LOVE
ON PILGRIMAGE

THE CATHOLIC HOUR





LOVE DN PILGRIMAGE





LOVE DN PILGRIMAGE
Twelve addresses delivered in the nationwide Catholic Hour, produced

by the National Council of Catholic Men, in cooperation with the

National Broadcasting Company, from February 3, 1946

through April 21, 1946.

BY

RT. REV. MSGR. FULTON
J.
SHEEN

of the

Catholic University of America

OUR SUMOAY VISITOR LIBRARY

HUNTiMGTOM, IMOIAMA

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CATHOLIC MEN
1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N. W.

Washington 5, D. C.

Printed and distributed by Our Sunday Visitor
Huntington, Indiana



Nihil Obstat:

REV. T. E. DILLON

Censor Librorum

Imprimatur:

JOHN FRANCIS NOLL, D.D.
Bishop of Fort Wayne



TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Christ’s Love As Our Peace . .. 7

Purity: The Sacristan of Love i 13

Exhortation to a Bride and Groom :...., 20

Love and Children 26

Love Bearing a Cross 32

•Judas , 38

Peter 44

Pilate 51

Eerod .... 57

Claudia and Herodias 63

Barabbas and the Thieves 70

The Scars of Christ 77





CHRIST’S LOVE

Address given on

For 16 years I have been ad-

dressing you as “Friends”

—

and what friends you are! Your

thousands of heart-warming let-

ters are not only the pledge of

your devotion but also the meas-

ure of my responsibility. Well

may I, in the face of your wel-

come, say with St. Paul : “Woe to

me if I preach not the Gospel”

(Corinthians, 9:16). Not only do

I extend my prayerful thanks

to you, but also to the Radio

Executive Committee of the Na-

tional Council of Catholic Men

for so kindly inviting me to the

blessed privilege of addressing

you again.

What subject should we dis-

cuss this year? Certainly some-

thing dealing with both the sorry

state of the world and our own

souls. What do both need most?

First, the world. Have you

noticed that the victorious na-

tions were more united in war

than they are now? This is be-

cause all we needed to unite us

in war was a common hate; but

in order to unite us in peace,

we need a common philosophy of

life—but this is lacking. The

AS OUR PEACE

February 3, 1946

end of this war has left us in

a kind of moral vacuum. For

the last several years, fear of an

enemy has inspired us to sac-

rifice the resources of our land,

the young life of our homes, and

the blood, sweat and tears of

our bodies. It put all other

problems on a kind of furlough;

individual differences, party pol-

itics, economic problems, and

even certain moral laws were

disqualified in order that a col-

lective passion might be un-

leashed against the enemy.

But now that the cannons’

mouths are mute, the world is

like the empty house described

by Our Lord. We have driven

out a devil, yes, but who now

shall tenant the world? Unless

Virtue and Love of God come

to dwell therein, Our Lord warn-

ed that seven other devils worse

than the first will come into it

to take up their abode. The

devil finds a happy hunting

ground in a world recovering

from a global hangover of war,

where no great Passion of Love

has come to supplant the pas-

sion of hate. Who shall fill the

Void? Shall we become Fascist



8 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

in the name of anti-Fascism?

Shall we, who have prepared our-

selves against the presence of

one form of totalitarianism, be

unprepared against its absence?

Shall the hatred against some

dictators sublimate into a hatred

of God and religion—for thus
do some hope to silence the un-

bearable ennui of their atheism.

What makes this tragedy

worse is that, while formerly, in

times of crisis, men looked to

spiritual guides, they now turn

to unspiritual ones; father con-

fessors have given way to father

commentators
;

spiritual direc-

tors have been supplanted by

prayerless dictators of collective

unconsciousness, each endowed

with an infallibility the like of

which Christ never gave to His

Church. Is there a way out?

Now turn your gaze from the

world into certain types of souls

which are increasing to an

alarming degree, and which cur-

iously are found in great met-

ropolitan areas and the cities

rather than in the country where

people are rooted to the earth

and to God—for both often go
together. Here we refer to

those who may definitely be

characterized as “modern souls”

and by modern we mean souls

who are:

1) Bored

2) Cynical

3) Afraid.

1) Bored. “I don’t know why

I go on living” is one of the

most characteristic statements

of the bored. All boredom re-

sults from a loss of purpose and

personal vocation. If we do not

know why we are here or where

we are going, there is not much

reason for doing one thing

rather than another thing. There

is not even much reason for liv-

ing. The effects of boredom are

disastrous, for if life has no

purpose, then everything becomes

tempting. Perhaps one of the

reasons why, socialism, and to-

talitarianism have grown in the

twentieth century, is because

man, bored with his individual

existence, is looking for a new

kind of existence in the col-

lectivity. Just as soon as men

are given the right to define

liberty as the right to disobey,

they become bored with what

they do, and demand a tyrant.

2) Cynical. As boredom re-

sults from a loss of purpose, so

cynicism flows from the failure

of a philosophy to fit the facts

of life. This is particularly

true of modern youth, who was

taught to believe not only in the

rational goodness of man who



CHRIST’S LOVE AS OUR PEACE 9

came from the beast, but also in

inevitable progress, and the om-

niscience of science, and then

was suddenly thrust into a world

where men acted like beasts,

where two world wars in 21

years knocked the naive opti-

mism of progress into a cocked

hat, and where science, instead

of ministering to life, prepared

for its wholesale destruction. No

wonder modern youth became

frustrated and cynical, knowing

the “price of everything and the

value of nothing,” detecting self-

interest and psychosis in every

generous enthusiasm. I have

the utmost sympathy for the

protests of youth against an edu-

cation which, in the freshman

year, introduced them to Fra-

zier’s “Golden Bough” from

which they were taught to con-

clude that “Christianity and

Buddhism were very much alike,

particularly Buddhism,” and in

the sophomore year, were made

Freudians, and taught that all

restraint and discipline of erotic

impulses was inimical to self-

expression and a stupid tribute

to Victorian taboos, and in the

junior year, were introduced to

Nietzsche, who helped them

sneer at the moral conventions

of the world, and gave a few

good catch words to blot religion

out of their lives, and in the

senior year, were given a smat-

tering of Marx, where they

found an absolute in the eco-

nomic order to take the place of

God and the spiritual order, and

then fell into the spurious dis-

tinction that fascism and com-

munism were at opposite poles of

human thought and action. As a

result, these youths have power,

but no vision; they are familiar

with means, but have no ends;

they have strength, but no sanc-

tions; they have the power of

destroying ideas, but no power

for construction. These youths

want something from education,

but they are not getting it. Their

protests against modern ideas

are right; the solutions given

them are wrong. Is there a way

out?

3) Afraid. Finally, there are

those who are afraid. Is it not

true that we are all living in fear,

which is born of a deep sense of

insecurity concerning the future.

Fear after this world war is

different from the fear which

possessed minds at the close of

the last world war. Then, men

had individual fear, that is to

say, a fear about their own per-

sonal security. Today, the fear

is collective; it is totalitarian;

we are bound up with everyone



10 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

in the world in some way. The

atomie bomb has done much to

bring to us a consciousness that

we cannot save ourselves alone,

in what we call the atomic age

but which in reality may be only

the atomic moment. And well

may we fear. Since we justified

the bombing of cities because

Hitler started it, shall someone

justify the atomization of cities

because we started it? Can it

be that Fear and Guilt are re-

lated? Shall men who doubted

that the Providence of God ruled

the world now tremble at the

new providence of man, who can

destroy where God would not?

It is probably true that the

increased love of noise, alcohol-

ism, is due to a desire to fly

from life in which men fear their

own consciences, and even their

fellowmen. When man ceases

to fear God he fears himself

and his neighbor. Is there a

way out?

If I say it is religion, I am

immediately met with two

charges: 1) that Christianity

has been tried and found want-

ing. Chesterton gave the an-

swer to this: “Christianity has

been found hard but never

tried.”

The other charge is that God

and redemption from sin is wish-

ful thinking and “escapism”.

But if religion is wishful think-

ing, why are not scepticism, and

atheism, and irreligion wishful

thinking? May it not be that

sceptics and the cynics are really

covering up the nakedness of

their own cowardice with the

cloak of their own bravery? Is

the man whose house is burning

down an escapist because he

sends for the Fire Department?

Is the man who knows he is a

sinner an escapist because he

seeks pardon and forgiveness?

The real escapists in life are

those who keep the skeletons of

their sins locked up in the

closets of their own minds, and

refuse to face them in the light

of God’s Justice, or else go to

a peculiar brand of psychoanal-

yst, who tells them that the

skeleton is only a projection of

their own minds, dating from

the hour when they read a dirty

book in a closet during a thunder

storm, while their Aunt Susie

told cousin Elsie about the in-

hibitions of her husband’s grand-

mother. The cowards in life are

those who refuse to face the

fact of despair, guilt, and evil,

and not those who would seek

deliverance in Christ Jesus Our

Lord.

There is a way out and that



CHRIST’S LOVE AS OUR PEACE 11

is the Way of Divine Love. The

vacuum left by war can be filled

only by Love of God and neigh-

bor; the cynicism of youth can

be swallowed up in the love of a

Truth that is Absolute. As

Scripture tells us, “Love casteth

out fear.” Aye! But what kind

of love?—A love of God that
came down to this earth to make

us lovable; a love that embraces,

not only those who love us, but

our enemies, the vanquished, the

defeated and those who stole our

coat, forced us to walk an extra

mile, or struck us on the cheek;

a love that is poles apart from

respectability or refinement; a

love that can be stern, that can

make whips, overturn cash re-

gisters, cast fire on earth, hound

out the money-changers, and use

words more biting than any

whip, and scourge hypocrites

who devour widow’s houses; a

love that is not a vain optimism

which supposes that God is on

the side of any afflatus, but

which is inseparable from a

Truth so absolute that not even

an angel from heaven may

preach another Gospel
;

a love

which hacks a hole in the roof

of somebody else’s house in or-

der to get a paralytic to Jesus;

a love which rebukes obvious

goodness such as Simon in his

own house, and accepts the sor-

row of obvious badness such as

a woman who broke in unin-

vited at Simon’s dinner; a love

which can make a Thief the last

friend on earth and a converted

sinner the first friend and mes-

senger of salvation
;
a love which

will put a prodigal bad boy above

his presumably exemplary elder

brother; a love that preferred a

sinner capable of love to a so-

called “saint” incapable of it;

a love that will beckon harlots

and publicans into heaven be-

fore those moralists who ap-

prove what society approves; a

love that dislikes moderation but

thrills to broken vessels which

fill the house with the odor of

sanctity; a love which portrays

a Samaritan succoring the Jew,

and therefore one in which there

is neither Czech nor Pole,

Armenian nor American, Rus-

sian nor German, Jew nor Gen-

tile; but where all are one in

Christ Jesus Our Lord; a love

which goes beyond forebearance

and service, and which, when it

has done all its tasks, still consid-

ers itself an unprofitable servant

;

a love which would have us invite

the poor to our table rather than

the rich, because they have no

means to return the favor; a



12 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

love which never sees the wid-

ow’s mite as too little, nor the

costly ointment as too much; a

love which can fast for 40 days

and then go to a wedding feast;

a love that is so high that none

of the world’s standards can

touch it, but a love in which few

failures are so low as to be be-

yond its forgiveness.

This is the way out—Love of
God and Neighbor. And until

next week when I show how it

affects the young, I return to

our ever old and ever new vale-

dictory, God love you!



PURITY: THE SACRISTAN OF LOVE

Address given on

This is the second of my series

of twelve broadcasts on the gen-

eral subject of love. Love is

the one domain where the Devil

knows he can best hide his equiv-

ocation of virtue and vice, and

ensnare humans into believing

that they are in love with some-

one else, when they are really

only in love with themselves. The

devil has pretty well sold the

modern world on the idea that

love is sex. What does the con-

temporary stress on sex reveal,

if it be not modern man’s de-

sire to escape from boredom and

his own inner disgust? He feels

the need of being dispossessed

in order to be possessed by an-

other, whether that other and

foreign thing be a body, a uto-

pia, money, or a dictator. Man

must always have an idol. He

cannot live without adoration

any more than he can live with-

out eating.

Sex is the substitution of a

creature for a Creator as the

object of worship—this is the
essence of idolatry. Under its

spell, a soul without the God of

heaven makes a new god out of

another human being, and wor-

February 10, 1946

ships it. But no human being

can bear the burden of idolatry

any more than the stem of a rose

can support a marble column. In

a short time the idol is revealed

as human
;
its gilt which mocked

the gold of infinity wears off as

it quickly exhausts its capacity

to satisfy. The worshipper then

turns against the idol and hates

it, accusing it of not giving all

the pleasure it promised and

therefore is guilty of being a

cheater and deceiver. The fatal

error was that both the worship-

ped and the worshipper tried to

satisfy the craving for the Di-

vine within the limitations of

the human, and became bored un-

der its torturous contradictions.

