supreme dominion over us. It is some thing, some

person offered to God, to God alone, by a priest

—

using the word priest here in its comprehensive

sense—and by the destruction, or equivalent destruc-
tion, by change, thus to express that He is the Crea-

tor, the Lord and Master of all things. Sacrifice is

contained in the very fundamental idea of religion.

There can be no true religion without sacrifice. It

is essential that a rational creature give worship to

his Maker and acknowledge His supreme dominion

over him. And this must be of an internal and exter-

nal kind to accord with man’s spiritual and physical

nature, his make-up of soul and body.

God is essentially a Spirit and the adoration and

praise due Him must come from man’s spirit, his

soul, which bears the image of God. This is the vital

thing in sacrifice. But man, besides being spiritual,

is physical. He owes everything to God—his body,
his physical energies, his members. These, too, by

the very law of nature must pay court to God, the



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 43

Creator. Hence man’s physical acts must be turned

to God to express their dependence upon Him. Not

only this, but man is a social being and hence as a

member of society as well as an individual, he must

acknowledge the supreme dominion of God. All this

enters into the idea of sacrifice, accoupts for the

varied kinds of sacrifice, and explains the public, ex-

ternal, vicarious character of sacrifice that rises up

to God from the complex character of man.

Sacrifice always existed. There are historical re-

cords to show that it was practiced in all the old

civilizations, in all times, in all nations. It is a singu-

lar fact that even among uncivilized and barbarous

tribes and peoples the necessity of sacrifice was re-

cognized, and this even when the true nature of God

was unknown or abused. Man always felt the im-

pulse and the necessity to worship God as he knew

Him, and to acknowledge His supreme dominion.

In the Old Testament, we have what could be

called a history of sacrifice. God expressed His will

time and time again, and indeed gave explicit in-

structions about the mode of sacrifice. There are

sacrifices of religious rites and incense
;
the sacrifice

of oxen and heifer; the sacrifice of human life (de-

manded but not executed in the case of Isaac), and

all these true sacrifices were forerunners and types

of the Great Sacrifice of the New Law—the Sacrifice
of the God-man, and the continuation of the Sacrifice

of Calvary in the Sacrifice of the Mass of the New
Law. The idea becomes more pertinent when we re-
call the sacrifice of bread and wine by Melchisedech.

There is the last link when Malachi foretold that:
“From the rising of the sun even, to the going down,
my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every
place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my



44 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

name a clean oblation.” This is the Sacrifice of the

Mass which literally is offered from the rising of

the sun even to the going down thereof.

Let me here remind you that the Sacrifice of the

Mass is made possible by the Mystery of the Incar-

nation, that truth which tells us that the Second

Person of the Blessed Trinity became man, namely,

Jesus Christ the Divine Son of God, true God and

true man. It is the Incarnation that makes possible

the Passion and death of Christ and gives its efficacy

to the divine act of atonement by Jesus Christ. The

Holy Mass continues, perpetuates, the Mystery of the

Incarnation. Each time Mass is said, Jesus Christ

comes sacramentally on the altar, where before He

was not
;
for the elements of bread and wine are lit-

erally changed into the body and blood of Christ.

What once were bread and wine are become now by

Consecration the body and blood, soul and divinity of

Jesus Christ, the living God.

The Mass is the unbloody Sacrifice of the body

and blood of Christ. It is the very life, the very heart

of the Church. It is indeed the reason for the church

building, the altar, and the priesthood. The ideas of

altar and priesthood imply the idea of sacrifice. The

Mass was instituted at the Last Supper when, after

communicating His Apostles with His own flesh and

blood, Jesus Christ said to them : “Do this in com-

memoration of me.” This has always been inter-

preted by the Church to be the commission of power

to the Apostles and their successors to immolate and

offer in sacrifice His precious body and blood. The

Lord here said the first Mass and made prievsts of

His Apostles to continue His sacrifice by the celebra-

tion of Mass. The Holy Mass draws all its efficacy



PIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 45

from the sacrifice of the cross on Calvary. The

Mass is Calvary—the Last Supper and the death on
the cross. “The Sacrifice of the Mass,” says the Coun-

cil of Trent, “is one and the same sacrifice with that

of the cross : the Victim is one and the same, Christ

Jesus, who offered Himself once only a bloody Sacri-

fice on the altar of the cross. The bloody and un-

bloody Victim is still one and the same, and the Obla-

tion of the Cross is daily renewed in the Eucharistic

Sacrifice. . . The priest is also the same, Christ Our

Lord; the ministers who offer this sacrifice conse-

crate the holy mysteries not in their own but in the

person of Christ.” The Mass and Calvary are the

same, then, because Priest and Victim are the same.

On Calvary the immolation was made to His heaven-

ly Father by the High Priest, Jesus Christ, His eter-

nal Son; in the Mass the chief Offerer is Jesus

Christ through the instrumentality of the man-priest

who functions at the altar. On the cross, the Victim

of the sacrifice was Jesus Christ, the Man-God, im-

molated as a propitiation for sin. In the Mass, Jesus

Christ is again the Victim offered to His heavenly

Father—a worthy Victim because the man offered
in sacrifice is truly God, by reason of the Mystery of

the Incarnation.

It is only in the manner of offering that there is

a difference between the Sacrifice of the Cross and

the Sacrifice of the Mass. They are essentially the

same. On the cross our Saviour really died : He really
and visibly shed His blood, and allowed that separa-

tion of body and soul that means death. In the Mass,

our Saviour is only mystically slain : by figure repre-

sented by the double Consecration of the bread and

wine into His body and blood. Again, on the cross,

our Saviour made the supreme act of sacrifice and



46 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

propitiation once for all, for all men, for all times.

In the Mass at the altar, the merits and satisfaction

of Christ are distributed and applied to the souls of

men. The Sacrifice of the Cross had four ends in

view, which are the ends of all sacrifice properly-

understood. These ends were and are, the adoration

of God; thanksgiving to Him for His bounty; pro-

pitiation or satisfaction for sin, and petition for the

graces and blessings required for man’s true and

various needs. On the cross all these were adequately

and perfectly provided for, since the One who made

the sacrifice and was the Victim of the sacrifice was

the Divine Son of God. God was then and there fully

adored, thanked, satisfied for sin and petitioned.

And the value of all this for man was assured and

fully provided for, since the Offerer and the Victim

was the Man-Christ, thus representing the race of

men; and the Man-Christ was God. In the Holy

Mass, these four ends are also subserved. Every

Mass at every altar is offered for these four ends,

and thus constantly is God perfectly adored, thank-

ed, satisfied and petitioned. There is proper and ade-

quate approach to God and all man’s relations and

obligations to God are met.

The Mass is a very world in itself. It is the heart
and soul of the world. You might say it is the world
in miniature. It reflects every human aspiration,
every human accomplishment. It is the synthesis of
all things : science, art, culture, philosophy, theology,

human history, life, radiate from it, look back to it
as a center. As a study for the mind, not to say an
object of the heart’s love, it is a never-ending theme,

a fountain of delight and satisfaction that flows on
and on forever. You never could grasp its divine
wealth in its fullness—it is divine. The consecra-



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 47

tion of the bread and the wine, when they are

changed into Christ’s body and blood, soul and divin-

ity, is the essential idea of the Mass—everything be-
fore it, leading up to it, and all after looking back

to it. However, the Offertory, that is, the offering

of the bread and the wine, and the Communion, that

is, the consuming of Christ’s body and blood, are im-

portant parts too, from the very nature of sacrifice.

At the Offertory the object for the sacrifice is sol-

emnly presented to God, and in the Communion of

the priest we have the idea of the destruction of the

Victim to attest God’s dominion : here it is represent-

ed by the consumption, and hence the change, of the

Sacred Species. The preliminary part of the Mass

embraces readings from the Old and New Testa-
ments; special prayers of the day in honor of the

Mystery or the Saint commemorated; the prayer

giving glory to God in the highest, and the Nicene

Creed. Then comes the Offertory, the offering of the

bread and the wine. The Canon of the Mass, the

most sacred part, follows. It begins with the Pre-

face, a solemn prayer of praise to God, and includes

the beautiful prayers that enshrine the Consecra-

tion : the memento for the living, the memento for

the dead, the Lord’s Prayer and others. Then comes

the Communion. The concluding prayers are senti-

ments that well up in the mind of the Church after

the Sacrifice proper, and the Mass ends with that
sublime flight of St. John’s Gospel beginning: ‘Tn

the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God.” Verily, here is God.

This is a mere outline of the structure of the
Mass. The Mass is a superb, sublime drama. Only
it is more than a play, a drama : it is a reality. But
it is a drama too, the Drama of the Passion; for



48 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

every act of the priest commemorates and symbol-

izes some individual act of the tragedy of the suffer-

ing and death of Christ. This drama sounds the

depths of human nature and strikes every chord in

man’s being. There is joy, gladness, adoration,

thanksgiving, hope, aspiration; sorrow, suffering,

pathos, pity
;
retribution, humility, penance, sancti-

fication, salvation—all wrapped up in the prayers
and actions that the priest utters and performs as

the official minister of the Church.

Now you understand why we say the Mass is

everything ! It is everything ; the one reality ! Other-

wise there is none. It is only consistency, therefore,

that 'impels the Church to center everything around

the Mass. Sunday is God’s day, and the Mass must

be heard then under penalty of sin. Every day is a

holy day, for at thousands of altars Mass is offered,

and at every altar there are good pious souls who

come to adore and praise God, to be a propitiation

for the world and to find strength, consolation, grace

to figTit the good fight until death comes. When the

bishop gathers his priests together in a synod for

the spiritual needs of the diocese, it is begun with

Mass. A conclave of cardinals to elect a Supreme
Pontiff is begun with Mass. Catholic conventions of

all kinds—educational, social, fraternal—begin with
Mass. The school year begins with Mass, wheth-

er it is the parish school, college or university. The

people run to the Mass when there is need or danger.

The nuns in the convent greet the rising sun at the

Mass on God’s altar; the children of the Church

pledge their bodies and souls in holy marriage at

the Mass
;
and at the end of life, loving hands bring

the dead father, or mother, or wife, or child, or friend

to the altar of God where the Mass for the dead is



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 49

celebrated for the soul that has fled to God to be

judged.