The idol and idolator then hate

each other, because each is a

private hell filled with the Satan

of his or her disgust. Such is

the basic reason for the ruined

homes of America, which, if our

spiritual eye did see, reveal dis-

aster and ruin a thousand times

worse than the ruined houses of

Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

But how instruct our youth on

the subject of purity? Unfortu-

nately the subject is too generally



14 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

approached negatively. Youth is

told what not to do, and as a re-

sult thinks of purity as a nega-

tion. While it is true the virtue

does demand resisting attacks, it

is nevertheless true that, as pure

water is more than the absence

of impurities, as a pure diamond

is more than the absence of car-

bon, as pure food is more than

the absence of poison, so purity

is more than the absence of filth.

Now what is Purity? Purity

is reverence paid to the mystery

of sex. In every mystery there

are two elements : one visible, the

other invisible, e.g., in the sac-

rament of Baptism, water is the

visible element, the regenerating

grace of Christ the invisible ele-

ment. Now sex is a mystery too,

because it has these two char-

acteristics
;

sex is something

known to everyone, and yet sex

is something hidden from every-

one. The known element is that

everyone is either male or fe-

male. The invisible, hidden,

mysterious element in sex is

its capacity for creativeness—

a

sharing in some way of the Cre-

ative Power of God. As God’s

love is the creative principle of

the universe, so God willed that

the love of man and woman

should be the creative principle

of the family. This power of

human beings to beget one to

their image and likeness is some-

thing like God’s creative power

by which He made us to His

image and likeness.

A peculiar quality associated

with all creativeness, whether it

be a poem, a statue, or a child,

is awe and reverence. In youth,

this awesomeness before the

mystery manifests itself in the

timidity of a woman, which

makes her shrink from a preco-

cious or too ready surrender of

her secret of creativeness. In

a man, the mystery is revealed

in chivalry to women, which is

not bestowed because he believes

that woman is physically the

weaker sex, but because of the

awe he feels in the presence of

mystery.

Because of the reverence

which envelops this mysterious

power which came from God,

mankind has always felt that it

ought to be used only by a special

sanction from God and under

certain relationships. That is

why traditionally marriage has

been associated with religious

rites—to bear witness to the
fact that it has been approved

by God and in a special way is

destined to fulfill God’s creative

designs. That is why the mys-



PURITY: THE SACRISTAN OF LOVE 15

tery of creativeness should be

explored only in marriage.

Certain powers may be used

only in certain relationships.

What is lawful in one relation-

ship is not lawful in another. A

man can kill another man as a

soldier in a just war, but not in

his private capacity as a citizen.

A policeman can arrest someone

as duly appointed guardian of

the law fortified with a warrant,

but not outside of that relation-

ship. So too, the “creativeness”

of man and woman is lawful un-

der certain relationships sanc-

tioned by God, but not apart

from that mysterious relation-

ship called marriage.

Who then are the pure? The

pure are those who have such a

reverence for the mystery of

creativeness that they will suffer

no schism between the use of

the power to beget and its divine-

ly ordained purpose, namely the

raising of children for the King-

dom of God. They would no more

think of isolating this power to

create from God’s intended use

of it, than they would think of

using a knife apart from its

humanly ordained purpose, such

as to stab a neighbor. Those

things which God hath joined to-

gether, the pure would never sep-

arate. Never would they use the

material sign to dishonor the

holy inner mystery, as they

would not use the bread of the

altar consecrated to God to

nourish the body alone. Thus,

purity is not just physical intact-

ness as the pagans believed. In

the maid it is a firm resolve

never to use the power until

God shall send her a husband,

and in the man it is a steadfast

desire to await upon God’s will

that he have a wife for the use

of God’s purpose. In this sense,

true marriages are made in heav-

en, for when heaven makes them,

body and soul never pull in op-

posite directions; the physical

aspect which is known to every-

body as sex is never alienated

from the invisible mysterious

aspect which is hidden from ev-

eryone, save the one willed by

God to share in it with God's

sanction and in God’s own good

time.

Notice how experience bears

out the definition of purity as

reverence for mystery. Why is

it that we are never scandalized

at seeing people eat in public,

or read in buses, or listening to

music on the street, but we are

shocked at dirty shows, foul

books, or undue manifestations

of affections in public. It is not

because we are prudes, nor be-



16 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

cause we were educated in a

Catholic school, nor because we

have not yet come to the liberat-

ing influence of a Freud, but

because they involve aspects of

a mystery so deep, so personal,

so incommunicable that we do

not want to see them vulgarised

or made common. By its nature,

only one person can share in cre-

ativeness. Therefore, what be-

longs to one person should never

be thrown to the mob.

You like to see the American

flag flying over your neighbor’s

head, but you do not want to see

it under his feet. There is a mys-

tery in that flag; it is more than

cloth; it stands for the unseen,

the spiritual; love and devotion

to country. So here, your shock at

the foul is due to the prostitu-

tion of the sacred; the reverent

is made irreverent. Such is the

essence of the obscene, the mak-

ing of the inner mystery a jest.

And, as one discerns Our Lord

of the Eucharist under the sign

of bread, so one discerns a soul

and potential co-partnership with

God’s creativeness under a body.

As the Catholic craves the em-

brace of Christ in the Sacrament

because he first learned to love

Him as a Person, so he reveres

the body because he first learned

to revere the soul. This rever-

ence is adoration in the first in-

stance, and purity in the second.

That is why the educators who

hope to make sex “nice and nat-

ural” will end in confusion worse

confounded, because while sex

is natural, it is yet a mystery.

It is not body wholeness, but

holiness, and to be holy means

to live in correspondence with

God’s creative purpose. Educa-

tors who assume that purity is

ignorance of life are like those

who think that temperance is

ignorance of drunkenness. Our

Blessed Mother was not ignor-

ant of the mystery of life’s be-

getting, for when the angel ap-

peared to her, she asked: “How

shall this be done, because I know

not man?” (Luke 1:34). She

had consecrated her virginity .to

God, hence her problem was how

to fulfill that consecration with

God’s presently revealed will to

become a mother.

Purity then is not something

negative; not coldness, but basi-

cally a desire, a love for God’s

will in relation to a mystery. It

is passionless only to those who

think that love is bodily pas-

sion; and if this were so, how

could God be love, since He

has no passion? If purity were

absence of love, how could the

Blessed Virgin have become the



PURITY: THE SACRISTAN OF LOVE 17

Mother of Our Lord? It is

absolutely impossible to have

creativeness without love. God

could not generate an Eternal

Son without Love ; God could not

make the earth and the fulness

thereof without love ; Mary could

not conceive in her womb with-

out Love. She did conceive

without human love, but not

without Divine Love. Though

human passion was lacking,

Divine Love was not, for the

angel said to her that the Spirit

of Love would overshadow her

and that the Holy One to be

born should be called the Son of

God. It is possible, therefore, to

have Love without lust, or what

Thompson calls a “passionless

passion, a wild tranquillity.”

Since purity is reverence for the

mystery of creativeness, who was

more pure than the woman who

bore the Creator of Creativeness

and who in the ecstasy of that

love could say to the world with-

out mystery: “In thy house lust

without love shall die. In my

house love without lust shall

live.”

Purity then does not begin in

the body but in the will. From

there it flows outward to the

thought, the imagination, and

into finally the body. Bodily

purity is only the echo of the

will.

As from a great spiritual ves-

sel, there flows down a refresh-

ing draught to man and maid,

by which they are energized to be

reverent unto a mystery that be-

gan when God created the world.

There is, therefore, no such

thing as an “old maid” or a

“bachelor,” from the Christian

point of view. These terms

apply only to those unhappy

ones who found no will to share,

no purpose to fulfill either in

heaven or earth. To find no

ear in heaven or on earth, to

listen to “I love you,” or “I

surrender,” or “Be it done unto

me according to thy Word” must

indeed be of all human existences

the most tragic. But to keep the

secret until God calls, and to keep

it always if God never calls, is

the greatest happiness given to

hearts in this vale of tears. Pur-

ity is the sacristan of love.

From a purely human point of

view, there is something incom-

plete about virginity, something

unshared, and something kept

back. On the other hand, there

is something lost in motherhood,

something surrendered, some-

thing irrevocable. But in Mary

alone, the Virgin Mother, there

is nothing incomplete, nothing



18 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

lost. She is a kind of springtime

harvest, an October in May. The

incompleteness of Virginity is

complemented by the fullness of

her motherhood; the surrender

of her motherhood is forestalled

by the preservation of her in-

nocence. Virgin and Mother, she

is the common denominator of all

Sovereign surrender to Divine

Will. She is a Virgin because

she sought God’s Will directly;

she is a mother for exactly the

same reason. All are satisfied in

her.

Would that the whole world

could realize what an impetus to

purity the Church gives in hold-

ing up the example of our Bless-

ed Mother as a model for the

young. There is hardly a young

man and woman who has not

heard at one time from his own

mother these words, “Never do

anything of which your mother

would be ashamed.” What did

she mean by that but that the

basic reason for being good is

the consecration of self to some-

thing higher than self. The

mother was trying to make her

children see that they should aim

to care for another person rath-

er than have the other person

care for them. But to do this,

they must have a love higher

than their own will and their

own pleasure.

Since there is a higher love

than the human, what was more

natural than for Our Blessed

Lord to say to us all from the

cross, “Behold Thy Mother!” It

was the Divine way of saying:

“Never do anything of which

your Heavenly Mother would be

ashamed.”

Given this consecration to a

higher love, what heartfelt words

should be said to bride and

groom. If you will listen in,

next week, I shall tell you. Until

then, God Love You!

PRAYER

0 God, from Whose hands

cometh the peace the world can-

not give, give us the light to see

that peace is the work of Justice,

and the concord of all nations

the fruit of obedience to Thy

Law and Thy Commandments.

May we seek not so much to

be consoled as to console; to be

understood, as to understand; to

be loved, as to love, that in par-

doning we may be pardoned, and

in giving we may receive.

We pray for our President, for

our Congress, for our homes, our

people, our children, our broken-

hearted, that we may be reverent

in the use of freedom, just in the



PURITY: THE SACRISTAN OF LOVE 19

exercise of power, generous in

the protection of weakness, mer-

ciful to those who have been our

enemies. Not for our worthi-

ness, but because of Thy tender

mercy hear our prayer that we

may so pass through things tem-

poral as not to lose the things

eternal, 0 Christ Jesus, Our

Lord.



EXHORTATION TO A BRIDE AND GROOM
Address given on February 17, 1946

It used to be, and it perhaps

still is a tradition of the sea,

that captains go down with a

ship. Until a generation or so

ago, every one recognized there

was one ship a person ought not

to leave, even when he thought

it was sinking, and that was the

home. But in 30 of the large

cities of the U. S. during the

first part of 1945, there was one

divorce for every two marriages,

which means roughly that 50

per cent deserted their ships de-

spite the orders of the Great

Captain: “What therefore God

hath joined together, let no man

put asunder” (Matthew 19:6).

The very fact that a first

marriage born in love can be

broken for a second marriage

desired in love, proves that the

most beautiful word in our lan-

guage has been distorted by the

lie of Satan, so that what we

call love today is nothing more

than a confused mixture of senti-

mental pathos, disguised ego-

tism, Freudian complexes, frus-

trated living and weakness of

character.

But I am not here concerned

with the divorces, only with the

articulation of the doctrine of

Christ on marriage which is

clear and irrevocable: “Who-

soever shall put away his wife

and marry another, committeth

adultery against her. And if the

wife shall put away her husband,

and be married to another, she

committeth adultery” ( Mark
10 : 11

,
12 ).

For that reason, all Christians

vow in the marriage ceremony

that they will love one another

until death do them part. The

great advantage of the vow is

that it guards the couple against

allowing the moods of time to

override reason, and thus pro-

tects the general interests from

cancelling out particular inter-

ests. There is no other way to

control capricious solicitation ex-

cept by a vow. It may be hard

to keep, but it is worth keeping

because of what it does to exalt

the character of those who make

it. Once its inviolable character

is recognized before God, an im-

pulse is given to self-exami-

nation, the probing of one’s

faults and new efforts at charity.

It is too terrible to contemplate



EXHORTATION TO A BRIDE AND GROOM 21

what would happen to the world,

if our pledged words were no

longer bonds. Could one nation

extend credit to another nation

if the compact of repayment was

signed “with reservations” ?

What queer corrupting of our

national soul would result if one

year we pledged that there would

be no territorial changes without

the freely expressed wishes of

the people concerned, and in an-

other year recognized a govern-

ment imposed by force? If do-

mestic contracts can be broken

at the will of either party, then

why not international contracts?

For someone to say two years

after marriage : “I gave my vow

at the altar, yes, but since I am

in love with someone else, God

would not want me to keep my

vow,” is like saying : “I promised

not to steal my neighbor’s chick-

ens, but since I fell in love with

that Plymouth Rock, God would

not want me to keep my prom-

ise.” Once we decide in any

matter that passion takes prece-

dence over truth, erotic impulse

over honor, then how prevent the

stealing of anything once it be-

comes “vital” to someone else?

Then the very violence of passion

becomes the basis of usurpation

which is the law of the jungle,

the routine of barbarism.

When I marry young couples

at the altar of God at a Nuptial

Mass, I give them an exhorta-

tion. Would you like to hear

just a few of the ideas I tell them

as this great sacrament is re-

ceived?

You are standing at about the

only place in all the world where

contracts and vows are still re-

garded as sacred, namely, before

the altar of God. Before His

august Presence Holy Mother

Church reminds you that the sac-

rament you are about to receive

is unbreakable except by death:

1. Because of the nature of love.

2. Because of the nature of the

marriage. 3. Because of the

spiritual reality it symbolizes.

1. The lover’s language is nev-

er temporal nor promiscuous.

There are only two words in the

vocabulary of love: “you” and

“always.” “You” because love is

unique; “always” because love is

enduring. No one ever said: “I

will love you for two years and

six months.” Hence all love songs

have the ring of eternity about

them: “till the sands of the des-

ert grow cold” and “forever and

ever.” Love too has its sign

language. You, like most lovers,

probably carved your names in-

side of two interlocked hearts on

an oak tree. Why did you do



22 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

this, if it was not to express the

fixity and permanence of love,

which today is sealed as your

two hearts are fused into one un-

der the fires ignited by God.

True love “alters not when it al-

teration finds.” You have only

one heart, and as you cannot eat

your cake ^tnd have it, so you

cannot give your heart away and

keep it. The jealousy which has

been instinctively inseparable

from the beginnings of your love

is a denial of promiscuity and

nature’s vanguard to monogamy.

In that exquisite jealousy of giv-

ing may each of you strive to

outspend the other, and find that

life is not long enough to sound

the generosity of your love.

2) But there is a still more

profound reason for the unbreak-

able character of your marriage.

Have you ever noticed that Sa-

cred Scripture nowhere speaks of

marriage in terms of sex, but al-

ways in terms of knowledge, for

example: “Adam knew Eve his

wife: who conceived” (Genesis

4:1); “Jephte’s daughter knew

no man” (Judges 11:39); “Jo-

seph knew her not” (Matthew

1:25). And when the Angel ap-

peared to Mary to announce her

Motherhood, she asked : “How

shall this be done, because I

know not man” (Luke 1:34).

And didn’t St. Peter say: “Ye

husbands, likewise dwelling with

them according to knowledge”

(7 Peter 3:7).

Why does Scripture speak of

marriage in terms of knowledge?

Because that is precisely what

marriage is: the knowledge of

the mystery of your own com-

pleteness.

As individuals we are incom-

plete, fragmentary, isolated. At

the very beginning of the human

race God said: “It is not good

for man to be alone” (Genesis

2:18), for man is dependent on

nature, on fellowman and on God.

The pagans had a queer picture

of this basic unity of man and

woman, Plato contending that the

first creature had the face of a

man on one side and the face of

woman on the other and because

of some great crime, Zeus cut

the creature in two. The two

fragments have been wandering

about the world since, never des-

tined to be completely happy un-

til they enter the Elysian Fields.

Under this crude image, the

pagans had seized upon a basic

truth that sin did introduce sep-

aration, divorce, fragmentation

into the universe; the isolation

of God and man, man and him-

self, man and woman. When

finally the Divine nuptials of Di-



EXHORTATION TO A BRIDE AND GROOM 23

vinity and humanity in the per-

son of Christ were celebrated at

the altar of the new Eden, Mary,

the “unity of two in one flesh”

was restored in the Sacrament of

Matrimony. Isolation ended

;

reciprocity was established. Man

knew woman and woman knew

man in a unity so profound and

deep that St. Paul calls it “the

great mystery.”

If your marriage were only a

question of flesh, it would have

little more sacredness than the

relations of animals, promiscu-

ous and transitory. But once it

is regarded as a knowledge of

the mystery of your complete-

ness, it follows that its ties are

binding through life. Just sup-

pose for example, that you never

knew before that St. Augustine

was born in 354 and died in 430,

but you now came to really know

it for the first time. Once you

really knew it and identified it

with yourself, you never again

could put yourself back into ig-

norance. So long as time en-

dured you would be dependent

upon the one who communicated

to you that knowledge.

In like manner, once you come

to the knowledge of your com-

pleteness, through another, you

never again can put yourself

back into incompleteness and ig-

norance. So long as time endures

you are dependent upon the one

who gives you the knowledge.

You can go on using the knowl-

edge of your completeness once

you acquire it, as you can go on

reciting a poem once you know

it, but you can never reacquire

the knowledge. The repetition

and enjoyment of the knowledge

never is the same as the initia-

tion which took you out of ig-

norance into knowledge. The

union creates a unity, and the

unity is born of the fact that

physically only one person can

communicate the knowledge

;

therefore, a bond is created with

that person which is as enduring

as life. No one else in the world

can add to it. The woman can

never return to virginity, nor the

man to ignorance. Two persons

revealed to each other the inner

secret and found the complete-

ness of life.

What has happened is deeper

than the loss of a physical

counterpart to incompleteness,

for the change is registered

in the mind, and heart and . soul

of both alike. A new relationship

is established; that of respon-

sibility toward the other for solv-

ing the riddle of life and since

the change induced in one an-

other is life-long, the responsi-



24 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

bility is life-long. Faithfulness

toward each other will be a con-

sequence of the fact that through

this young man you have become

a woman, and through her, you

have become a man. So profound

does this unity of the flesh reach,

so deep is its center in human na-

ture that other lesser unities

may not deter it: “Wherefore a

man shall leave father and moth-

er, and shall cleave to his wife:

and they shall be two in one

flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

3) Finally, you will notice that

the Epistle of your Nuptial Mass

reminds you that you are fleshy

symbols of the union of Christ

and His Church. Do you remem-

ber the words of the Epistle of

this Mass : “Husbands, love your

wives, as Christ also loved the

Church, and delivered Himself

up for it.” (Ephesians 5:25).

“This is a great Sacrament; but

I speak in Christ and in the

Church” (Ephesians 5:32). As

Our Blessed Lord took unto Him-

self His Bride the Church, un-

spotted and unpolluted, not for

three years, nor thirty-three, but

for all eternity, and as Christ

would never leave the Church He

espoused, so may neither of you

who symbolize that love, leave

one another: “until death do you

part.” Could you conceive of a

“Divorce” between Christ and

His Church? Then neither can

we conceive of your leaving one

another.

As the Church receives the

spiritual gifts from Christ, so

you the wife shall receive the

inner gifts of your husband, not

as lifeless treasures to be buried,

but as germs from which will

come new life in the Holy Spirit.

You therefore shall be bound to

one another not in a collective

egotism, but because you are the

symbols of the unity of Christ

and His Chaste Bride which is

the Church. As the Lord pos-

sesses nothing outside His

Church and the Church possesses

nothing except her love for Him,

so your married life will be not

a mutual exchange of services,

but a living fellowship in which

each takes all that the other has,

or is, and uses it for the benefit

of the other, for the sake of the

love of God.

The Church is asking you this

morning in effect: “What guar-

antee will you give that you will

love one another until death do

you part?” If you say: “I give

the pledge of my word,” the

Church will answer : “Words and

pacts can be broken as the his-

tory of our world too well



EXHORTATION TO A BRIDE AND GROOM 25

proves. If you say: “I give the

pledge of a ring.” The Church

will again answer: “Rings can

be broken and lost and with

them the memory of a promise.”

Only when you stake your eter-

nal salvation as a guarantee of

your fidelity to your vows, will

the Church consent to unite you

as man and wife. Your life thus

becomes bonded at the altar, seal-

ed with the seal of the Cross,

and signed with the sign of the

Eucharist which you both re-

ceive into your souls this morn-

ing as a pledge of the unity in

the Spirit as the foundation of

your unity in the flesh.

I notice too that your wedding

ring is not thin and fine like most

wedding rings but wide and thick

like my mother’s ring, which I

always thought was a beautiful

symbol of true Married love, as

high as heaven, as deep as the

sea, and as solid as God’s love

for man. It takes more than twe

to make love. It takes three:

you, and you, and God.

May your marriage be faith-

ful, happy and long. And as you

thrill to the joys of one another’s

companionship, and are cast into

ecstacies of love’s delights, often

ask yourselves these questions:

If a human heart can make you

so happy, what must be the

Great Heart of God. If the

spark is so bright oh ! what must

be the Flame! God Love You.



LOVE AND CHILDREN

Address given on

There must always be mystery

in life. One wonders if the

popularity of murder mysteries

today is not to fill up the void

created by the loss of the mys-

teries of faith. So long as there

is nothing undiscovered and un-

revealed, there is no longer a

joy in living. The zest of life

partly comes from the fact that

there is a door that is yet un-

opened, a veil that has not yet

been lifted.

No one is ever thirsty at the

border of a well. There is lit-

tle desire for the possessed, and

no hope for that which is already

ours. Marriage too often ends

the romance, as if the chase were

ended and one had bagged the

game. One of the greatest tra-

gedies of life is that we can be-

come used to things; when we

begin to take other persons for

granted, then is lost all the sen-

sitiveness and delicacy which is

the essence of friendship and

joy. This is particularly true

in some marriages where there

is possession without desire, a

capture without the thrill of the

chase.

-February 24
4 1946

The modern world recognizes

this fact and tries to meet it

by convincing us that Beauty in

a woman and Strength in a man

were meant to be permanent pos-

sessions. All the mechanics of

modern advertising are geared

to this lie. We are made to be-

lieve that if a man eats certain

kinds of crunchy, cracky food he

can take ten strokes off his golf,

or that by swallowing a few pills

he will no longer have a fine head

of skin. The woman in her turn,

is told that Beauty can be a per-

manent possession, and that her

rough laundry hands, her un-

attractive smile, can all be rem-

edied by a tube of this or that,

or that after a few days of diet

she will no longer be a victim

of circumference but will look

not as if she had turned forty,

but as if she had returned

twenty.

Despite all this propaganda

for the permanence of Strength

and Beauty, it often happens

that a year or two after mar-

riage, the husband no longer

seems to be that strong brave

Apollo that made end runs on

the football team on Saturday



LOVE AND CHILDREN 27

afternoons, or that came home

from the war with three stars

on his breast. One day the wife

asks him to help wash the

dishes and he retorts : “You want

me to spoil my lily white hands.”

In her turn, she no longer seems

to him as beautiful as the day

when she left all other beauty

plain. Her baby talk that once

seemed so cute, now begins to get

on his nerves.

Then it is that pagan couples

feel there is no longer any love

because there is no thrill, which

is just like saying that one ought

never to eat cake that has no

frosting. I would not make

light of Strength and Beauty did

not God provide a beautiful com-

pensation. God does intend that

Strength and Beauty should en-

dure, not in the husband and

wife, but rather in the children.

Here is where God’s Providence

reveals itself. Just at a time

when it might seem that beauty

is fading in one and strength in

the other, God sends children to

protect and revive both. When

the first boy is born, then the

husband reappears in all his

strength and promise, as in the

language of Virgil “from high

heaven descends a worthier race

of men.” When the first girl is

born, the wife revives in all her

beauty and charm and even the

baby talk becomes cute all over

again. He loves to think that

the daughter is so beautiful, be-

cause she looks just like her

mother. Each child that is born

begins to be a bead in the great

rosary of love, binding them to-

gether in the rosy chains of

sweet slavery which is love in

the beautiful prison house of

mutual togetherness.

The transports of a new-born

life come to youth and maid with

all the sweet and true illusion of

an eternal bliss. The moment

for which their mutual love had

been yearning has at last arrived

—the seed they planted is born.
The secret of their love has been

whispered and understood in the

full consciousness that they who

were given heaven’s fires passed

on the torch aflame to other gen-

erations. Their love was made

flesh and dwelt amongst them,

and that joy no one shall take

from them. Eyes that at first

could see no other vision than

the other, now center on a com-

mon image which is neither his

nor hers, but their joint “cre-

ation” under God.