Who is the priest that stands at the altar ? He is

some mother’s son, the brother perhaps of your

friend. And he stands at the altar representing the

people. He is a son of the people, formerly a boy of

some parish, and he is serving there in a representa-

tive capacity, standing in the name of the people, in-

viting them to pray that “My sacrifice and your sac-
rifice may be acceptable to the Lord our God.” If he

is another Christ, saying in Christ’s words at the

Consecration, “This is My body”—not “This is the
body of Christ,” but “My body”, Christ’s body—he
is also the voice of the people speaking in their name.

For “every high priest taken from among men is or-
dained for men, in the things that appertain to God,

that he may offer up gifts and sacrifice for sins.”



50 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

SONS OF GOD-BAPTISM
(Address delivered by Rev. Dr. Edward J. Walsh, C. M., in

the Catholic Hour, June 21, 1931)

In the order of reception, Baptism is the first of

the Sacraments, for Baptism gives spiritual birth.

In the physical order, birth is the basis of the whole

life of man, the beginning of all the blessings of life.

In the spiritual order. Baptism is the foundation of

the whole spiritual life of man, and the beginning of

all the blessings in the supernatural order. The Holy

Eucharist must be, by its very nature, the greatest

of all the Sacraments, for it is Christ Himself who

is involved, the very Author of grace and all bless-

ings; but Baptism is the most necessary of all the

Sacraments, and thus, from our point of view, the

greatest and most important. It is indeed the gate-

way to all the other Sacraments, the one entrance to

the supernatural life, and the only door that opens

into the kingdom of heaven.

It would please me very much if you would read

the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, writ-

ten by St. Luke, and notice the setting of Baptism, in

the New Dispensation. When the Apostles received

the Holy Ghost on Pentecost, as was explained in an

address preceding this one, they immediately set out,

filled with the Holy Ghost, to exercise their ministry

—theirnew ministry of preisthood—with a zeal and a
fire that almost stand out on the printed page. Peter,

as was fitting in the leader, the Vicar of Christ on

earth, broke out in impassioned discourse which

evidently struck deep into the hearts of the multi-

tude, for we read in the thirty-seventh verse of that

chapter: “Now when they had heard these things,

they had compunction in their hearts and said to



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 51

Peter, and to the rest of the Apostles: What shall

we do, men and brethren ? But Peter said to them

:

Do penance, and be baptized, every one of you in

the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your

sins: and you shall receive the g*ift of the Holy

Ghost. . . . They therefore that received his word,

were baptized; and there were added in that day

about 3000 souls.” Here was the first exercise of

the new ministry to men ! The first sermon of the

new Kingdom of Christ on earth: significantly the

baptism of 3000 souls! It would be interesting to

proceed further into the Acts of the Apostles (chap-

ter viii) and read the ministration of Philip, the

Deacon, in Samaria, where he converted and bap-

tized the Samaritans (“both men and women”) as

the inspired writer explains it; and I am sure you

will read with something of romantic interest of the

conversion and baptism of the man from Ethiopia,
“ a man of great authority under Candace, the queen

of the Ethiopians, . . . who had come to Jerusalem

to adore.” This is also related in the same eighth

chapter of the Acts.

Baptism is a Sacrament which cleanses from

original sin (and actual sin, if it be present,) and

makes us children of God and heirs of heaven. Bap-

tism signifies a cleansing, washing, bathing, and it

is the means left us by Christ for the washing and

cleansing of the soul from original sin. Baptism

presupposes original sin, the sin that is on our soul

when we are born, the sin inherited from our first

parents, who broke faith with God by disobedience

to His command. By this sin man cut himself away
from God, lost original innocence and justice, lost

his supernatural character, with its endowments,

and forfeited his right to eternal life. The purpose



52 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

of Baptism in the mind of Christ is to correct all this

as far as may be done, to give back to man what he

lost by sin
;
to reinstate him, to put him again in the

friendship of God.

In this Sacrament, we have the three necessary

elements entering into every Sacrament. The out-

ward sign is the use of water on the body with the

form which gives the flowing water a meaning—the
explicit invocation of the Three Persons of the Bles-

sed Trinity: ‘T baptize thee,’’ (uttered while pouring

the water) “in the name of the Father and of the

Son and of the Holy Ghost.’’ This double action, the

use of water with the prescribed form, symbolizes or

signifies the washing and cleansing of the soul from

sin, and this cleansing is effected by Jesus Christ

who instituted this sacred rite. He has pledged Him-

self to give grace, to take away our sin, 'if this sym-

bolic act of washing is used according to His will.

It is very probable that Our Lord instituted the Sac-

rament when He Himself was baptized by St. John

on the banks of the Jordan River.

If we all are born in s'in, it is obvious that there

must be some way of dismissing sin, if we are to be

saved, for “nothing defiled” can enter heaven. Bap-

tism is the constituted means and hence Baptism is

absolutely necessary for salvation. Without Bap-

tism, man must ever remain in the sin in which he

was born. He must ever remain in the plane of the

natural
;
therefore he could never see God, for he is

in another sphere altogether, the natural sphere, and

his soul has not that fitness to take in God, accord-

ing to its nature. He is, as it were, out of his ele-

ment, like a fish that cannot live on land because its

element 'is water. But it should not be necessary to

emphasize this point too much, though it is the essen-



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 53

tial thing; for our Saviour has settled it all, as we

may read in the third chapter of the Gospel accord-

ing to St. John. There is related the discourse of our

Lord with N'icodemus, in which Christ says these

plain words: “Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a

man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of

God.” And the literal truth is further emphasized

by our Saviour when answering Nicodemus’ ques-

tion, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can

he enter a second time into his mother^s womb, and

be born again?” The Saviour amplifies the first ex-

pression, “Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man

be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he can-

not enter into the kingdom of God. That which is

born of the flesh is flesh
;
and that which is born of

the Spirit, is spirit. Wonder not that I said to thee,

you must be born again !” Baptism is the spiritual

birth that is necessary for eternal life.

Let me state here that if it were impossible to re-

ceive Baptism of water, the salvation of man could

be supplied by Baptism of desire, (sometimes called

Baptism of fire), or by Baptism of blood. In the first

case, it would be the ardent wish to receive Baptism

and to do all that God has ordained for our salva-

tion
;
and in the second, the shedding of one’s blood

for the faith of Christ, that is, martyrdom. Whilst

these would be sufficient for the salvation of the

soul, they would not produce all the effects of Bap-

tism of water : they would not produce the character,

they would not confer sacramental grace. And let
me repeat that Baptism of water is the Sacrament
instituted by Christ.

Again, we see its necessity in the mind of our

Saviour when we recall that though the priest is the

ordinary minister, anyone can and should give Bap-



54 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

tism in case of necessity. You could save the soul

of a dying person by conferring the Sacrament with

plain water, pouring it over the forehead of the child

or adult, saying at the same time : “I baptize thee in

the name of the Father and of the Son and of the

Holy Ghost.” But mark carefully: the words must

be used at the time of the pouring of the water and,

of course, the words and the pouring must be by the

same person.

Perhaps the first thought that comes to our mind,

when there is question of Baptism, is that it removes

original sin : “You are washed and made clean in the

blood of the Lamb.” And rightly so, for sin is the

death of the soul, the poison that vitiates and kills

its spiritual life. Baptism destroys sin, roots out the

cancerous thing, takes away original sin that we

have inherited and all actual sin, if such be contract-

ed before the reception- of this Sacrament. But this

is far from telling the whole story of the marvelous

effects of this Sacrament. It confers sanctifying

grace, thus rendering the soul dear to God
—

“Blot-

ting out the handwriting of the decree that was

against us.” This is the soul’s spiritual birth. It

means the coming of the Holy Ghost into the soul,

the great Sanctifier. And this means in some mystic

way, the indwelling of the Three Persons of the

Blessed Trinity : “We v/ill come to him and make our

abode with him,” as Jesus Christ expresses it. The

Holy Ghost comes to the soul with His graces and

gifts, and by His action the theological virtues of

faith, hope and charity are implanted in the soul as

well as the moral virtues. Note particularly the seed

of faith implanted there—faith, the root virtue, the
very foundation of the whole spiritual edifice. Note

too the seed of charity, the very virtue which is the



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 55

bond of perfection and the fulfilling of the law and

the prophets.

Let me here direct your attention to what 'is of

paramount importance in grasping the meaning of

these Catholic doctrines in relation to God and the

end He has designed for us. There are two orders

—the natural and the supernatural; one according
to nature and the other above nature. The child is

born into the natural order and would ever remain

in that order unless God should intervene. Its acts,

of whatever value intrinsically, must always remain

natural, and that soul could never have the Beatific

Vision of God, that is, know, understand and enjoy

God as He is in His essence, for the simple reason 'it

is not by nature capable of comprehending God or

performing what is really a divine operation. Bap-

tism raises the person out of the natural order and

places him in the supernatural order, gives him a

new order of being and a new order and mode of life

;

and hence his acts, natural in themselves, are given

a value beyond their own worth, for by this incorpor-

ation,—as St. Peter expresses it, “partakers of Di-
vinity,''—^they have a supernatural character, and
the soul 'is fitted and made capable to meet God. Our

Divine Saviour makes this plain, as you will read in

the Gospel according to St. John, chapter xv
—

“I am

the true vine. . . . Abide in me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it

abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you

abide in me. I am the vine you the branches : he
that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth

much fruit: for without me you can do nothing."

Nothing, He says, and by that He means nothing

that has merit for eternal life. No man can come to

the full maturity of his manhood unless he is bap-



56 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

tized. He may be clever, educated, cultured
;
he may

be a wizard of finance, a shining light of science, a

leader of men, shaping the destiny of the nation;

but he is only a natural man. God calls him to a

spiritual life, a spiritual order. Christ bought the

privilege with His blood. Man is a failure in God’s

eyes unless he lives a supernatural life. Baptism is

the incorporation into it. It is Baptism that incor-

porates the person into the vine that is Jesus Christ.

By Baptism we are made Christians and bear

Christ’s name by right; “for as many of you as have

been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ,” says

St. Paul to the Galatians. We enter Into the family
of Christ and are made members of His mystical

body : He is the head, we are the members. We enter
the Communion of Saints, that vast society that em-

braces the saints in Heaven, the suffering souls in

Purgatory and the faithful followers of Christ on

earth. By Baptism we enter the kingdom of God on

earth, the Church which He came to establish and

did establish to be His visible representative, and

we have a right to all the other Sacraments and all

the rights, privileges and advantages of the society

He founded. By Baptism we are made children of

God,—no longer mere creatures of God
;
“we are cal-

led and are the sons of God.” It is not now our God,

our Master, our Sovereign Lord that we appeal to,

but our Father who is in heaven, and we dare to say

Abba, “Father”, because we are brothers and sisters

of Jesus Christ by Baptism. By Baptism v/e are

made heirs of heaven. We get the right to it, of
course, by God’s love and mercy

;
but we receive the

right to it, and this makes it ours, unless we lose the

benefit of our Baptism by sin. But the right v/e have

because we are stamped with the character, that in-



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 57

delible mark that distinguishes us forever after as

children of God. Finally, in the Sacrament of Bap-

tism we receive those sacramental graces which give

the baptized person the right to all those helps, as

they are needed, to enable him to foster and preserve

the spiritual life received in Baptism and to live up

to the dignity of his Christian profession, and to the

promises made in his Baptism to renounce forever

the devil and all his works and pomps.

Here is love in abundance, here is a wealth of love

that goes far beyond what is human, and is believ-

able only because it is divine. There is no science or

art that explains the value of this vocation to Christ

by Baptism. There is no law of right or justice that

can demand it : it is simply, absolutely and only the

love of Jesus Christ for the children of men and for

each human soul in particular. It is the love of a

divine Big Brother who yearns for the love of men’s

hearts and, being God, can produce it. Amen.



58 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

THE TRIBUNAL OF MERCY-THE

SACRAMENT OF PENANCE

PART I

(Address delivered by Rev. Dr. Edward J. Walsh, C. M., in
' the Catholic Hour, June 28, 1931)

What a glorious, happy old world this would be

if man had been faithful to God from the very be-

ginning of creation
;
if he had only known his honor

and dignity and had been loyal and obedient to his

Maker! But, alas, he fell from his high estate and

let loose the torrents of woes and sorrows to which

every child of Adam is a witness in his own experi-

ence. But even granting that dire calamity, what

nevertheless a happy joyous race would be ours, in

a world governed by reason, if man, when he was

raised up by the Incarnation and Passion of Christ,

had only accepted and used the grace of God given

to him in floods from the Saviour’s sufferings and

death! But again, alas, and alas, every man can

measure the sin, sorrow and distress of all the world

by the tragedy that is enacted in his own life and in

his own heart. But herein lies the wonderful story

of the divine mercy and divine love. ‘‘Even the just

man falls daily” and “if the just man shall scarcely

be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner ap-

pear?” Without the doctrine of Penance and the

forgiveness of sin, we should be doomed, living our

lives in black dispair, with not a gleam of hope. But

we may hope, for it is the word of the Holy Ghost

from the tender lips of the beloved John : “My little

children, these things I write to you, that you may

not sin. But if any man sin, we have an advocate

with the Father, Jesus Christ the just. And he is the



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 59

propitiation for our sins : and not for ours only, but

also of the whole world/’ Oh, that fatal if! There

is no if with any of us; we all need the Advocate.

We have Him. And this ministry of forgiveness is
exercised through the Sacrament of Penance.

There is a distinction to be made between the

virtue of penance and the Sacrament of Penance.

The virtue became necessary and was born when

man sinned in the very beginning. The Sacrament

came with Jesus Christ when His Blood paid the

price for it. In the Old Law, that is, before the com-

ing of the Son of God in the flesh, man’s only hope

for salvation was in his belief in a future Redeemer,

and in the virtue of penance if he sinned. The situa-

tion was more difficult than under the New Law, for

in the first place God’s grace was not then so abun-

dant
;
and again, there was no sacrament, no tangible

thing appealing to man’s senses to focus his mind on

his s'ins, and thus pave the way for penance. And

this was absolutely necessary. The virtue of penance

is a supernatural virtue by which we are moved to

abhor and detest our sin, satisfy for it as far as we

can, and renounce it for the future. The Sacrament

includes the virtue of penance, and was instituted by

Jesus Christ as the ordinary way in which man’s sins

are forgiven.

There could be no question that the power of the

forgiveness of sin is lodged in the Church of Jesus

Christ. The whole range of the Sacred Scriptures

shows that. All through the sacred pages there is the

story of penance and the forgiveness of sin. It is a

striking feature of the new kingdom of Christ es-

tablished by Him on earth. And rightly so, for Christ

stands out always as the Great Healer of man’s sin.

His precursor, the lovable John the Baptist, that



60 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

connecting link between the Old and the New Dis-

pensation, gives the preface to the new kingdom,

going through the hill country of Judea and crying

out, “Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at

hand.” “And He came into all the country about the

Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance for the

remission of sins. . . Bring forth therefore fruits

worthy of penance.” At the height of his glory as

the mouthpiece of Christ, laying down his office when

the Bridegroom came, he greets the Messiah—that
picturesque strange Prophet—and introduces Him to
the new world of God and Christ with those sublime

words that the liturgy of the Church catches up and

sings through the centuries: “Behold the Lamb of

God, behold Him Who taketh away the sin of the

world.”

Our Saviour’s whole ministry is filled with deeds

of mercy and the forgiveness of sin. He became

known as the Great Healer, healing all the ills of hu-

manity, even raising the dead to life
;
but almost in-

variably before He restores the health of the body

or the broken member, as the Sacred Scriptures at-

test, He would say, “Son,” or “Daughter, arise, thy

sins are forgiven thee.” Time and time again he was

challenged for doing this deed of God. No one can

forgive sin but God, they said, and they were right,

no man can forgive sin, only God. But He was God

and He could forgive, and He did forgive. And not

only as the Son of God did He exercise this mercy

and this right, but also as the Son of Man. St. Luke

relates the story of the palsied man carried to Him

on his bed and let down from the roof through the

tiles with his bed into the midst before Jesus.

“Whose faith when He saw. He said : man, thy sins

are forgiven thee.” Listen attentively to these words

:



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 61

you will hear them again under striking conditions.

“Who is this/' the Scribes and Pharisees thought,

“who speaketh blasphemy? Who can forgive sins,

but God alone?" This time the Saviour, reading their

thoughts, picks up the challenge: “Which is easier

to say : Thy sins are forgiven thee ; or to say : Arise

and walk?" Listen closely: “But that you may know

that the Son of man"—mark that, the Son of Man,
—“hath power on earth,"—mark that, too, power on
earth

—
“to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the

palsy) I say to thee: Arise, take up thy bed, and go

into thy house. And immediately rising up before

them, he took the bed, on which he lay, and he went

away to his own house, glorifying God." What could

the bystanders say? The Master proved His case

—

His divinity and His divine mercy. What could they

say? “We have seen wonderful things today."

But the Apostles were to witness something even

more wonderful. And it is significant that this

should occur after Our Saviour’s Passion and death

which have all their meaning as the ransom for

man’s sin. It is the Risen Christ, in all the majesty

of His strength and power—even over death,—^that
flashes into the midst of the Apostles on the very

day of the Resurrection. Let us hear St. John. In

the twentieth chapter of his Gospel he writes : “Now

when it was late that same day, the first of the week,

and the doors were shut, where the Disciples were

gathered together, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came

and stood in their midst, and said to them : Peace be

fo you. And when He had said this, He showed them

His hands and His side. The disciples therefore were

glad, when they saw the Lord. He said therefore to

them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath

sent me, I also send you. When He had said this,



62 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

He breathed on them and He said to them : “Receive

ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive,

they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall

retain, they are retained.” Did you not hear these

words before? It is the Son of Man, now by death

and Resurrection the proved Son of God, that met

the challenge and healed the palsied man. And now

He passes on the power. “Peace be to you,” He says,

and He says it again. It sums up the meaning of the

Sacrament of Penance—peace to the soul. He
breathes on them. It is not the first time that such

breathing signifies something very great : God made

man and breathed into him a living soul. God breath-

ed on the waters : life sprang forth. Here Christ, the

Son of God, breathes on His Apostles a new life : su-

pernatural life from death by sin is inaugurated.

“Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins ye shall for-

give, they are forgiven them.” Here Christ passes

on the power of the forgiveness of sin to His Church

through the Apostles. He sets up a judicial tribunal.

He gives the Apostles the power He has of right

—

to forgive sin—in His name and with His commis-
sion. The Sacrament of Penance is set up.

As the Holy Eucharist has ever been a distin-

guishing mark of the Church of Christ, so likewise

has been the Sacrament of Penance. From the very

beginning the Church and its ministers were con-

scious of the power they possessed in the forgiveness

of sin, and it was everywhere preached and exer-

cised. Wherever the ministry of Christ was intro-

duced and applied, there was set up the confessional,

which typifies the Sacrament of Penance. In every

church, whether great or small, whether a little

cabin or a great cathedral, the confessional was

there to distribute the mercy of Christ and reconcile



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 63

men estranged from God by sin. It has always seem-

ed very significant to me that in all those superb

churches of Europe—of all the nations,—the confes-
sional has its place of honor. Amid all the wealth

of marble, and the beauty furnished by all the arts,

the simple confessional is found to attest the mercy

of Christ and to be the silent witness of the fact that

here divine pardon is given to weak, sinful men. And

today, after nearly 2000 years, every Catholic church

in every land, in every part of the world, has its con-

fessional, just as it has its altar and its pulpit. And

it all goes back to Calvary and to the Cenacle at Jer-

usalem when the risen Saviour gave H'is power to

men to forgive sins.

As Baptism was the provision for the removal of

original sin, so Penance is the sacrament for the for-

giveness of sin committed after Baptism. It can be

seen at once what a bountiful gift it is
;
for, as Bap-

tism is meant to be received shortly after birth. Pen-

ance is meant to remove the sins of commission dur-

ing the years of childhood, adult life and old age.