In this kind of life, like the

bush Moses saw, the fires of

love burn, but there is nothing

consumed, as Love becomes life’s



28 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

champion and answers the chal-

lenge of death. Thus is married

love saved from disillusionment,

because Pheonix-like it is always

rising from the ashes as hus-

band and wife draw up reen-

forcements of their love in the

eternal campaign for life. No

self-loathing satiety and fear

seize their souls, for they never

pluck the fruit of love at its

core, nor break the lute to snare

the music. Love becomes an

ascension from the sense-plane

through an incarnation and on

back again to God as they train

their children for their native

heaven and its Trinity whence

came their sparks of Fire and

Love. From the time the chil-

dren learn to bless themselves

and say the sweet names of

Jesus and Mary, through that

hour when they learn in little

Catechisms greater truths than

the worldly wise could give, to

that day when they themselves

start love again on its pilgrim-

age, the parents have a con-

sciousness of their trusteeship

under God.

The children thus become new

bonds of love between husband

and wife as a new quality ap-

pears in marriage, namely, the

deepening of a mystery. There

is never any love when one hits

bottom; love, as we'said demands

something unrevealed; it flour-

ishes therefore only in mystery.

No one ever wants to hear a

singer hit her highest note, nor

an orator “tear a passion to tat-

ters,” for once you deny mystery

and the infinite, life’s urge is

stilled and its passion glutted.

In this holy kind of marriage

there is an ever deepening mys-

tery and therefore an ever en-

chanting romance. At first there

was the mystery of the other

spouse. When that mystery was

solved and the first child born,

there began a new mystery. The

husband sees something in the

wife he never knew before ex-

isted, namely, the beautiful mys-

tery of motherhood. She sees

a new mystery in him which she

never before suspected, namely,

the mystery of fatherhood. As

other children come to revive

their strength and beauty, the

husband never seems older to the

wife than the day they were

married, and the wife never

seems older than the day they

first met and carved their ini-

tials in an oak tree. Still newer

mysteries unfold: that of fa-

thercraft and mothercraft—the
disciplining and training of

young minds and hearts in the

ways of God.



LOVE AND CHILDREN 29

As the children grow into ma-

turity the mystery continues to

deepen, new areas of explora-

tion open up, and the father and

mother now see themselves as

sculptors in the great quarry of

humanity, carving living stones

and compacting them together

in the Temple of God, Whose

Architect is Love.

Here too is the root of de-

mocracy for it is in the family

that a man is valued, not for

what he is worth
,
nor for what

he can do, but primarily for

what he is. His status, his po-

sition is guaranteed by the fact

of being alive. Hence, the chil-

dren who are dumb or crippled,

the sons who are maimed in

war, the mother who is para-

lyzed, the father who is aged,

are all loved because of them-

selves, and not because of what

they earn, or because of what

they know, or because they be-

long to a certain class. This is

the true social principle upon

which t*he wider community life

depends and upon which Amer-

ica must build if it is to pre-

serve itself.

Here is love’s definition: Mu-

tual self-giving which ends in

self-recovery. This is what love

is in the Trinity where the

Spirit of Love recovers the self-

giving of the Father for Son and

Son for Father. In this kind of

marriage, love is first mutual

self-giving, for love’s greatest

joy is to gird its loins and serve,

to throw itself on the altar of

the one loved, and its greatest

jealousy is to be outdone by the

cherished rival in the least ad-

vantage of self-giving.

But love is not only mutual

self-giving, for if it were that

deliberately it would end in ex-

haustion, or else be only a dual

selfishness with perpetual bar-

ter yielding no profit to either,

but only enkindling a flame in

which both would be consumed.

Mutual self-giving also implies

self-recovery. Here is the love of

husband and wife, in obedience

to the creative command, “in-

crease and multiply.” Like the

love of earth and tree, their

marriage becomes fruitful unto

new love, as their two hearts

conspire against their individual

impotence, by filling up at the

store of the other the lacking

measure. Thus they build up

not the mere sum of themselves

but that new life which gives

to the winter of marriage the

springtime of fruit.

Thus does marriage preserve

its mystery, thus are chase and

capture reconciled, thus do hus-



30 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

band and wife never take one

another for granted because

they see that their love is a

loan from the bank of life and

is to be paid back into that

bank with life and not with

death.

Believe not then those who

say that human generation is a

push from below; it is rather

a gift from above. The begetting

of children is not done in imita-

tion of the animal, but it is a

feeble reflection of the God of

the Heavens. Whether we think

of earth's First family, where

Father sent the Spirit to a Vir-

gin Maiden as a Spouse, be-

getting in her soul-garden the

Son of Man Who is the Son of

God, or whether we think of fam-

ilies in wigwams or hovels, here

is the origin and pattern of all

fatherhood, motherhood and

childhood; the Trinity of God

wherein mutual self-giving ends

in self-receiving.

The most beautiful truth in

the universe is this : All love ends

in an Incarnation—even God's.
Love would not be love if it

did not escape the limitations

of individual existence by per-

petuating itself; or if it did not

achieve a kind of immortality in

progeny wherein death is defeat-

ed by life.

There is no disgust in such a

life because there is a mystery,

and as time goes on the river of

rapture of husband and wife

broadens. The eddies of pas-

sion may remain in the shallows,

but their current never stops.

That companionship that began

in ecstacies of flesh, now widens

unto the sharing of bread, the

communion of mind and heart

and will, as they taste the sweet

delirium of simply being togeth-

er. Love is soon discovered to

be oneness more than the mere

assimilation at which new lovers

strain. The glamor passes, the

mystery deepens until they are

made one in the deep sharing of

life’s meaning in the Mystery of

an Eternal Love that gave only

to receive.

Poor indeed would love be, if

it were only two flames within

closed lanterns. And to all the

fathers and mothers who hearken

to words of faith, may I say

that nowhere on earth is the

satisfaction of your yearning to

be found; not here is the last

veil lifted for the revelation of

the mystery; not here is the

paradise of love without satiety,

but beyond the “pillars of death,

the corridors of the grave,”

where finally the companionship

of your days and years will be



LOVE AND CHILDREN 31

summed up, not in an hour of

ecstacy where you say with your

whole being what cannot be said

with words or looks, but where

the consummation of your love is

lost in the ecstacy of eternal

union with the one spark you

always missed on earth but now

enjoy—the Heart Beat of God’s
everlasting Love.



LOVE BEARING A CROSS

Address given on March 3, 1946

Very few things in life ever

come up to our expectations

—

even marriage. Most of the love

songs chant
—

‘‘how happy we

will be”; few sing about how

happy we are. But quite apart

from the fact that nothing short

of the God of Love can satisfy

us, there are often extrinsic fac-

tors in marriage which make it

difficult at times. The marriage

vow takes cognizance of all these

possibilities as each spouse

pledges: “I take thee . . . for

better, for worse, for richer, for

poorer, in sickness and in health,

till death do us part.” In this

broadcast we are concerned with

how a Christian is to meet a

crisis of marriage when evil in-

tercepts the waves of love, or

when pain and suffering strike

down a young flower ere the

summer of life is gone.

The answer, as always, must

be sought in love. But what

kind of love? There are actual-

ly three kinds of love: Carnal

love, personal love, and Chris-

tian love. Only the last can pre-

serve marriage amidst trials.

Carnal love, and what theolo-

gians call love of concupiscence,

is a love for the other person

because of the pleasure that per-

son gives. Though each may

think he or she is in love, basic-

ally such love is only an ex-

change of egotisms. The part-

ner is regarded as of the oppo-

site sex rather than a person.

The infatuation associated with

it is really selfish, born as it is

of a boundless need to increase

its own self-centeredness. This

kind of selfish love cares only

for its own rapture and fulfill-

ment, and for that reason often

turns to hate when the other no

longer satisfies. Marriages that

are entered into on this basis

are dissolved as soon as the pas-

sion dies. The reason most

often given in law courts is “in-

compatability” which in simple

Christian language means insuf-

ficiency of true love.

Personal love, however, is

based on the objective value of

another person as a source of

rights, and may be founded on

artistic or moral excellence or a

common sympathetic interest,

and exists wherever there is reci-

procity, duality and understand-



LOVE BEARING A CROSS 33

ing. This kind of love can ex-

ist without carnal love we just

described, simply because there

is no direct connection between

the flesh and love. It is possible

to be in love without there being

physical attraction, as it is pos-

sible to have physical attraction

without being in love. Personal

love is in the will, not in the

body. In personal love there is

no substitution of persons pos-

sible; this person is loved and

not another. But in carnal or

erotic love, since there is not

necessarily a love for another

person, but only a love of self,

it is possible to find a substi-

tute for the one who gives pleas-

ure. Because carnal love ad-

mits of substitution, it gives

rise to the primacy of passion

over honor as individual happi-

ness becomes the fetish, which is

the invariable mark of a decay-

ing civilization.

Beyond each of these two loves

is Christian love which loves

everyone either as a potential or

actual child of God, redeemed

by Christ, and therefore is a love

which loves without even a hope

of return. It loves the other

not because of attractiveness, or

talents, or sympathy, but be-

cause of God. To the Christian,

a person is one for whom I must

sacrifice myself, not one who

must exist for my sake. No-

where else but in Christian love

is the torturous contradiction

between infinite desire and fi-

nite being resolved, for here all

human limitations become the

channel to the spiritual and the

eternal. The urge toward the

fulfillment of self can never ade-

quately be satisfied by another

self on the same level
;
to attempt

it is to become the victim of cyn-

icism and boredom. Christian

love alone supplies that deficien-

cy of human love, by loving ev-

ery other person for God’s sake.

The very fact that so many suf-

fer more in the absence of the

one loved, than they rejoice in

his presence reveals that it is

something unpossessed that we

crave, namely God’s love more

than man’s and that only the Sa-

cred Heart of God can fill the

emptiness of the human heart.

Christian love is not the de-

sire to have, to own, to possess,

but the desire to be had, to be

owned, to be possessed. It is

the giving of oneself for anoth-

er. That is why it speaks of

darts and arrows—something
that wounds self like a pelican

that others may live. As all love

ends in an Incarnation—even
God’s, so all love craves a cross

—



34 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

even Christ’s. It seeks like Our

Divine Saviour to die that others

may live. In erotic or selfish

love the burdens of others are

regarded as impeding one’s own

happiness, but in Christian love

burdens become opportunities to

serve. That is why the symbol

of Christian love is not the cir-

cle circumscribed by self, but

the Cross with its arms out-

stretched to infinity to embrace

all humanity within its grasp,

We are now ready to answer

our question: How resolve the

trials and sorrows, the disillu-

sionments and tears which some-

times come to married life. Cer-

tainly not by tearing apart the

flesh, for what God hath joined

together let no man put asunder.

Certainly not by allowing a man

or woman who gets some other

woman or man into a hole, to be

free to get other people into oth-

er holes, for if society will not

let a man live as he pleases, why

should it let him love as he

pleases. Neither is the solution

to be found in claiming that an-

other person is “vital” for hap-

piness. If desire takes prece-

dence over right and honor, then

how prevent future rapes of Po-

land, or the stealing of your son’s

bicycle, or any passion becoming

the basis of usurpation, which is

the ethics of barbarism.

Suppose the promise of mar-

riage “for better or for worse”

turns out for the worse. Suppose

either husband or wife becomes

a chronic invalid, or develops

anti-social characteristics, this

much is certain; no carnal love

can save it; it is even difficult

for a personal love to save it, par-

ticularly if the other party be-

comes undeserving. But when

these lower loves break down,

Christian love steps in to suggest

that the other person is to be

regarded as a gift of God. Most

of God’s gifts are sweet; a few

of them, however, are bitter. But

whether that other person be bit-

ter or sweet, sick or well, young

or old, he or she is still a gift

of God for whom the other part-

ner must sacrifice himself or

herself. Selfish love would seek

to get rid of the other person

because a burden
;
Christian love

takes on the burden in obedience

to the Divine command: “Bear

ye one another’s burdens; and

so you shall fulfill the law of

Christ” (Gallatians 6:2).

And if it be objected that God

never intended that anyone

should live under such difficul-

ties, the answer very flatly is

that He does. “If any man will



LOVE BEARING A CROSS 35

come after me, let him deny him-

self, and take up his cross, and

follow me. For he that will save

his life, shall lose it: and he

that shall lose his life for my

sake, shall find it” (Matthew 16

:

24-25). What sickness is to an

individual that an unhappy mar-

riage may be to a couple—a trial
sent by God in order to perfect

them spiritually. Without some

of the bitter gifts of God, many

of our spiritual capacities would

be undeveloped. As the Holy

Word of God tells us : “We glory

also in tribulations, knowing

that tribulation worketh pa-

tience; and patience trial; and

trial hope
;
and hope confoundeth

not: because the charity of God

is poured forth in our hearts,

by the Holy Ghost, who is given

to us” (Romans 5:3-5).