The necessary matter of the sacrament is the mortal

sins committed after Baptism, whilst venial sins also

may be presented for forgiveness through the sacra-

ment. It is proper too, and advantageous, to pre-

sent mortal and venial sins already confessed and

forgiven, and for which the penitent wishes to renew

sorrow. The form of this sacrament is the words of

absolution uttered by the priest who sits in the tri-

bunal: ‘T absolve thee from thy sins, in the name

of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.”

The outward signs and the inward grace are here

evident, for there must always be the acts of the

penitent to receive the Sacrament worthily, namely

contrition, confession and satisfaction, and these are



64 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

SO limportant and so comprehensive that I shall con-

sider them in a later address.

The effects of the Sacrament of Penance are not

only tremendous
;
they are also abundant and I should

like to mention here what might be called its major

benefits. There is the removal of mortal sin and also

of the venial sins confessed with sorrow. Notice I say

the removal, not merely the covering over of sin:

they are not merely not imputed, but are washed

away from the soul by the blood of Christ. Then

there is the removal, together with the eternal guilt

of sin, of the eternal punishment of sin, and also the

temporal punishment according to the measure of

the dispositions of the penitent—his sorrow, and the
satisfaction. Hence there is involved the restoration

to grace which has been lost by sin, the renewal of

supernatural life quenched by sin. There is the re-

turn of the merit formerly attained, but lost by sin.

And Penance, as every sacrament, in giving or in-

creasing grace, makes the soul dearer to God. By

the sacramental grace of the sacrament the penitent

receives the right to those helps which will enable

him to avoid sin in the future: the very sins he is

prone to commit; and he is enabled to fight success-

fully temptation, and to do the deeds of penance

which are so necessary, according to the word of

Christ Himself: “Unless you shall do penance, you

shall all likewise perish.”

The wonderful effects of this sacrament might

indeed make us hesitant in our belief if there were

not the solid background that we know; for sin is

sin, and nothing can change its essential malice—dis-
obedience to God’s Law. And there is the word of

St. Augustine that when God forgives sin. He does

something more wonderful than the Creation of the



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 65

world. In a word, the solution of the mystery is this

:

Jesus Christ on earth forgave sin in H'is own name,

by His own right. He has left in His Church to His

priests the power to forgive sin in His name, by His

power, by His command, and commission. And

again, the background is the Passion and death of

the Divine Son of God. The merit of these is applied

through the Sacrament of Penance, where we are

washed and made clean in the blood of the Lamb.

The confessional rests on Calvary, the Sacrificial

Acts of the Cross by which we are Redeemed

—

meant to be Redeemed—not “with corruptible things
as gold and silver. . . but with the precious blood

... as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled.”

Oh, here is love unspeakable, only possible, only

believable because divine—^the outpouring of a Heart
that beats human throbs for the love of the children

of men. I have always thought that in the Sacrament

of Penance there are refinements of love found no

where else in the whole scheme of God^s rlations

with man, even in the Holy Eucharist. Holy Euchar-

ist He established for His friends by grace, but Pen-

ance for His enemies : for those who would disobey,

disown and insult Him. For this is the sacrament by

which man can return to God, no matter if his sins

be as scarlet and as numerous as the sands of the

seashore. Oh, God of mercy, this is love!

By every law of justice, when man sins he is

ruined, and his ruin would be permanent, eternal, if

God did not intervene. God does intervene by the

Sacrament of Penance and thus gives to man not

seven, but seventy times seven times the opportunity

to renounce his sins and to hope again for eternal

life. And the only price is man’s humility, his re-

nunciation of sin, and his humble confession that



G6 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

attest the sorrow of his heart. If ever one had the

disposition to doubt his salvation, to question God’s

Love for him, a sinful man, to despair when he real-

izes the number and malice of his sins, he needs only

look up to the Cross of Christ and behold the tribunal

of mercy, the Confessional, and find there the infal-

lible word of Christ, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.”



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 67

THE TRIBUNAL OF MERCY—THE

SACRAMENT OF PENANCE

PART II

(Address delivered by Rev. Dr. Edward J. Walsh, C. M., in

the Catholic Hour, July 5, 1931)

The working out of our salvation is largely the

constant struggle against sin. S'in is in our blood ; in

our members, as St. Paul says. That the heart of

man is prone to evil from his youth, is the testimony

of the Holy Ghost in the Sacred Scriptures, and it

is our own sad experience that even when malice is

absent, human weakness, frail humanity, is the

source of many violations of the Law of God. What

comfort lies in the doctrine of the forgiveness of

sin, and the tribunal of mercy that we call the Sacra-

ment of Penance ! Because we are human, we crave

love, and because we are human we need mercy.

Now what is the price of this mercy, this forgive-

ness of sin? Sin is against God—God alone: Tihi
soli peccavi, “to Thee alone have I sinned,” as the

Royal Psalmist expresses it. And surely there must

be some action on our part if sin is to be taken away.

And this action of the sinner must be something de-

finite, something decisive, for there is question of

dealing with the God we have offended, and of the

reversal of the will of the sinner that caused the act

of sin. Hence the acts of the penitent who wishes

pardon, acts which are called Contrition, Confes-

sion and Satisfaction. These are necessary in order

to receive the Sacrament of Penance worthily.

These are the price, if I may so express it, they are

the necessary conditions of forgiveness. They are



68 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

little enough to offer to God for the forgiveness of

sin and even the salvation of the sinner’s soul.

Contrition is the most necessary element of all

in the forgiveness of sin—it is absolutely necessary,
if sin is to be forgiven. God demands it: He must

demand it, for God Himself could not take away

from the soul the sin that the sinner has put there

willingly unless he renounces that sin. Sin means

turning away from God; contrition means turning

back to God, renouncing the former rebellion of will

which caused sin. Contrition means a breaking, a

crushing of sin. It is the sorrow for siin, the hatred

of sin and the true grief of soul for having offended

God, as the catechism expresses it, with the firm pur-

pose of sinning no more. This contrition to be genu-

ine must have four qualities, four features that test

its character. It must be interior, supernatural, uni-

versal and sovereign. Since sorrow for sin is the one

absolutely indispensable requirement for the for-

giveness of sin, we must linger here for a few mo-

ments to appraise these four qualities which break

or crush the sin in the soul.

The sorrow, then, must be interior, that is, not

merely a lip sorrow, it must come from the heart,

the will. It is not enough to say we are sorry, we

must mean it in the heart which is seen by God. Our

sorrow must be supernatural, that is, above the nat-

ural, and must spring from supernatural motives;

from God, in other words. When we do wrong, we

may easily regret our evil deeds because of purely

natural motives, such as being found out, or being

punished, or because of the loss of our good name

or our reputation, our health. Or perhaps our pride,

our sense of importance is hurt. These are natural

motives, they are not supernatural. They do not



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 69

touch God whom we have offended any they could

never suffice for the forgiveness of sin. God 'in His

mercy might use these sentiments to spur us on to

make us realize our condition, but if our motives of

sorrow rest there, there is no forgiveness. The sor-

row, again, must be sovereign; that is, a sorrow of

the appreciation of what sin is, a sorrow of the rea-

son by which we recognize that sin is the greatest of

evils, the only unqualified evil because it ruins the

soul; whereas sickness, or death, the loss of money

or goods or friends, the loss of health, though in-

convenient and painful, are not evils that affect the

soul or rob us of God’s grace. This sovereign sorrow

for sin, remember, is not therefore a grief of the

emotional nature but a grief of the mind, of the soul

valuing things at their proper worth. In the fourth

place, the sorrow must be universal; that is it must

embrace all our mortal sins. No matter how many or

how grave are the sins of the soul, if one is clung to

and not repented of, there can be no forgiveness. The

soul is clean or unclean, it is in God’s grace or it is

not. And even one mortal sin makes it unclean—out
of God’s grace, and therefore all must go by univer-

sal sorrow or none can go.

Let me state here the distinction between perfect

and imperfect contrition. Imperfect contrition means

a sorrow by which we renounce our sins because by

them we lose our right to heaven and merit hell.

Surely here we are thinking of the consequences of

sin as they affect us; still after all, God is included

in this act, because heaven and hell have no mean-

ing at all except that heaven means God’s presence

and hell His absence. Imperfect contrition, with the

absolution bf the priest in the Sacrament of Pen-

ance, will forgive sin, not because of the perfect



70 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

wortTiiness of the motives in themselves, but because

God in His mercy will supply the deficiency by the

grace of the sacrament received. There is something

better than imperfect contrition and that is perfect

contrition by which we regret our s'ins not on ac-

count of the evil consequences to ourselves—depriv-
ation of pur right to heaven and incurrence of eter-

nal damnation—but because they oifend God, who is
all good and worthy of all our love. Here is an un-

selfish act of sorrow: we are sorry for having of-

fended our God, our Father who is eternally lovable,

and the only object really worthy of our love. This

is a supernatural act and can of itself forgive sin,

even thougli it be necessary to confess sin as far as

possible. This act should always accompany the Sac-

rament of Penance. Not only that, but we should

make it frequently, at least every night before re-

tiring
;
and at the moment of death it should spring

to our lips; for if God gave us this grace, our soul

could be saved, even if it were not at that juncture

possible to confess our sins and receive the Sacra-

ment of Penance in the accustomed way.

You will recall that in the very definition of con-

trition there is contained the essential notion of re-

solving, with a firm determination, to sin no more.

There can be no forgiveness of sin unless there is this

resolution not to sin again. This does away at once

with the idea sometimes expressed that we can have

our sins forgiven merely by telling them in confes-

sion, reserving our liberty to do the same things

again. This could not be true in the sight of God, for

it would mean lack of genuine sorrow. It would be

a fresh offense to our Creator. God knows our weak-

ness, our instability, our changing moods, our temp-

tations and dangers. He does not demand of us a



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 71

promise not to sin again. But He does demand, He

must demand, an honest, sincere determination to

avoid sin in the future. And the test of this is not

merely the will to avoid a particular sin, but the fact

of giving up the occasions of sin; that is, the per-

sons, places, things and conditions that we know

from past experience or settled knowledge are liable

to lead us into sin. This is surely the “rending of

our hearts and not our garments,” as the Prophet

urges. This is being straight with God.