It may be a kind of martyr-

dom, but at least the one who

practices Christian love can be

sure that he is not robbing an-

other soul of its peace, nor his

own life of honor. This accept-

ance of the trials of marriage is

not a sentence to death as some

believe. The soldier is not sen-

tenced to death because he takes

the oath to his country, but he

admits that he is ready to face

death rather than lose his hon-

or. An unhappy marriage is

not a sentence to death; it is a

noble tragedy in which one bears

the “slings and arrows of out-

rageous fortune” rather than

deny a vow made to the living

God. Being wounded for the

country we love is noble, but

being wounded for the God we

love is nobler still.

What will Christian love on

the part of one spouse do for

the other? It will help redeem

the other partner. God must

have His saints not where all is

pleasant, but most of all where

saints are unappreciated and

hated. St. Paul wrote to the

Philippians: “All the saints sa-

lute you; especially they that

are of Caesar’s household” (4:

22). What these saintly souls

were to the entrenched evil of

Nero’s household, namely its

cleansing atmosphere and its re-

deeming heart, that the Chris-

tian spouse will be toward the

other—the good influence in an
environment that might be as

evil as Caesar’s palace.

If a father will pay his son’s

debts to keep him out of prison,

if a man will give a blood trans-

fusion to save his friend’s life,

then why is it not possible in

marriage for a spouse to redeem

a spouse. As the Scriptures tell

us: “For the unbelieving hus-



36 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

band is sanctified by the believ-

ing wife; and the unbelieving

wife is sanctified by the believ-

ing husband” (I Corinthians 7:

14).

Most marriages fail not be-

cause of infidelity, but because

of selfishness—refusing t o
make sacrifices when needed, or

expecting the other party to en-

ter into his or her moods with

reciprocity and simultaneity.

Sometimes moods cannot be re-

ciprocated. Then it is that Chris-

tian love climbs to the peak,

counting its sweet sorrow a

cheap price for the blissful mo-

nopoly of loving while yet un-

loved, desiring like Paul to spend

oneself and be spent for others,

feigning all faults as its own,

being content to be dismissed if

the other’s contentment is isola-

tion, putting love in the one who

apparently is not lovable and

thus finding him lovable as God

finds us lovable because He first

put His love in us.

What a change would take

place in marriage if even only

one of the parties loved the oth-

er for Christ’s sake. And what

peace would reign if neither be-

came angry at the same time, if

they never retired without pray-

ers together, nor met without a

warm welcome, nor parted with-

out reluctance, nor failed to see

in the other an opportunity to

manifest that love that came

from the Cross, “Greater love

than this no man hath, that a

man lay down his life for his

friends” (John 15:13).

Love on pilgrimage would then

march with winged feet back

again to the great Flame of God,

ever realizing this profound

truth that there can never be

love between equals. Justice

there can be between equals, but

not love. Love always regards

the other as nobler than self,

whether it is love of child for

parent, or the love of Apostle

Peter for Love Incarnate. Love’s

true cry is: “Domine, non sum

dignus”
—

“Lord, I am not wor-

thy.” True love is always on its

knees like Magdalen, or serving

like Mary, or adoring like Thom-

as who saw love’s wounds. To

the Christian, everyone else is

more worthy than I—even
though that person is a crimi-

nal, for I must think that if

that other person had the same

grace I had, he would have been

a thousand times worthier. Can

it be that our greatest mistake

in life is in seeking to be loved?

May it not be true after all, that

only in the degree that we love



LOVE BEARING A CROSS 37

shall we be loved? Given this

Christian love which puts love

where it does not find it, then

in any marriage, bitter or sweet,

there will be at least one who

says with Elizabeth Barrett

Browning:

How do I love thee ? Let me

count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and

breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling

out of sight

For the ends of Being and Ideal

grace.

I love thee to the level of ev-

eryday’s

1 (XLIII: Sonnet from the Portuguese).

Most quiet need, by sun and can-

dle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive

for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn

from Praise.

I love thee with the passion put

to use

In my old griefs, and with my

childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed

to lose

With my lost saints,—I love
thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life!

—

and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better aft-

er death . 1



JUDAS
Address given on March 10, 1946

Have you ever heard of the ex-

pression “a fallen away”? It re-

fers to a person who once

blessed with grace and the Di-

vine Intimacy, later abandons it.

Our Lord referred to them in the

parable of the sower : “And they

have no root in themselves, but

are only for a time: and then

when tribulation and persecution

ariseth for the word, they are

presently scandalized” (Mark

4:17).

We call them “fallen away

Catholics”; others call them the

relapsed. No one yet has ever

left the body of Christ or His

Church for a reason; but many

have lefL it for a thing. The

thing may differ: it may be

pride, wealth, or flesh, or the

thousand and one substitutes for

Divinity. This truth can best be

illustrated by a study of the one

man in the Gospels who left Our

Lord for a thing, and of whom

Our Lord said: “It were better

for him, if that man had not

been born” (Matthew 26:24).

One day a babe was born at

Kerioth. Friends and relatives

came with gifts for the babe,

because he was a child of

promise. Not so far away an-

other Babe was born in the vil-

lage of Bethlehem. Because He,

too, was a child of promise,

friends came with gifts of gold,

frankincense, and myrrh. Both

babes grew in age, and one day

the man of Bethlehem met the

man of Kerioth at the parting of

the waters, and Our Lord chose

Judas as His Apostle.

He was the only Judean

among the Apostles; and since

the Judeans were more skilled in

administration than Galileans,

Judas was given the apostolic

purse. Probably he was natu-

rally best fitted for the task. To

use a man for what he is natu-

rally fitted is to keep him—if he
can be kept—from apostasy and
alienation and dissatisfaction.

But at the same time, life’s temp-

tations come often from that for

which we have the greatest apti-

tude. But there must be first an

inward failure before there can

be an outward one.

Judas was avaricious. Avarice

is a pernicious sin, for when

other vices grow old, avarice is

still young. The covetousness of



JUDAS 39

Judas revealed itself particularly

in Simon’s house when an unin-

vited guest, a sinful woman,

broke in at dinner and poured

ointment over the feet of Our

Lord and then wiped it away

with her hair. And the house

was filled with the odor of the

ointment.

Judas was at dinner that day.

Judas knew how near the Lord’s

betrayal was. Mary, that woman,

knew how near His death was.

Putting on the mask of charity

Judas simulated anger that such

precious ointment should be

wasted : “Why was not this oint-

ment sold for three hundred

pence, and given to the poor?

Now he said this, not because he

cared for the poor; but because

he was a thief, and having the

purse, carried the things that

were put therein” (John 12:5-6).

Our Lord did not affront Judas

who affronted Him. There is

something sad and yet so patient,

gentle and tender in the words

of Our Lord “Let her alone”

(John 12:7). Surely there could

be no waste in a ministry to Di-

vine Love. There will always be

souls like Judas who are scan-

dalized at the wealth offered to

Christ in His Church. If a man

can give jewels to the woman he

loves without scandal, why can-

not the soul pour out its abun-

dance to the God it loves in

tribute of affection? Our Lord

praised the woman saying she

had anointed Him for His burial.

Judas was shocked! So He was

going to die

!

Christ would be crucified. That

was certain. In the general

cataclysm Judas must rescue

something to solace his acquisi-

tive spirit. “So he went to the

chief priests, and said to them:

‘What will you give me, and I

will deliver Him unto you?’ But

they appointed him thirty pieces

of silver” (Matthew 26:14-15).

He who took the form of a ser-

vant was sold for the price of a

slave.

The next evening on the occa-

sion of Our Lord’s Last Supper

when He made His Last Testa-

ment, and left to us that which

on dying no man has ever been

able to leave, namely Himself,

the Saviour again spoke about

His betrayal: “. . . one of you is

about to betray me” (Matthew

26:21). The disciples looked at

one another saying: “Is it I,

Lord? Is it I?”

No conscience is pure in the

sight of God; no one can be sure

of his innocence. Judas then

asked: “It it I, Rabbi?” and the

Lord answered : “Thou hast said



40 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

it.” And Judas went out and “it

was night.”. . . It is always night

when one turns his back on God.

A few hours later Judas leads

a band of brigands and soldiers

down the hill of Jerusalem.

Though there was a full moon

that night, the soldiers did not

know whom they were to appre-

hend, so they asked Judas for a

sign. Turning to them, he said:

“Whomsoever I shall kiss, that

is he, hold him fast” (Matthew

26:48). Crossing over the brook

of Kedron and into the Garden,

Judas threw his arms around the

neck of Our Lord and blistered

His lips with a kiss. One word

came back: “Friend.” Then the

question : “Dost thou betray the

Son of man with a kiss?” (Luke

22:48). It was the last time that

Jesus spoke to Judas. Judas had

the right to the fatted calf, but

he preferred the golden one.

Only Judas knew where to find

Our Lord after dark. Soldiers

did not know. Christ in His

Church is delivered into the

hands of the enemy from within.

It is the bad Catholics who be-

tray. The greatest harm to the

cause of Christ is not done by

enemies but by those who have

been cradled in her sacred asso-

ciations, and nourished in the

faith. The scandal of the “fallen

aways” provides opportunities

for enemies who still are timid;

the enemies do the bloody work

of crucifixion, but those who

have communed with Christ pre-

pare the way. Judas was more

zealous in the cause of the enemy

than he was in the cause of Our

Lord. Men who leave the Church,

in like manner, seek to atone for

their uneasy consciences by at-

tacking the Church. Since their

consciences will not leave them

alone, they will not leave the

Guide of their consciences alone.

The Voltaire who left the Church

was the Voltaire who scoffed.

Their hatred is not due to their

unbelief, but their unbelief is

due to their hatred. The Church

makes them uneasy in their sins

and they feel that if they could

drive the Church from the world

they could sin with impunity.

But why betray with a kiss?

Because the betrayal of Divinity

is such a heinous crime that it

must always be prefaced by some

mark of affection. How often in

discussions of religion we hear a

word of praise about Christ in

His Church and then a “but,”

which begins the slur.

The human things we can at-

tack without excuse; they need

no pretended love to sheath the

sword that kills. But in the pres-



JUDAS 41

ence of the sacred and the Divine

one must feign affection where

affection should be unfeigned.

How many there are who attack

its beliefs, only because, as they

say, they would keep its doctrine

pure; if they assail its discip-

line, they say it is because they

want to preserve a liberty or

even a license which they believe

essential to piety; if they accuse

the Church of not being spiritual

enough, it is because they claim

to be defenders of the highest

ideals—though none of them ever
tell us how spiritual the Church

must be before they would em-

brace it. In each instance, hos-

tility to Divinity is preceded by

a deference toward religion.

“Hail Rabbi, and he kissed him.”

No sooner was the crime done

than Judas was disgusted. The

deep wells of remorse began

surging up in his soul, but like

so many souls today, he took his

remorse to the wrong place. He

went back to those with whom he

trafficked. He had sold the Lord

for 30 pieces of silver, or in our

money about $17.40. Divinity is

always betrayed out of all pro-

portion to its real worth. When-

ever we sell Christ, whether it

be for worldly advancement, such

as those who give up their Faith

because they cannot get any-

where politically with a cross on

their backs, or those who give it

up for wealth—all feel cheated in
the end. No wonder Judas took

the thirty pieces of silver back

to those who gave it to him, and

sent the coins ringing and rolling

and jingling across the temple

floors saying: “I have sinned in

betraying innocent blood” -{Matt-

hew 27 :4). He no longer wanted

what he once wanted most. All

the glamour was gone. Not even

those who received back the

money wanted it. The money

was good for nothing except to

buy a field of blood. He made

restitution of his money, but

souls are not saved by giving up

what they have, but by giving

what they are.

We can sell God, but we can

never buy Him. Judas sold Him,

but the Temple did not buy Him,

for He rose from the dead on

Easter. We cannot buy Him, be-

cause love, like birth, is free. It

comes to us without our merit-

ing. But we can sell Him because

He gives Himself to us, and is

ours to possess. We can sell the

things we love, and selling with-

out love is prostitution. No won-

der he was disgusted with his

sin.

But it is not enough to be dis-



42 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

gusted with sin. We must also be

repentant.

Judas repented but not to Our

Lord as the Scriptures tell us:

“he repented unto himself.” The

latter is only self-hatred, and

self-hatred is suicidal. To hate

self is the beginning of self-

slaughter* Self-hatred is salu-

tary only when associated with

the Love of God.

Disillusionment and disgust

may be a step toward religion,

but it is not religion. In the

course of time these people turn

to a vague religion as a solace;

they begin to keep the command-

ments because they have no

strong motive for not doing it.

Because they are full of anxiety,

and complexes, and fears, they

begin reading Freud and learn

that their emotions must in some

way be sublimated; they repent;

but they repent unto themselves.

They are sorry for their lot, but

not sorry for having offended

God.

And when did the betrayal of

Judas begin? The first record

that we have in the Gospels of

Judas falling was the day when

Our Blessed Lord announced that

He would leave Himself to the

world in the Eucharist. Inserted

in that marvelous story of this

great Sacrament is the, sugges-

tion that Our Lord knew who

would betray Him. The actual

betrayal came the very night Our

Lord gave that which He prom-

ised He would give for the life

of the world, namely, Himself in

the Living Bread of the altar.

This is the cornerstone of

faith, the touchstone of fidelity.

Is it asking too much of you

who have the faith, to spend an

hour a day in the presence of

Our Dear Lord in the Blessed

Sacrament in atonement for the

betrayals of the world? And to

ask every Jew and Protestant to

spend an hour a day in prayer

and meditation that the world

which presently lives under God’s

chastisement, may live under His

Love?

Down the valley of Ennom

Judas goes—the valley of ghast-
ly associations, the Gehenna of

the future. Over the cold, rocky

ground he walks, amidst the

jagged rocks between gnarled

and stunted trees, that looked

just like his twisted and tor-

tured soul. There was only one

thought in his mind—to empty
himself of himself. Everything

seemed to bear witness against

him. The dust was his destiny;

the rocks were his heart; the

trees, particularly, seemed to

speak—their branches were as



JUDAS 43

accusing arms and pointing fin-

gers; their knots so many eyes.

The leaves seemed to shake in

protest against making them the

instrument of his vain destruc-

tion. They seemed almost to

whisper that all other trees of its

kind would tremble in shame

until the final day of the Great

Assize.

Taking a halter from his cinc-

ture—and how that cincture re-
minded him of Peter’s cincture

whence swung the keys of heaven

—he threw it over a strong limb,
fastened one end of the rope

about his neck. The winds seem-

ed to bring him the echo of

words he heard a year ago

:

“come to me all you who labor

and are heavily burdened and

find rest for your souls.” But he

would repent unto himself, not

to God. And as the sun dark-

ened, two trees made history on

opposite sides of Sion—one the
tree of Calvary and hope; the

other, the tree of Ennom and de-

spair. On one, hung Him Who

would unite heaven and earth,

and on one hung him who willed

to be foreign to both.

And the pity of it all was, he

might have been St. Judas. He

possessed what every soul pos-

sesses—a tremendous potential
for sanctity and peace. But let

us be sure, that whatever be our

sins, and regardless of the depths

of our betrayal, there is ever a

hand outstretched to embrace, a

face shining with the light of

forgiveness and the Divine Voice

that beckons us to His Mercy

with that sweet word He spoke to

Judas: “Friend.”



PETER
Address given on March 17, 1946

The most interesting drama in

all the world is the drama of the

human soul. Though there are

many phases to these dramas,

perhaps the most interesting of

them all is the psychology of a

fall and resurrection.

More concretely, how do some

souls lose their faith, and by

what steps do they later on re-

cover it? The answer to such

questions is to be found in the

story of the Apostle Peter, whose

fall Sacred Scripture traces

through five stages. By studying

them it is possible to judge our

own spiritual condition. These

five stages are:

First, neglect of prayer.

Second, substitution of action

for prayer.

Third, lukewarmness.

Fourth, love of ease.

Fifth, human respect.

Neglect of prayer. No soul

ever fell away from God without

first giving up prayer. Prayer

is that which establishes contact

with Divine Power and opens

the invisible resources of Heav-

en.

That night that Our Blessed

Lord went out under the light of

a full moon into the Garden of

Gethsemane to crimson the olive

roots with His own blood for the

redemption of men, He turned to

His disciples and said, “Watch

ye, and pray that ye enter not

into temptation. The spirit in-

deed is willing, but the flesh

weak” (Matthew 26:41). With-

drawing from His three discip-

les about as far as a man could

throw a stone—how significant a
way to measure distance the

night one goes to death—He
prays to His Heavenly Father.

When Our Blessed Lord came

back the last time to visit His

disciples, He found them asleep.

A woman will watch not one

hour or one night, but day after

day and night after night in the

presence of a peril threatening

her child. But Peter slept. If he

could sleep on such an occasion,

it was due to the fact that he

had no adequate conception of

the crisis through which Our

Savior was passing, no conscious-

ness of the tragedy that was al-

ready upon them. Finding him

asleep, Our Blessed Lord spoke

to Peter and said, “ . . . What?



PETER 45

could you not watch one hour

with me?” (Matthew 26:40).

Incidentally, it is this Hour a

day we ask from every Jew, Pro-

testant and Catholic for the

peace of the world.

The next stage downward is:

The Substitution of Action for

Prayer. Most souls who give up

praying still feel the necessity

of doing something for God and

the Church and turn to the

solace of activity. Instead of

going from prayer to action,

they neglect the prayer and be-

come busy about many things. It

is so easy to think we are doing

God’s work when we are only in

motion or being fussy. Peter

was no exception. In the turmoil

of the arrest of Our Blessed Lord

which followed, Peter, who had

already been armed with two

swords, allows his usual impet-

uosity to get the better of him.

Slashing out rather recklessly at

the armed gang, what he strikes

is not a soldier at all, but a slave

of the High Priest. As a swords-

man, Peter was a good fisherman.

The slave steps aside, and the

blow aimed at the crown of his

head merely cuts off his ear. Our

Blessed Lord restored the ear by

a miracle, and then turned to

Peter and said, “ . . . Put up

again thy sword into its place;

for all that take the sword shall

perish with the sword” (Matt-

hew 26:52). Divinity has no

need of it. Our Lord could

summon twelve legions of angels

to His aid if He wished. The

Church must never fight with the

weapon of the world.

But Peter having given up the

habit of prayer, substitutes vio-

lence toward others, and all tact

is lost as devotion to a cause be-

comes zeal without knowledge.

Far better it would be to take a

few hours off active life and

spend it in communion with God,

than to be busy about many

things while neglecting the one

thing that is necessary for peace

and happiness. No such activity

is a substitute for watching and

praying an hour.

The third step downward is

lukewarmness.

Experience proves that reli-

gious activity without prayer

soon degenerates into indiffer-

ence. At this stage souls become

lukewarm. They believe one can

be too religious, too zealous, or

“spend too much time in

Church.” Peter exemplifies this

truth.

A few hours later, Our Blessed
Lord is led before His judges.

As that sad procession moves on

in the unutterable loneliness



46 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

where the God-man freely sub-

jects Himself to the evil darts of

men, the Gospel records, “And

Peter followed Him afar off.” He

had given up prayer, then action,

and now he keeps his distance.

Only his eyes remained on the

Master. How quickly the insin-

cerity of action without prayer

proves itself. He who was brave

enough to draw a sword a few

hours before, now strays on be-

hind. Christ, Who once was the

dominating passion of our life,

now becomes incidental in reli-

gion. We still linger as from

force of habit, or perhaps even

from remorse of conscience—in
the footsteps of the Master, but

out of the range of both His eyes

and His voice. It is in such mo-

ments that souls say, “God has

forgotten me”—when the truth
is that it is not God Who leaves

us
;
it is we who stray on behind.

The fourth stage is love of

ease.

Once the divine fades in life,

the physical begins to assert it-

self. The excessive dedication to

luxury and refinement is always

an indication of the inner pov-

erty of the spirit. When the

treasure is within, there is no

need of those outer treasures

which rust consumes, moths eat,

and thieves break through and

steal. But when the inner

beauty is gone, we need luxuries

to clothe our nakedness.

It was only natural, therefore,

to find that in the next stage of

his declension, Peter should be

satisfying his body. He did not

go into the court room; he re-

mained outside with the ser-

vants, and in the expressive lan-

guage of Sacred Scripture,

“
. . . when they had kindled a

fire in the midst of the hall, and

were sitting about it, Peter was

in the midst of them” (Luke

22:55). He sat by the fire that

the enemies of Christ had built.

Luxury had taken the place of

fidelity. Never before was any

man so cold before a fire

!

The last stage in the fall is

human respect when we deny our

Faith or are ashamed of it under

ridicule or scorn. As the blaze

of that fire lighted up the face of

Peter, it was possible for by-

standers and those who came

into the court to see his face.

And at that very moment when

Our Blessed Lord in court was

taking an oath proclaiming His

Divinity, Peter was taking an

oath, too, but not to reaffirm as

he did at Caeserea Philippi that

Christ was the Son of the Living

God, but rather to deny it. Three

times bystanders spoke to him,



PETER 47

the first two were saucy maidens,

and the last a man who said to

him: “ . . . Surely thou art one

of them; for thou art also a

Galilean” ( Mark 14:70).
“

» . . for even thy speech doth

discover thee” (Matthew 26:73).

Peter became angry at their re-

peated affirmations and with an

atavistic throwback to his fisher-

man days when his nets became

tangled in Galilean waters, he

cursed and swore saying, “ . . .1

know not this man” (Mark

14:71). Human respect had got-

ten the better of him. How often

others know what we ought to

do, even when we have forgotten.

How touchy are these conscien-

ces that have abandoned their

God; how sensitive they are to

even the memory that they once

had the Faith. Many a time I

have heard such souls say, “Do

not talk about it! I want to for-

get it.” But we can never forget

—even our speech betrays that
we have been with the Galilean.

If these be the steps away

from the Faith, what are the

steps back? They are three:

1. Disillusionment.

2. Response to grace.

3. Amendment and sorrow.

Since all sin is pride, it fol-

lows that a first condition of con-

version is humility; the ego must

decrease, God must increase.

This humiliation most often

comes by a profound realization

that sin does not pay; that it

never keeps its promises; that

just as a violation of the laws of

health produce sickness, so the

violation of the laws of God pro-

duce unhappiness.

This is signified in Peter’s

case by the fulfillment of a pro-

phecy made by Our Lord to Peter

the night of the Last Supper.

Having warned His Apostles that

they would be scandalized in Him

that night. Peter boasted : “ . . .1

will lay down my life for thee”

{John 13:37). And Our Lord

answered, “ . . . Wilt thou lay

down thy life for me? Amen,

amen I say to thee, the cock shall

not crow, till thou deny me

thrice” {John 13:38).

A few hours later, at the very

moment that Peter for the third

time cursed and swore that he

knew not Christ, there came

through the halls of the outer

chambers of Caiphas’ court, the

clear and unmistakable crowing

of a cock. Even nature is on

God’s side. We may abuse it in
our sin, but in the end it will

abuse us. How right was Thomp-

son when he characterized nature

as having a “traitnrnii* trueness,



48 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

a loyal deceit
;
in fickleness to me,

in loyalty to Him.” The crowing

of the cock was such a childish

thing. But God can use the most

insignificant things in the world

as the channel of His grace—the
cry of a child, a word over the

radio—please God one of mine

—

the song of a sparrow. He will

even press into the business of

conversion the crowing of a cock

in the dawning of the morning.

A soul can come to God by a

series of disgusts.

The next step in the return to

God after the awakening of con-

science is on God’s part. As soon

as we empty ourselves, or are dis-

illusioned, He comes to fill the

void. As St. Luke tells us: “And

the Lord turning looked on

Peter” (Luke 22:61).

God does not desert us, though

we desert Him. He turns, once

we know we are sinners. God

never gives us up. The very word

used here to describe the look of

Our Lord is the same word used

the first time Our Lord met

Peter—the meaning being that
“He looked through” Peter.

Peter is recalled to the sweet be-

ginnings of His grace and voca-

tion. Judas received the lips to

recall him to fellowship; Peter

received a look with eyes that see

us, not as our neighbors see us,

not as we see ourselves, but as

we really are. They were the

eyes of a wounded friend, the

look of a loving Christ.

The final stage is amendment

and sorrow.

The Scripture records his

amendment or purgation in the

simple words, “And going forth”

All the trappings of sin, the ill-

gotten goods, the human respect

he won, all these are now tramp-

led under foot, as “he goes out.”