Confession is the second part of the Sacrament

of Penance, and is often the term we use to express

the reception of the sacrament. We speak of “going

to confession.” And a good confession does embrace

all the necessary elements for the forgiveness of sin.

Confession is the telling of our sins to a duly author-

ized priest, making an honest statement of our sins

as we feel they are in the sight of God and in the

depths of our own conscience. I never could under-

stand the objections raised to Confession. It seems

to me that our Saviour is here appealing to a very

deep instinct in the human breast, that impels us g

expel our sin from our heart by an honest avowal of

it. You will find that vein of thought in universal

literature. Surely we do not wish to publish our

sins, down in our hearts we are ashamed of them;

but for all that there is a satisfaction and consola-

tion in telling them to a tried and trusted friend and

counselor. In the Sacrament of Penance the friend

and counselor is the ordained priest, fully prepared

by his training to sit in the tribunal of penance as

father and physician as well as judge, to dole out

the mercy of Jesus Christ to sorrowing sinners: a

priest who can have compassion (“for he too is en-

compassed with infirmity”) and whose lips are closed



72 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

by the seal of the confessional
;
who would lay down

his life, as he must lay it down, if that be necessary,

rather than break the silence of the confessional,

which lis not a human but a divine court of trial and

mercy. May I refer in passing to the use of psycho-

analysis in medical science and practice, and note

the benefit to persons who are sick in mind and

heart. This is, after all, confession, but it is confes-

sion without absolution; it is not the forgiveness

of sin.

Confession should be humble, that is not merely

an accurate statement of sin but a relation of sin

with a sense of shame, of self-abasement, of con-

scious self-humiliation before God whom we have

disobeyed. It should be sincere that is, a straight-

forward, honest, open statement of our sins—with
truth, all the truth and nothing but the truth for

our maxim—before the God who sees the secrets of
the hearts and reins. It should be entire, namely, it

should tell all mortal sins, in number and kind, and

add any circumstances that might change the nature

of the sin. It is such honesty that makes a worthy

confession, and when we do our best there is a

worthy confession, even though we might make a

mistake through ignorance or nervousness or con-

fusion. It is only when we are in bad faith that we

make a sacriligeous confession which, of course,

would not remove our sin but rather deepen our

guilt. There is never any reason for this. We are
dealing with a priest, a man

;
yes, but he is the agent

for Him '‘who hath delivered us from the power of

darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom

of the Son of his love. In whom we have redemption

through his blood, the remission of sins.” (COL. i,

13-14 )



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 78

But there is a third requirement for the forgive-

ness of sin,

—

Satisfaction, the third part of the Sac-

rament of Penance. This means reparation for sin,

doing penance for sin. Obviously with God it is little

more than the evidence of our good will, our desire

to atone, to satisfy for the offenses against Him. But

it is absolutely necessary. The priest in confession

gives what is called a penance; that is, he imposes

the obligation of some prayers or good works in

satisfaction, and these have a special value because

of their connection with the sacrament. But we

should never stop here. We must do other penance:

“unless you do penance you shall all likewise per-

ish.” We must satisfy for the temporal punishment

due to sin, here or hereafter. And it is wisdom to do

as much penance now as we can, and the real Cath-

olic spirit embraces the virtue and practice of pen-

ance throughout the course of one’s life. Satisfaction

also involves repairing any injury we have done, as

far as we are able, such as making good any loss or

injury we may have inflicted on our neighbor.

This last requirement suggests the tremendous

social value of the Sacrament of Penance. It is all so

simple, yet so comprehensive and far-reaching. Let

me summarize the operation. A man decides to go to
confession. He goes to the church, asks God for light

to know his sins, and grace to detest them. He ex-

amines his conscience, finds out his sins, by number

and kind. He makes acts of sorrow and regret, he

asks pardon of God for his acts of disobedience. He

promises to himself to repair any evil he has done;

he resolves, with God’s grace, which he humbly begs,

to give up those sins. He repairs to the confessional,

makes the sign of the cross and announces his own

guilt. He has no accuser—he is his own accuser. He



74 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

confesses his sins
;
he expresses sorrow and asks par-

don, and on the strength of this, he receives absolu-

tion from the priest. He leaves the confessional a new

man, with joy in his heart, strength in his will, grace

'in his soul. Now if you multiply that man by the

millions of creatures who make up the world and

society, you can appreciate what the world would be

if all men accepted the word, the mercy and the for-

giveness of sin which Jesus Christ doles out in the

Sacrament of Penance.

Let me tell you again, and again, and again, that

it is a wonderful story of divine love. And with like

repetition, that it is all explained and made clear in

the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross. What joy it

is to know we do not have to carry our sins through

life. Imagine what a load they would be from child-

hood, adult years and old age ! And to know that we

can be “washed and made clean 'in the blood of the

Lamb!” What joy in the consciousness of forgiven

sin, a joy which no man knows but he that'has made

a good confession and felt in his heart the peace of

Jesus Christ. What joy to know on the infallible

word of Jesus Christ that in spite of our sins, we

may still hope for God and His heaven! What a

mystery of divine love to realize that there are mil-

lions of souls this day in heaven who had sinned and

by every law of right and justice would have been

doomed forever but are enjoying the beatific vision,

yet are saved through Penance, the virtue and the

sacrament. An eternity will be far too short to give

thanks to God and His Crucified Son for these bene-

fits. Meanwhile, we can all take heart, we can hope

;

for in the Church of Jesus Christ there is the Sacra-

ment of Penance, and in common appreciation and

gratitude v/e can use well and often this sacrament



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 75

of salvation, the supreme gift to sinners from Christ

“in whom we have redemption through his blood, the

remission of sins, according to the riches of his

grace.” (Eph. i, 7).



76 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

A SANCTIFIED SOCIETY—THE

SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY

PART I

(Address delivered by Rev. Dr. Edward J. Walsh, C. M., in
the Catholic Hour, July 12, 1931)

The purpose of the Sacraments is the sanctifica-

tion of the souls of men. They are the heritage of

the Passion and death of Jesus Christ. They are

also the heritage and evidence of His matchless love

for the children of men. They belong to the super-

natural order though enshrined in a natural setting,

and they are meant to bring man with ease and

security to his eternal destiny. They build’ up the

Kingdom of God in men’s souls, they build up the

individuals that form a Christian society. The

Sacrament of Matrimony with which we deal in two

addresses is the gift of our Saviour not only to the

individual but to society. It is the sacrament of a

sanctified society.

Marriage goes back to the dawn of creation, to

that far time when God made the world and placed

in it the first human beings. God directly created

Adam, and gave to him as a companion Eve, the

first woman. After that the creation of human be-

ings was to be in accordance with the forces and

laws of nature,—God Himself to be always the im-
mediate Creator of the soul. God made marriage

His instrument for the peopling of the world, for

the propagation of the human race. He is the

author of marriage. He might, if He wished, have

sent us all into the world as full grown men and

women. He might have ordained direct, immediate

creation of body as well as soul. He did not do this,



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 77

and the contract of marriage, that spiritual bond,

was to be the basis of the propagation of the human

family. It is not out of place here to remind you

that the ultimate aim of God in creating human be-

ings was their enjoyment of Him in an endless eter-

nity. God made marriage and God made the mar-

riage contract. The prime end of marriage is the

procreation of children. There are other ends—^to
be a remedy for concupiscence, to furnish human

association, love, protection, security in goods of

life—but the prime end in God’s mind is the gen-
eration of children in accordance with His design in

creation. In addition, God Himself declared the

essence of marriage to be the union of two in one, a

moral union of two persons forming, as it were, a

new creation. Upon this new creation. He both

establishes a severe law and offers the essence of

marriage : “Wherefore a man shall leave father and

mother, and cleave to his wife: and they shall be

two in one flesh.” Besides, God Himself established

the prerogatives of marriage—unity and indissolu-
bility—^the marriage of one man with one woman
and the bond that can be broken only by the death

of one of the parties to the contract. There is some-

thing flnal and comprehensive in these facts of the

natural law and the positive, divine law : God is the

author of the marriage contract; the prime end of

marriage is the procreation of children
;
the essence

of marriage is the union of two in one; the marks

of unity and indissolubility. In the very beginning

God decreed these things, and no man and no state

can 'interfere with them. They are God’s spoken

word—His unchangeable law. And it is interesting
to note that whenever and wherever marriage is at-

tacked, some one or other of these eternal truths is



78 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

impugned. But man speaks too late : God has

spoken first. The matter is closed.

By every law of human association, a contract is

a sacred thing. There enter into it the highest

things of which man is capable—^truth, fidelity,
honor, sacrifice, loyalty. Marriage is the very high-

est type of contract: into it enters all that is best

and noblest in human nature. Marriage is sacred,

most sacred, even as a contract. But it is something

more since Jesus Christ raised marriage, the con-

tract of marriage, to the dignity of a sacrament. It

is a sacrament of the New Law instituted by Jesus

Christ to sanctify the lawful union of Christian

man and woman. This speaks its holy character. It

is one of the channels of grace by which Christ en-

riches the souls of men, gives the graces needed for

men, and thus it takes its place in the holy series

of sacraments—with Baptism, Penance and Holy
Eucharist. It is holy in its origin, holy in its scope,

holy in its end. Our Saviour Himself bore testi-

mony that marriage had lost a great deal of its pris-

tine dignity and holy character. He distinctly bore

testimony to the fact that the concessions made by

the Law of Moses were due to the hardness of men’s

hearts, but He said “from the beginning it was not

so,” and He set about the remedy, and the Sacrament

of Matrimony was the result. He realized that the

low condition of society was largely due to the dese-

cration of marriage, and He offers the Sacrament of

Matrimony as a vital means in the regeneration of

society, and in the creation of the new polity and

civilization which has been known for two thousand

years as Christendom or Christian society.

Our Lord’s estimate of marriage as a holy thing

is thus made plain, and His coming into the world



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 79

in the manner in which He did come is also His

estimate, for He came largely in a human way. He

had no human father, but Mary was literally His

Mother and thus He exalted the family idea; for

Joseph was the legal husband of Mary; and that

Family—Jesus, Mary and Joseph—is the corner-
stone of Christian society which seeks its basic unit

in the family. The Sacrament of Matrimony was

probably instituted by our Saviour at the marriage

feast of Cana in Galilee when He performed His

first miracle at the request of His Mother, and added

to the joy of the nuptial party. Its external char-

acter is evident as in the case of the outward acts

which attest any contract. The matter of the sacra-

ment is the mutual consent of the two parties enter-

ing the married state to give themselves to each

other; and the form is the formal expression by

which each one takes the other for husband or wife,

“for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, until

death do us part.” The inward grace is promised

by our Saviour to those who enter married life ac-

cording to the requirements of the sacrament.

It is for a double purpose that I now refer to

the Epistle to the Ephesians, written by St. Paul

when he was a prisoner in Rome, about 29 years

after the Ascension of our Lord. In the first place,

'it gives us the historical facts of the acceptance of

Christ’s idea of marriage, as understood in the early

Church, as it was known and practiced for a third

of a century following the establishment of the

Christian Church. And again it gives a new light

on the sanctity and dignity of the marriage con-

tract, raised to the eminence of a sacrament. St.

Paul had preached at Ephesus for about three years

in all, and he is now writing to those people remind-



80 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

ing them of his presence and preaching among

them, and giving them practical and salutary advice

on various topics. Here he becomes the champion

of holy marriage. It is in the fifth chapter that he

writes: ‘‘Let women be subject to their husbands,

as to the Lord : because the husband is the head of

the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church. . . .

Therefore as the Church is subject to Christ, so also

let the wives be to their husbands in all things.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the

Church, and delivered Himself up for it: That He

might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water

in the word of life: That He might present it to

Himself as a glorious Church, not having spot or

wrinkle or any such thing: but that it should be

holy, and without blemish. So also ought men to

love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth

his wife, loveth himself. For no man ever hated his

own fiesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also

Christ doth the Church.” This is remarkable lan-

guage and puts marriage on a high plane, indeed.

The union between Christ and His Church is made

the symbol of the union effected in Christian mar-

riage. It is the ideal of Christian marriage. In the

administration of the Sacrament of Matrimony it is

unique that the contracting parties themselves are

the ministers of the sacrament : they effect the

sacrament, whilst the priest, who is the ordinary

minister of the sacraments, is but the witness,

though the necessary witness of the ceremony. Thus

they become, as it were, the priest : the man, who is

symbolized by Christ in the make-up of the Church,

confers on the woman, symbolized by the Church in

that mystic marriage, those qualities of soul that

make her a fit emblem of the Church, the Bride of



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 81

Christ; and the woman in turn, conferring on the

man those characteristics of soul that make him a

worthy symbol of Christ Himself. Here marriage is

unique and holy. No wonder St. Paul adds: “This

is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in

the Church,” and this is marriage in the mind of

Christ and thus used in the early Church, and ever

since the ideal in Christian society.

Christian marriage comes to the soul already

constituted in grace by Baptism or Penance, and, in

conformity with the nature of the sacraments, in-

creases sanctifying grace. It would be a sacrilege

to receive it in a state of mortal sin and marriage

therefore means a more abundant supply of God’s

grace—^the grace, as the Council of Trent expresses
it, which perfects that natural love and confirms the

indissoluble union, Christ Himself, the author and

finisher of the sacraments, has merited for us by His

Passion. The bond of marriage, therefore, is sealed

by the blood of Christ.

Likewise, Matrimony has its own sacramental

graces which, as you will remember, are given by

reason of the individual sacrament, to enable the

recipient to accomplish the ends for which the sacra-

ment was instituted. In Matrimony these may be

considered in three classes. First, the love of the

parties of the marriage is sanctified and ennobled.

It is begun in nature; it is consummated in grace.

How necessary that the love of youth, the charms

and graces of early life, the physical health and in-

tegrity should receive this spiritual support, com-

prised in God’s grace, that will still cement the asso-

ciation when natural gifts vanish or are destroyed

!

Love is needed for marriage in its inception; love

is needed throughout its course, for the parties



82 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

themselves and for the children
;
and love is needed

when the years bring on old age. The grace of Mat-

rimony is ever at hand to produce this sanctified

affection.

In the second place, grace is given to enable the

husband and wife to live together in peace and har-

mony. All phases of life are filled with differences,

difficulties, irritations and anxieties, and married

life is no exception. It is more subject to these in

fact, because of its intimacy, its closer and more

constant association. In marriage our Saviour has

provided for this: He promises grace by reason of

the sacrament that will be the support and help in

the trying moments of married life. He will supply

grace for tolerance, mutual consideration, generos-

ity, forbearance—all so needed for fidelity, happi-
ness and success in married life. But holy matri-

mony always looks to the children of the sacramental

union. The parents are thrice the parents of the

children whom God sends to them. They are the in-

struments that God uses for the physical life of the

little ones
;
they are the appointed agents of God to

bring them to the supernatural life by Baptism; and

they are the natural guardians, teachers and leaders

to bring them, by word and example, to eternal life.

By holy marriage the parents receive the grace to

enable them to bring up the children in the fear and

love of God. This is the supreme mission of parent-

hood. A tremendous dignity, a tremendous respon-
sibility ! It is wonderful to rear a huge shaft, a sup-

erb building, but this is nothing to rearing a man or

woman—a human temiple that shoots its summit into
eternity—a living man or woman with an immortal
soul that holds God's image, that was purchased by

the blood of Christ and that is destined for the bea-



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 83

tific vision and eternal enjoyment of God. Parents

in every sacramental marriage receive the grace to

do this.

But such an ideal ! How can there be disaster or

failure? Yet, there is failure. Perhaps many persons

are ignorant of these things. Perhaps they entered

the state thoughtlessly, frivolously
;
perhaps they did

not consider it seriously. Whatever the reason, this

is certain : where there is disaster or failure, rest as-

sured that one or the other of the parties concerned,

or both, do not use, do not accept the graces of the

married state promised and offered by Jesus Christ

in the institution of this great sacrament. It is only

consistent and logical that the Church should be

very vigilant where marriage is concerned and in

another address we shall see further evidence of this

vigilance, a deeper testimony of Christ’s love as man-

ifested in holy Matrimony.



84 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

A SANCTIFIED SOCIETY—THE

SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY
PART II

(Address delivered by Rev. Dr. Edward J. Walsh, C. M., in
the Catholic Hour, July 19, 1931)

It would be idle to pretend to think that the teach-

ings of Jesus Christ are faithfully put into practice

by all men. Perhaps in no other matter is the Gos-

pel of our Saviour more abused than >in His teaching

on holy marriage. But for alT that, His word is there,

and it will remain, for “Heaven and earth shall pass

away, but my word shall not pass away.”

In this address, we are to consider further His

v/ord—His institution of Matrimony as a sacrament
—and we note at once that it is to His Church that
He has committed it for its perpetuation, its integrity

and 'its perfection. The whole idea of Christian mar-

riage is so serious, so far-reaching in consequences,

that it is not strange the Church considers marriage

as a vocation—something comprehensive, stable,
fixed, final, and with results reaching 'into eternity.

It is souls, always souls, that the Church has in mind

in preaching and defending the principles of mar-

riage. Hence, before their marriage the Church

wishes her children to consider well the state to be

entered, to count the cost, as it were, for undoubtedly

many are not fitted for this state, by reason of phy-

sical defects, mental conditions, temperament. And

when one enters a vocation unfitted for it there is

liable to be difficulty, distress, even failure.

Let me name the chief attributes of marriage:

unity and indissolubility. These are its support and

attest its dignity. In the long run, these are the



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 85

sanctions of marriage, and they are the rights and

safeguards of the man and woman venturing so

much in making marriage vows. The unity of mar-

riage means the marriage of one man with one wo-

man. Indissolubility means the integrity of the bond

until the death of one of the parties. Unity and in-

dissolubility are correlative. One demands the other.

In a sense they supplement each other. One man

marries one woman in God’s decree and a bond is

created which prevents disunion. The bond is un-

breakable because of the permanency connoted by

the union of one man and one woman. Whatever con-

cessions were made by the Mosaic law, it is plain

that from the beginning God’s will called for the

unity of marriage : ‘Tor this cause shall a man leave

father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and

they two shall be in one flesh”—two in one flesh, not

three or four! And our Divine Saviour in restor-

ing marriage to its first dignity and raising it to the

character of a sacrament, emphasizes the word of

God as given in the Book of Genesis, and adds,

“Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh.”

Again two, not three I Polygamy is plainly repudia-

ted by Jesus Christ.

Indissolubility means that in a truly contracted

marriage there is no such thing as breaking the

bond. Let a man '‘cleave to his wife.” They are one

;

it 'is the law of God. No man can break this tie, no
body of men

;
no whim or fancy or determination of

the individual
;
no enactment of so-called law, or any

legislation or body of legislators; no state, no na-

tion: “What God hath joined together, let no man
put asunder.” And God hath joined together man
and woman by a sacred contract that reaches out to
every creature of God. Divorce, therefore, is plainlr



86 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

condemned by the positive law of God, as it is by the

legislation of the Church. There might be reason

for separation, but never divorce with the right to

marry, once a valid marriage has been consummated.

It is sharp language that our Lord uses in expres-

sing the stable character of marriage and its bind-

ing force. “Whosoever shall put away his wife and

marry another, committeth adultery” . . . “and he

that marrieth her that is put away from her hus-

band committeth adultery.” Plainly the Sixth Com-

mandment is concerned, for it explicitly states the

law : “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” If it is this

foul thing, then the bond in the original contract

stands.

Here again, St. Paul in the First Epistle to the

Corinthians expresses the practice of the early

Church and adds his testimony to the unbreakable

character of marriage. “A woman,” he says, “is

bound by the law as long as her husband liveth
;
but

if her husband die, she is at liberty. . . To them that

are married, not I, but the Lord commandeth, that

the wife depart not from her husband. And if she

depart that she remain unmarried, or be reconciled

to her husband.” Evidently St. Paul does not toler-

ate divorce or separation, with the right to marry

another. This principle has always been accepted by

the Catholic Church and her defense of indissoluble

marriage through the course of nearly 2000 years

has been one of the oustanding features of the his-

tory of Christianity. In many crises, the Church has

stood firm in her teaching and she has seen losses of

individuals and nations because she would not com-

promise or minimize the stern doctrine of Jesus

Christ. If the law is indexible and seems severe, con-

sider the many and disastrous evils of lax views on



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 87

marriage. If divorce is permissible in the first case,

why not in the second, the tenth or the twentieth?