But this leaving of the taber-

nacles of sin would not be enough

were there not sorrow. Some

leave sin only because they find

it disgusting. There is no real

conversion until that sin is re-

lated to an offense against the

Person of God. “Against Thee

have I sinned,” says Scripture,

not against “Space-time,” or the

“Cosmical Universe,” or the

“Powers Beyond.” Given a sor-

row that regrets offending God

because He is all good and de-

serving of all our love, and you

have salvation. Fittingly, there-

fore, do the Evangelists write,

“And Peter going out, wept bit-

terly” (Luke 22:62). His heart

was broken into a thousand

pieces, and his eyes that looked

into the eyes of Christ, now turn

into fountains. Moses struck a

rock, and water came forth.



PETER 49

Christ looked on a rock, and

tears came forth. Tradition has

it that Peter wept so much for

his sins that his cheeks were fur-

rowed with their penitential

streams. Upon those tears the

face of the Light of the World

rises, and through them comes

the rainbow of hope, assuring to

all souls that never again will a

heart be destroyed by flood of

sin so long as it turns to Him

Who is Sun of Salvation, the

Love of the Universe.

No wonder Our Divine Lord,

Who knows all souls in their in-

ner being, chose as the head of

His Church not John who had

never denied, and who alone of

all the Apostles was present on

the hill of Calvary, but rather

chose Peter who fell and then

rose again, who sinned and who

then was forgiven amidst life-

long penance, in order that His

Church might understand some-

thing of human weakness and

sin and bear to the millions of its

souls the Gospel of hope, the as-

surance of Divine Mercy.

Fittingly, then, when Peter

came to the end of his lease on

life, he asked not to be crucified

as was Our Blessed Lord with

head upright, but with head

downward in the earth. Our

Lord had called him the Rock of

His Church, and as the rock He

was laid where it should be:

deep in the roots of creation. On

that very spot where the man of

courage was crucified upside

down, with his stumbling feet to-

ward heaven, there now rises the

greatest dome that was ever

thrown against the vault of heav-

en’s blue, the dome of the Basil-

ica of St. Peter in Rome. Around

that dome in giant letters of

gold, we read the words Our

Lord spoke to Peter at Caesarea

Philippi: “ . . . thou art Peter;

and upon this rock I will build

my church, and the gates of hell

shall not prevail against it”

(Matthew 16 : 18 ).

Many a time I have knelt un-

der that dome and its inscrip-

tion and looked down below its

main altar to the tomb where is

buried that Rock who made Rome

eternal, because he the fisherman

came to live there. No one, I

suppose, has ever bent a sup-

pliant knee to that first Vicar of

Christ’s Church, to whom Our

Lord said that a sinner should

be forgiven, not seven times, but

seventy times seven, without

thanking Our Lord for His

Church who can look on us as He

did on Peter, and whisper to us

in hope as our sins are forgiven

;



50 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

“If you had never sinned, you

never could call Christ ‘Savior’

—God Love You.

PRAYER

0 God, from Whose hands

cometh the peace the world can-

not give, give us the light to see

that peace is the work of Jus-

tice, and the concord of all na-

tions the fruit of obedience to

Thy Law and Thy Command-

ments. May we seek not so much

to be consoled as to console; to

be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love, that in

pardoning we may be pardoned,

and in giving we may receive.

We pray for our President, for

our Congress, for our homes, our

people, our children, our broken-

hearted, that we may be reverent

in the use of freedom, just in the

exercise of power, generous in

the protection of weakness, mer-

ciful to those who have been our

enemies. Not for our worthiness,

but because of Thy tender mercy

hear our prayer that we may so

pass through things temporal as

not to lose the things eternal, 0

Christ Jesus, Our Lord.



PI LATE
Address given on

One of the vital subjects of

the day is the relation of politics

and religion. Those who have

their finger on the pulse of con-

temporary civilization have prob-

ably noted that there are two

contradictory charges against

religion today: the first is that

religion is not political enough;

the other is that religion is too

political. On the one hand the

Church is blamed for being too

divine, and on the other for not

being divine enough; it is hated

because it is too heavenly and

hated because it is too earthly.

Particularly significant it is

that these were the very two

charges for which Our Lord

Himself was condemned: the re-

ligious judges Annas and Cai-

phas found Him too religious;

the political judges, Pilate and

Herod, found Him too political.

Caiphas, the religious judge,

standing before his judgment

seat asked Our Lord the ques-

tion: “I adjure thee by the liv-

ing God, that thou tell us if thou

be the Christ, the Son of God”

(.Matthew 26:63). As the ques-

tion rang out through the marble

hall and was succeeded by a si-

lence vibrant with emotion,

March 24, 1946

Christ finally raised His eyes to

the judge and answered: “Thou

hast said it” (Matthew 26:64).

A gleam of satisfaction lighted

the judge’s face. At last he had

triumphed! But he must not

show it, and under the veil of

horrified indignation at the in-

sult offered to God’s supreme

majesty by declaring Himself to

be God, he rent his garments

from bottom to top, crying out:

“He hath blasphemed! ... He

is guilty of death” (Matthew

26:65-66). Christ is too relig-

ious! too heavenly! too infal-

lible! too spiritual! too much

interested in souls! too Divine!

Because He was too religious,

He was not political enough. He

was accused of being indifferent

to the needs of the people and

national well-being. The Romans

would not tolerate anyone with

such an appeal. He would bring

down retribution from Rome.

Their armies would come and de-

stroy them. After all, what good

is religion, anyway, if it has no

part in the political, economic,

and social set-up of a country.

So Caiphas decided: Better let

the one man die rather than the

whole nation should perish.



52 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

Within a few hours Our Bles-

sed Lord, Who was accused of

being too disinterested in poli-

tics, is charged with being too

interested in it. The mob who

had their prisoner bound with

ropes stopped outside Pilate’s

door-sill which marked the con-

fines of a Roman house. Pilate,

warned of their coming, goes out

to meet the accusers. Jesus and

Pilate are face to face. Pilate

looked at the Figure before him,

silent and unmoved, crimsoned

with His own blood, with red

livid marks across His face, al-

ready the object of gross mis-

treatment before He had been

condemned. Turning to the howl-

ing mob, Pilate asked: ‘'What

accusation bring you against

this man?” (John 18:29).

If the mob charged that He

blasphemed by calling Himself

God, Pilate would have only

smiled. He had his gods and

each day sprinkled incense be-

fore them. What cared he about

their divinities. But there was

one other lie about Christ that

could be hurled, and it was the

opposite one, namely, that He

was too political; that He was

not sufficiently divine; that He

meddled in national affairs, that

He was not patriotic. And in an-

swer to the question of Pilate,

there was hurled against the

balustrade of Pilate’s temple the

deafening roar of three charges

:

“We have found this man per-

verting our nation, and forbid-

ding to give tribute to Caesar,

and saying that he is Christ the

king” (Luke 23:2). It was as

silly as saying: Christ is a Fas-

cist!

And from that day to this,

these two contradictory charges

have been levelled against the

person of Christ in His Body the

Church. His Church is accused

of being not political enough

when it condemns Nazism and

Fascism; it is accused of being

too political when it condemns

Communism. It is said to be too

unpolitical when it does not con-

demn a political regime which

some other political systems dis-

like but which allows religious

freedom; it is said to be too poli-

tical or Fascist when it condemns

a political regime which com-

pletely suppresses all religion.

Would to heaven that man were

forced to give definitions of

words! Is the Church Fascist?

If Fascism means, as it does, the

supremacy of the State or nation

over the individual, with conse-

quent suppression of rights or

liberties, then the Church is anti-

Fascist, as the Encyclical against



PILATE 53

Fascism so well proves. If by

Fascism is meant anti-Commun-

ism and dislike of a system which

suppresses the liberties, then

the Church is Fascist, but so is

every American who loves the

democratic way of life. In truth

the proper way to handle this

confusion of tongues is to speak

of all forms of Totalitarianism as

Fascism. This divides them into

Black, Brown, and Red. Hence

we ought to speak of Commun-

ism from this time on as Red

Fascism. There is an essential

resemblance between Fascism,

Nazism and Communism. Fas-

cism is the subordination of the

person to the State, Nazism to

the race, and Communism to the

classes. The only difference be-

tween these three forms of To-

talitarianism is the difference

between burglary, larceny, and

stealing.

It is the second charge that

needs specific consideration,

namely, that the Church is inter-

fering in politics. Is this true?

It all depends upon what you

mean by politics. If by interfer-

ence in politics is meant using

influence to favor a particular

regime, party, or system, which

respects the basic rights and

freedom of persons which come

from God, the answer is em-

phatically No! The Church does

not interfere in politics. If by

interference in politics is meant

judging or condemning a phil-

osophy of life which makes the

party, or the state, or the class,

or the race the source of all

rights, and which usurps the

soul and enthrones party over

conscience, the answer is em-

phatically Yes! The Church does

judge such a philosophy. But

when it does this, it is not inter-

fering with politics, for such

politics is no longer politics but

a kind of religion that is anti-

religious.

So long as politics is politics,

the Church has nothing to say.

It is totally indifferent to any

regime. The Church adapts it-

self to all governments on con-

dition that they respect liberty

of conscience; it is indifferent as

to whether people choose to live

under a monarchy, republic, de-

mocracy or even a military dic-

tatorship provided these govern-

ments grant the basic freedoms.

A human organism can adapt

itself to the torrid heat of the

equator or to the glacial cold of

the North, but it cannot live

without air. The Church in like

manner can adapt itself to every

form of politics, but it cannot

live without the air of freedom.



54 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

Never before in history has the

spiritual been so unprotected

against the political; never be-

fore has the political so usurped

the spiritual. It is not religion

that is meddling in politics; it is

politics that is meddling in reli-

gion. It is Jesus Christ Who suf-

fered under Pontius Pilate; it

is not Pontius Pilate who suf-

fered under Jesus Christ.

For the first time in Christian

history, politics, which began by

divorcing itself from morality

and religion, has seen that man

cannot live by bread alone. So it

has attempted to capture his

soul, by every word that pro-

ceeded from the mouth of a

Dictator. For the first time in

Western Christian civilization,

the kingdom of anti-God has ac-

quired political form and social

substance, and stands over

against Christianity as a coun-

ter-Church with its own dogmas,

its own Scriptures; its own in-

fallibility, its own hierarchy; its

own visible head; its own mis-

sionaries, and its own invisible

head—too terrible to be named.
In certain countries, religion

today exists only by suffrance of

a political dictator; without

actively persecuting the Church,

it usurps its functions, gives

bread cards only to those who

conspire against religion, at-

tempts to create an ideological

uniformity by liquidating anyone

who is opposed to that ideology,

and by sheer weight of state-in-

spired propaganda would effect

the mass organization of society

on an anti-religious basis. Cul-

ture today is becoming politiciz-

ed. The dictatorial government is

extending dominance over areas

outside its province, family, edu-

cation, and the soul; it is con-

centrating public opinion in few-

er and fewer hands, which be-

comes the more dangerous be-

cause of the mechanical way in

which propaganda can be dissem-

inated. The lines are becoming

dear and clear-cut. The conflict

of the future will be between a

God-religion and a State relig-

ion, between Christ and anti-

Christ but in political disguise.

History attests that religion

has not encroached upon the tem-

poral sphere, but rather jealous

temporal rulers have invaded the

spiritual. Sometimes these rul-

ers were kings and princes, even

so called “Catholic defenders of

the faith”
;
today they are dicta-

tors. But the problem is ever the

same : the invasion of the spirit-

ual by the political. If it be ob-

jected that religion once made

Henry come to Canossa, let it be



PILATE 55

stated that it was for exactly

the same reason that the world

made war against Hitler, namely,

because of his usurpation of spir-

itual freedom. The difference be-

tween Henry’s time and Hitler’s

is that when religion had some

influence in the world and kings

had consciences, it was possible

for the Church to inspire them

to penance. With that moral au-

thority rejected, now the nations

have to spend five hundred and

twenty-three billion dollars and

millions of lives to impress some

of the dictators with the same

fact.

Even though Christ Himself

would not deliver us from the

power of the Totalitarian State,

as He did not deliver Himself,

we must see His purpose in it all.

Maybe His children are being

persecuted by the world in order

that they might withdraw them-

selves from the world; maybe

His most violent enemies may be

doing His work negatively, for

it could be the mission of To-

talitarianism to preside over the

liquidation of a modern world

that became indifferent to God

and His moral laws
;
maybe those

of us who did not care whether

God exists or not, may yet suffer

from those whom we taught

through Fuerbach and Hegel,, to

exile Him altogether. Maybe the

very secularism from which we

suffer is a reaction against our

own spiritual infirmity; and the

growth of atheism and Totali-

tarianism, the measure of our

want of zeal and piety and the

proof of our unfulfilled Christian

duties; maybe as diseases grow

in dirt, so Crimson Fascism

grows in godlessness.