If it is permissible for one, why not for all? Of

course this would mean just what some take it to

mean—free love, companionate marriage, personal
liberty, absolute freedom—but this is only using
euphonious language for license, human passion run

riot, animality debased, plain adultery whose scarlet

letter still burns and corrodes. You cannot dress up

adultery to make it look respectable. Adultery is

adultery and it is involved in divorce.

Besides this spiritual, religious warrant for

Christian marriage, it has the support and sanction

of high-class thinkers and statesmen. Polygamy is

branded as corruption, and even on purely natural

grounds students of social science consider it in-

ferior to the religious concept of marriage. Easy

divorce and remarriage tend to weaken and even de-

stroy the social fabric, the society that finds its finest

support and most solid foundation in the Christian

character of marriage. And it is historical fact that

for almost 2000 years the current thought of each

period accepted literally, in theory, even 'if there

were violations in fact, the Christian standard as

given by the Catholic Church in all that period. It

was the accepted social ideal, as can be attested by

studying the legislation of any country in Christen-

dom. It is the shame of our time that divorce is

growing. It is a cancer in our social polity. It is

ruinous to the individual who cannot be expected

to hold to any ideal if here there is no sacred stand-

ard, and it is ruinous to that society in which stable

marriage does not provide for the true well being

socially, educationally and religiously of the rising

generation, who are themselves to become the society



88 DIVINE HELPS- FOR MAN

of the future. It is further to our shame that divorce

is so prevalent here in the United States, for in this

we have the highest percentage of any Christian na-

tion ! Oh, the pity of it. No man can flout with im-

punity the law of God. Neither can any nation, and

history writes the epitaph of nations, once prosper-

ous and great, now broken and forgotten, that tam-

pered with the law of God; and I know of no more

significant cases than those nations that repudiated

God’s will in the matter of marriage and therefore

of fundamental morality.

When-it is recognized that marriage is a holy

thing, one of the seven sacraments, it follows logi-

cally that it is to the Church of Jesus Christ that

it belongs as such. The Church is its guardian and

protector, and its mouthpiece, as in the case of all

the other sacraments. This trust the Church has al-

ways accepted and Christ’s original ideal has always

been upheld in all the ages and in all nations. Hence

it is the Church that regulates matters touching the

sacramental character of marriage, though, of

course, the State has the right to make laws govern-

ing the purely civic and social side of the contract.

The Church has her code of law governing the sac-

rament and has provided legislation necessary and

useful for the benefit of souls and the integrity of

the Christian ideal.

In this code of law we find what are called diri-

ment impediments that nullify a marriage contract

unless they can be and are removed before the par-

ties attempt marriage. You might call a diriment

impediment the obstacle that prevents the possibility

of a marriage. It has its counterpart, say, in a law

made by the state which would prevent any con-

tract, for example, in case of a manor. These diri-



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 89

merit impediments are not mere enactments to curb

our liberty; they are expressions 'in some cases of

the divine will of God. Diriment impediments are

founded on the natural law, the positive divine law

and the Church law
;
indeed the very law of decency

is sometimes concerned. It is a diriment impediment

that nullifies a marriage attempted by one party

whose husband or wife is still living. It is a diri-

ment impediment that nullifies a marriage contract-

ed through serious fear, as if one were held in bon-

dage and forced to go through the marriage cere-

mony. It is a diriment impediment that nullifies a

marriage attempted when an unfaithful partner has

had illicit relations with another with the promise

of marriage at the death of the lawful partner. It is

a diriment impediment that nullifies a marriage with

a person of close blood relationship. I have said that

in all cases of a diriment impediment the marriages

are null and void unless the impediment is removed

by the proper authority. This authority is some-

times the Bishop, always the Pope. But it must be

remembered that even the Pope cannot interfere

where there is question of the natural law. The Holy

Father, in his wisdom, can grant a dispensation for

first cousins to marry in certain conditions. He could

not recognize as lawful a marriage into which a per-

son was forced. This involves the natural law.

Another provision of the Churches legislation is

that which concerns what is called a ‘‘m'ixed mar-

riage,” that is, the marriage of a Catholic with one

not of the same faith. Whilst the Church law is very

explicit on this point and nullifies such a marriage

unless a dispensation has been granted the matter

may really involve the positive divine law and the

natural law. The preservation of divine faith—first



90 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

given in Baptism—is involved, and this is the root
gift of God to his children. The Church opposes such

marriages because of the dangers to faith of the

Catholic party, as also to the code of Catholic moral-

ity
;
but chiefly because of the danger to the faith of

the children of the union. That the dangers are real,

serious and far-reaching the Church knows by actual

facts and experience. This legislation should cause no

ill will on the part of those not of our Faith. It is a

religious matter purely, it is not a social matter, nor

a matter of comparative temporal values or class

distinction. It is founded on the principles which I

have often heard expressed and emphasized by min-

isters of different denominations, that “people should

marry in their own faith.’ ' Religion is the most im-

portant thing in a person’s life and those bound to-

gether by so intimate a union as marriage should be

of the same religious character, and this for their

own peace and harmony and for the welfare and up-

bringing of the children. In the Catholic ideal of

marriage, the husband and wife have mutual reli-

gious obligations and their souls can best be benefited

by unity in faith and morals as proposed by the

Church.

It is also Church law that a Catholic must be

married, under penalty of nullity, before a priest

and at least two witnesses. There is vast wisdom is

this as there is in so many points of Church legisla-

tion. It guarantees, for instance, impossibility of a

marriage at a moment’s notice by requiring the pub-

lic announcement of the contemplated marriage for

three weeks, at the Sunday services. How many

broken hearts and wrecked lives attest the wisdom

and sanity of this and other enactments of Church

law

!



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 91

And it is all, as I have said, in view of souls—for
their benefit and their salvation. If marriage is a

sacrament, is it not only consistent that the Church

should say that courtship is the preparation for the

sacrament, and thus declare by one stroke what its

character should be—a time of serious thought and
prayer

;
a time not to be abused by frivolity or sin

;

a time to prepare for the responsibilities of future

years. If it is a sacrament, then married persons

should live up to their marriage vows, their promises

of loyalty, mutual support and human consolation;

and in all their relations they should keep their high

principles of honor, personal dignity, chaste man-

hood and womanhood.

Parenthood ranks high in the mind of the Church,

for it is a holy vocation
;
beset with difficulties, to be

sure, filled with responsibilities, certainly, but bring-

ing joys that are supreme. Father and Mother are

terms that are sacred in every language and speak

of a love that is unique and changeless. It is holy

marriage that gives a meaning, value and true ap-

preciation to parenthood. Fathers and mothers, hus-

bands and wives are saving their souls when they are

true to the ideals Jesus Christ proclaimed for holy

marriage.

Holy Marriage is the Sacrament of a Sanctified

Society—^the gift of Jesus Christ in His sacramental
plan for the sanctification of men. The family is the

basis of society, and society can never be any more

than that which it is made by the families that con-

stitute it. Christ has sanctified the family idea by

the Sacrament of Matrimony. It gives grace to the

individual not merely as an individual but also as a

member of society. Society is weak or strong in the

measure that the family is weak or strong. But it



92 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

must be strong if the graces that flow from Matri-

mony are accepted and used. There is a close bond

between the integrity of marriage and social moral-

ity. The Church has ever been the strong bulwark

of fundamental morality and she has exercised this

trust largely by her fldelity to Christ’s ideal of mar-

riage and by her marriage legislation. You can

gauge pretty well the actual standard of morality in

any period of history by its practical reaction to the

marriage contract. It is a sanctifled society that

prepares men for the great society of eternity: the

souls of men sanctifled by grace and bought for

Heaven by the blood of Christ.



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 93

THE END OF THE COMBAT—THE

SACRAMENT OF EXTREME

UNCTION
(Address delivered by Rev. Dr. Edward J. Walsh, C. M., in

the Catholic Hour, July 26. 1931)

If, according to the word of Scripture, “the life

of man on earth is a continual warfare,’’ and if we

recall the testimony of St. Peter that the “devil, as

a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may

devour,” it is surely a stimulating thing to know

that our Divine Saviour, who shed His blood for us,

has provided helps and graces to enable us to fight

manfully, and to conquer all our spiritual enemies.

These graces are always at our disposal and we find

their chief expression in the seven sacraments of

the Church. It can be said that the sacraments are

given to us to enable us to live well, and when we

come to the end of life, to the end of the spiritual

combat, there is waiting for us a specific sacrament

that in the design of Jesus Christ is meant to en-

able us to die well. This is the Sacrament of Ex-

treme Unction.

Never must it be thought that this sacrament is

a sort of miraculous remedy for a sinful life. It is

an accepted spiritual maxim that death is the echo

of life, and also that “as a man lives so will he die.”

Making allowance for extraordinary conversions at

the end of life, the Sacrament of Extreme Unction

is the gift of Christ to one who is a child of the

Church and one who, though weak and frail, has

been a faithful child of the Church through effort,

and by devotion and obedience to God’s Law.



94 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

The Sacrament of Extreme Unction is a sacra-

ment which through the anointing and prayers of

the priest gives health and strength to the soul and

sometimes to the body when one is in danger of

death from sickness. The road to eternity is not

broad, but narrow : it is at least somewhat hard and

rough,, and, therefore uncertain, and surely it is a

gracious thing on the part of our Saviour to provide

this sacrament to give strength and confidence, not

to say consolation, to make the journey into the mys-

terious eternity.

The word “unction” means anointing and this

sacrament is the last anointing—^the last sacrament
we receive in order of time as Baptism is the first.

Moreover, it is the last anointing, for we recall that

we receive anointings with holy oil in Baptism:

three times the sign of the cross is made, with oil, on

our breast, on our shoulders and on our head, turn-

ing us over wholly to the service of God. Again in

Confirmation, we are anointed with holy oil by the

Bishop. In Holy Orders, the candidate is solemnly

anointed. In Extreme Unction, we have the last

anointing, and the oil used is called the oil of the

sick. It is solemnly blessed by the Bishop

in the cathedral church of the diocese on Holy

Thursday and then distributed to the parish

churches to be used for the administration of this

sacrament.

In Extreme Unction, we have the three elements

that enter into the nature of each sacrament. There

'is the outward sign—^the application of the holy oil
to the senses of the body, with the determination of

its significance by the words used by the priest in

the actual anointing of each sense. There is the

inward grace promised by our Saviour for the use of



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 95

this sacred rite
;
and the institution by Christ, who

alone can give grace, and who alone can attach in-

fallible results to physical actions. It is St. James

that gives the most explicit testimony to the charac-

ter and value of Extreme Unction. In the Epistle

that bears his name, in chapter five, we read: ^‘Is

any man s'ick among you? Let him bring in the

priests of the church, and let them pray over him,

anointing him with oil, in the name of the Lord. And

the prayer of faith shall save the sick man : and the

Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they

shall be forgiven him.” This is vigorous testimony

to the fact of the sacrament and to its wonderful ef-

fects—effects which could only find their cause and
source in God. This is the teaching of the Church

at all times, as many Councils bear witness. And it

is the doctrine and practice attested by Ambrose,

Chrysostom and Gregory the Great in the primitive

ages of the Church. Innocent III, who was Pope and

Vicar of Christ in the last years of the Twelfth, and

in the early part of the Thirteenth Century, refers

specifically to it and recommends it constantly to the

people. And the Council of Trent anathematizes any-

one who presumes to think or teach otherwise than

the accepted truth and practice of the sacrament.

And all over the Catholic world there is as much

provision for the administration of this sacrament

as for the use of any other. The holy oil is' kept in

the sanctuary in all our churches in a little silver

vessel called the oil stock
;
and the priest, when sum-

moned to the bedside of the sick or dying, takes with

him the sacred oil of the sick and confers the Sacra-

ment of Extreme Unction after having given the

Sacrament of Penance and Holy Communion. These,

under such circumstances, are frequently referred



96 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

to as the Last Rites of the Church and it is the hope

and earnest prayer of every Catholic that when life

is done he may have the supreme gift of God in the

reception of these spiritual treasures.

The matter used in the sacrament is oil—another
case of our Saviour using common things in nature

to symbolize grace. Thus, we have the water in Bap-

tism, bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist, and oil

in Confirmation. Here, again, in Extreme Unction

is oil used—the oil of olives. ‘"O'il,’^ says the Council
of Trent, (and it here embodies the thought of St.

Thomas), “is very efficacious in soothing bodily pain,

and this sacrament soothes and alleviates the pain

and anguish of the soul. Oil also contributes to re-

store health and spirits, serves to give light, and re-

freshes one fatigued; and these effects correspond

with, and are expressive of, those produced, through

the divine power, on the sick, by the administration

of this Sacrament.” The form which determines this

matter of oil is: “By this holy unction and through

His great mercy, may God pardon thee whatever

sins thou hast committed by sight, touch, hearing,”

etc., accordingly as each organ of the senses is

anointed.

I should like to linger here to note the beauty and

significance of the Ritual of Extreme Unction. It is

really very touching and it reveals the deep solicitude

of the Church for the sick and suffering, and the

far-reaching consequences of sacramental prayer

and practice. Using some preliminary prayers, the

priest makes this solemn appeal: “In the name of

the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,

may every power of the devil be destroyed in thee

by the imposition of our hands and by the invocation

of the holy Angels, Archangels, Patriarchs, Pro-



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 97

phets, Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins and

all the Saints. Amen.” Then he proceeds to the ac-

tual anointing of the eyes, ears, nostrils, lips, hands

and feet. He uses the form I have described and

places the oil with the sign of the cross on each of

these senses and members of the body. What is the

reason of this anointing of these senses? The

senses are the avenues of sin: practically all sin

enters the soul through the ears, eyes, hands, etc.;

“death is come up through our windows,” as the

Sacred Scriptures express it. So true is this that

strictly internal sins largely reach the soul through

impressions conveyed by the outward senses.

Is not all this a proof of the thoughtfulness and

love that prompts our Saviour at the crucial moment

of life—at death—^to give, as it were, a grand, sol-
emn, final absolution of all the sins committed

through life? The concluding prayers are likewise

very impressive. As the priest, when anointing, pre-

pares the soul for death by the last blessing and the

use of other prayers in the Ritual, I cannot refrain

from quoting that sublime introduction into eternity

that the Church places on his lips for the benefit of

the dying soul : “Go forth, Christian soul, from this

world, 'in the name of God the Father who created

thee, in the name of Jesus Christ who suffered for

thee, and in the name of the Holy Ghost who is pour-

ed forth into thee.”

Here are blessings indeed and they are waiting

for all of us. The sacrament should be received by

all who are in danger of death. I say in danger of

death: and that is when a person is taken with a

pronounced illness or suffers a severe accident that

is liable to bring on death. This should not be inter-

preted as at the moment of death. A delay here is



98 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

often fatal, for even in a lingering illness, death

sometimes comes quickly. It is pitiful that, because

of delay in calling the priest, many die without this

sacrament and thus are denied the very helps which

our Saviour meant them to have during their illness

and at the end of life. It is a real kindness and char-

ity to send for a priest in time when there is illness

in our home or among our friends or neighbors. Let

the benefit of a doubt be given in favor of the sick.

Now, let us note the splendid effects and benefits

of this sacrament. As a sacrament of the living. Ex-

treme Unction demands that for its reception the

one sick must have received the pardon of his sins.

If possible, the priest will therefore antecedently

hear the confession of the sick person. Hence Ex-

treme Unction adds a wealth of grace to the soul al-

ready living by grace. However, if the sick person

were unable to make a confession, and were in mor-

tal sin, the sacrament could remit even this, though

it is not intended primarily to do so. But of its own

power the Sacrament of Extreme Unction does remit

venial sin. Of course, you will keep in mind that

always for the forgiveness of all sin there must be

genuine sorrow in the heart. It is on that disposition

that grace builds up.

Then, too. Extreme Unction removes what are

called the “remains of sin,’' that is, the disposition

or inclination or tendency to evil and sin, and the

weakness and inconstancy of the will, which are the

direct consequences of sin and which remain even

after sins are forgiven and removed. Sin is so ter-

rible an infection that even when destroyed it leaves

its mark—as scars from a healed wound, or weak-
ness from a grave illness. It is these conditions that



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN 99

the Sacrament of Extreme Unction removes or les-

sens by its healing grace.

Another malignant evil of sin is a serious spirit-

ual languor and disrelish for prayer and spiritual

things. This is always to be deplored, but especially

so at the time of death, when we would naturally

wish to be in close communion with God. The grace

of the sacrament helps us in this prostrate condition

and stimulates the drooping soul. The grace of the

sacrament consoles and strengthens the sick at a

time when, partly because of physical conditions,

such a person is a prey to discouragement and de-

spair. It must be a shock to realize that one is going

into eternity and that immediately one will stand

before Jesus Christ, as Judge, to be judged accord-

ing to one’s deeds! Little wonder that fear, dread,

anxiety and worry over past sin, over good left un-

done, should arise before the mind of the sick person.

Our loving Saviour provides for this too in His Sac-

rament of Extreme Unction. In the beautiful words

of the Council of Trent : ‘Tt quiets our fear, illumines

the gloom in which the soul is enveloped, fills it with

pious and holy joy, and enables us to wait with

cheerfulness the coming of the Lord.”

But there is another dangerous situation that

the soul faces in its last moments. All through life,

the devil tempts us, lures us from God in many and

subtle ways, in his efforts to ruin us. It is only to be

expected that he would tempt and torture the strick-

en person in the last effort to win a soul from God.

But here again, human weakness is met by divine

strength, for the Sacrament of Extreme Unction

brings grace to enable one' to be victorious in such

a combat.

Finally, the sacrament may even restore bodily



100 DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN

health. This is not an infallible result; neither is

there any promise of miraculous restoration. But if

it be for the welfare of the soul, the sacrament may

produce, and as a matter of fact has often produced

this physical result.

All of the sacraments are evidences of our Sav-

iour’s generous love. It will neither take time nor

present any difficulty to see in all these effects of

Extreme Unction a divine love that is made up of

concern, solicitude, consolation, benevolence, help-

fulness for the children of men. Once more, must

we say, if we are grateful: “Let us give thanks to

the Lord, our God;” for, “blessed are the dead who

die in the Lord.” I know not what this means if it

does not refer to a soul that passes from time to

eternity fortified with the rites and blessings of Holy

Mother Church, which includes the Sacrament of

Extreme Unction, the specific divine help given for

the crisis that settles for all eternity the fate of the

individual human being.

And so ends the story of the sacraments : in the

shadow of the eternal years ! A glorious story, truly,
covering all the years of man’s life on earth, answer-

ing all his spiritual needs, his aspirations, his yearn-

ings. Oh, why should any man starve spiritually, or

even be hungry in the midst of such divine plenty?

There is room for all in the vast compass of Christ’s

redeeming blood, applied through these divine trea-

sures. Herein, speaking practically, is the source of

sanctity, “the fountain of water, grace springing up

into life everlasting.” The best expression of gra-

titude for these priceless gifts is their frequent use

all through life. The Church of Christ must dispense

them freely in accordance with the will of Christ:

that is a test of her truth. It is the test of a personal.



DIVINE HELPS FOR MAN lOl

practical Catholic faith to receive them with fidelity

and eagerness. This is the will of our Saviour who

loved us and delivered Himself for us. May His will

be done in all men ! In particular, may I say, let it

be done in all those who are my unseen audience, for,

in the vivid language of St. Paul to the Philippians

:

“God is my witness, how I long after you all in the

bowels of Jesus Christ.” May I make his prayer for

the Thessalon'ians my own as I depart: “May the

God of peace Himself sanctify you in all things
;
that

your whole spirit, and soul, and body may be pre-

served blameless in the coming of our Lord Jesus

Christ.”



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