But whatever be the reason

for these trying days, of this we

may be certain : the Christ Who

suffered under Pontius Pilate

signed Pilate’s death warrant;

it was not Pilate who signed

Christ’s. Christ’s Church will be

attacked, scorned, and ridiculed,

but it will never be destroyed.

The enemies of God will never

be able to dethrone the heavens

of God, nor to empty the taber-

nacles of their Eucharistic Lord,

nor to cut off all absolving hands,

but they may devastate the

earth. The bald fact the enemies;

of God must face is that modern

civilization has conquered the

world but in doing so has lost

its soul, and in losing its soul it

will lose the very world it gained.

Politics has become so all pos-

sessive of life, that by impert-

inence it thinks that the only

philosophy a man can hold is the

right or the left. This question



56 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

puts out all the lights of religion

so they can call all the cats gray.

It assumes that man lives on a

purely horizontal plane, and can

move only to the right or the

left. Had we eyes less material,

we would see that there are two

other directions where a man

with a soul may look : the verti-

cal directions of “up” or “down.”

Both figured in the Crucifixion

of Our Lord. Even those cruel

men who crucified knew that

these were the directions that

counted. So they shouted to

Him: “Come down, and we will

believe.” Somehow or other that

echo has been caught up and it is

being bruited about the world

today. “Down with religion!”

“Down with capital!” “Down

with Labor!” “Down with Re-

actionaries!” “Down with Pro-

gressives!”

Have we not been tearing

down long enough? Can one

build a world with the word

“down.” Is there no other cry

in our vocabulary? Did not the

Captain Christ give another : “If

I be lifted up, I will draw all

things to myself.”

Lifted up! Who shall lift us

up ? Crucifying dictators?

Maybe! But where shall we be

lifted? To the Cross, the prelude

pf the empty tomb, the Cross of

Christ our Redeemer. Hear ye

that word “up,” shout it abroad

!

“Up from class hatred; up from

envy; up from avarice; up from

war; up beyond the margent of

the world
;

up beyond the

‘troubled gateways of the stars’

—UP—UP—UP to God!”

PRAYER

0 God, from Whose hands

cometh the peace the world can-

not give, give us the light to see

that peace is the work of Jus-

tice, and the concord of all na-

tions the fruit of obedience to

Thy Law and Thy Command-

ments. May we seek not so much

to be consoled as to console
;
to be

understood, as to understand; to

be loved, as to love, that in par-

doning we may be pardoned, and

in giving we may receive. We

pray for our President, for our

Congress, for our homes, our

people, our children, our broken-

hearted, that we may be reverent

in the use of freedom, just in the

exercise of power, generous in

the protection of weakness, mer-

ciful to those who have been our

enemies. Not for our worthiness,

but because of Thy tender mercy

hear our prayer that we may so

pass through things temporal as

not to lose the things eternal, 0

Christ Jesus, Our Lord.



HEROD
Address given on March 31, 1946

Is it possible for a soul to have

too many opportunities for con-

version, so that in the end he be-

comes blinded by the very Light

which should have illumined His

path to God? Herod, one of Our

Lord’s judges, gives the answer.

Two episodes lay bare the soul

of Herod. The first, his divorce

from his wife and his second

marriage to Herodias, his broth-

er’s wife. As our modern world

would put it : “There was incom-

patibility between Herod and his

first wife, but he and Herodias

had so many things in common.”

The second revealing act of

Herod is his treatment of John

the Baptist. He had invited John

the Baptist into his palace not

to hear the truth of his preach-

ing but to enjoy the thrill of his

oratory. There are so many in

the world that way : they do not

want to be better; they want

only to feel better. But John

was not the type of preacher who

toned down his Gospel to suit

the paganism of his hearers. Be-

cause he condemned Herod’s sec-

ond marriage, he lost his head.

Everyone in the world at one

time loses his head, but it is

better to lose one’s head John’s

way in the defense of truth,

rather than Herod’s way, in wine

and passion.

Recall that Pilate was the Gov-

ernor of the Southern Kingdom

of Judea while Herod was the

Tetrarch of the Northern King-

dom of Israel. During the trial

before Pilate, Our Lord was

charged with being too political.

Pilate, after examining Our

Lord went out to the porch of the

Temple and said to the Lord’s

accusers : “I find no cause in this

man” (Luke 23:4). That should

have been the end of the trial.

But the multitude shot back: “He

stirreth up the people, teaching

throughout all Judea, beginning

from Galilee to this place” (Luke

23:5).

Galilee ! ! How Pilate seized

upon that word. If Our Lord

were from Galilee, then He was

not under Pilate’s jurisdiction.

It was a diplomatic stroke of po-

litical opportunism. As a Gali-

lean He was under the jurisdic-

tion of Herod, and Herod was in

Jerusalem that very day for the

Paschal season. Off to Herod He

must go. It was “good politics”,



58 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

which means it was expedient,

but morally it was down-right

dishonesty and knavery.

Our Lord now stands before

the man he called a fox, but who

was also a traitor, incestuous

adulterer, assassin of John,

enemy of the people, the most

fitting person in the world to

condemn innocence. That Babe

of Bethlehem Whom his father

tried to kill—now stands man-
acled before Herod: The Gospel

tells us : “And Herod seeing

Jesus, was very glad; for he was

desirous of a long time to see

him, because he had heard many

things of him; and he hoped to

see some sign wrought by him”

{Luke 23:8).

Herod was glad ! But glad only

because he hoped to see a trick.

He would compel Our Lord to

display some magic to save His

life. This is all religion means

to some people: a passing delec-

tation to get them over a mo-

ment in the intolerable boredom

of life. It makes them feel good

between satieties.

Herod began by asking Our

Lord many questions, not ques-

tions of doctrine and discipline

as Annas had done, but questions

prompted by curiosity. Jaded

souls present intellectual difficul-

ties, never pleas for moral re-

generation. Therefore, to all the

questions Our Lord answered

him nothing.

Why did Our Lord refuse to

speak to Herod? Can it be that

He Who came to save all men and

Who loved them enough to die

for them, should still not even try

to win calloused souls like

Herod? Why should He who

spoke to Judas the traitor, Mag-

dalen the harlot, and the thief,

now be silent before a King? Be-

cause the conscience of Herod

was dead. He was too familiar

with religion. He wanted mir-

acles, yes, but not to surrender

his will, but to satisfy his cur-

iosity. His soul was already so

blunted by appeals, including

even the Baptist’s that another

appeal would only have intensi-

fied his guilt. He was stone deaf

on the side of God. Herod

was not offering his soul for

salvation, but only his nerves

for titillation. Spiritualized sen-

sation hunting is not religion.

Christ is no minister to the

senses. The capacity for holi-

ness had been killed in Herod.

So the Lord of the universe spoke

not a word to the worldling.

Herod stands as the type of those

who have already had enough

knowledge about religion, but re-

fused to do anything about it.



HEROD

The Scripture describes them:

“Because they have hated in-

struction, and received not the

fear of the Lord.” “Then shall

they call upon me, and I will not

hear” (Proverbs 1:29, 28). Men

have spoken of hell in various

images but none are more ter-

rible than the image of the

silence of God. God sometimes

judges in silence. And that si-

lence of Our Lord clamored more

in Herod’s ear than did the loud

rebuke of John the Baptist. Such

silence is thunder, for it is the

penalty God inflicts on the soul

that is not sincere or that looks

for a Truth not to embrace but

to reject. Probably the worst

punishment God can visit upon a

soul is to leave it alone. Then

no sound, no ruffled conscience,

no reproach. Nature speaks to us

in the reproachful language of

pain when we violate its laws,

e.g. break a bone. A toothache

proves nature has a tongue bid-

ding us remedy the evil. Con-

science too has a voice
;
it bids us

turn back again to God with

every remorse. But there are

some diseases which kill without

the voice of pain—the cancer
which destroys in silence. So too

with conscience. If it no longer

speaks in remorse, think not that

5v

you are healthy. Your soul may

be dead.

The dead consciences have only

one reaction to religion and it is

the same as the reaction of

Herod, namely, mockery which

seemingly gives them intellect-

ual superiority. By regarding

others as beneath one’s intelli-

gence, one seems to put himself

above their intelligence.

This brings us to the second

act in the drama of Herod: the

robing of Christ in the garment

of a fool and sending Him back

to Pilate. In Rome when a man

was a candidate for office he clad

himself in a white robe—toga
Candida, whence comes our word

“candidate”— and went from
elector to elector seeking votes.

Perhaps by robing Him thus,

Herod meant to suggest here was

a candidate for kingship and

divinity, but a candidate whose

claims were receiving little sup-

port either from a Procurator or

a Tetrarch. It was a good joke.

He could trust Pilate to see the

humour of it; it would serve a

double purpose; it would prove

Christ was a fool, and when

Pilate and he would laugh over

it, they would be friends, for

when men laugh together, en-

mity ceases, even when the butt

of the humour is God.



60 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

Wicked power cannot stand the

vision of an innocent conscience.

From the days of youth when

bad boys ridicule the good boy,

because his goodness is a judg-

ment passed upon them, to the

days of maturity when evil men

ridicule religion, the moral is

ever the same: mockery and re-

ligious persecution arise in the

world not because religion is cor-

rupt, but because consciences are

corrupt.

Our present moment then is

something like that in which the

conscience of Our Lord stood im-

potent before Herod. We who

hold Christ’s truths are being

robed in the garment of a fool.

We are mocked if we preach

Christ’s condemnation of di-

vorce; we are called fools if we

ask for the restoration of reli-

gion to education; fools if we

affirm that all political power is

from God
;
fools if we insist that

world unity is impossible with-

out a recognition of a universal

moral law; fools if we pray, if

we fast, if we discipline oursel-

ves. Why this mockery? Because

Divinity is the one thing in the

world before which men cannot

remain long indifferent. Christ

in His Church is too big to be

ignored, too holy to be un-hated.

What the evil spirits said of

Him could be put into the lips

of every man who works evil:

“What have we to do with Thee

Jesus of Nazareth. Art thou

come to destroy us?” Evil is too

hypersensitive to be indifferent

to the challenge of the good. It

knows its enemies long in ad-

vance. Purely humanistic reli-

gions and popular sects founded

by emotional moderns are never

the object of the world’s scorn.

No evil force will waste time

over trivia; no one will draw

swords against weaklings. The

instinct of evil is infallible; it

knows its enemies. The Church

today is paid the beautiful trib-

ute of opposition, the high com-

pliment of hate, for if the world

hates the Church then it is un-

worldly, and if it is unworldly

then it is divine.

So long as we are hated, we

are worth troubling about. The

church that would give only a

moral tone to secular movements

can die of its own inanition. If

the pagan forces of the world

left us untouched, if they did not

calumniate us, seek to destroy us,

set up rival claimants to the soul,

it would mean that we would

have lost our influence, that our

touch was gone, our stars did no

longer shine.

Do men shake fists over the



HEROD 61

tomb of Napoleon? Do armies

storm and rage against the grave

of Mohammed? Do forces as-

sault the tomb of Lenin? These

men are dead. But they do storm

the citadel of Christ; they do

rage against His Spouse ; they do

kill the members of His body;

they do try to stifle the young

hearts that would breathe His

name in school. Therefore Christ

must be alive today in His Body

which is the Church.

The Church can still make the

evil forces of the world angry. It

can still inspire persecution

therefore Christ is with us. The

exhilaration of being counted a

foe of evil is the joy of honor.

Our heart is warmed by the trib-

ute of enmity from those areas

of life, where to be counted

friends, or not to be counted at

all, would be to stand condemned

as salt without savour, and as

feeble candles whose lights had

gone out. The Church can test

the virility of its loves by the

fires of resistance which it en-

kindles in the breasts of all who

know Christ's love regnant spells

disaster to their evil ways.

The white robe of the fool is a

judgment on the world; it is the

sign of its evil; the death rattle

of its wickedness. Because men

mock
?

a verdict is passed on

them; because the Church is

martyred by evil powers, a sen-

tence has been pronounced on

those powers. Their deeds are

known to be sinful by what they

do to innocence. Thus will men

who live in the world and do not

know where to look for religion,

finally find it in the religion

which their very world crucified,

and in finding it will find peace

which the world cannot take

away!

True followers of Christ! You

can hardly expect a world to be

more reverent to you than to Our

Lord. When it makes fun of

your faith, its practices, absti-

nences, and rituals, then you are

moving to a closer identity with

Him Who gave us our faith.

Take on the robe of a fool, for a

new crime is arising in the

world. The crime of being a

Christian. An era of sensuality

is an era of persecution; an age

of unreason is an age of mock-

ery; Wicked powers will not sub-

mit to the judgment of truth.

We cannot fight God’s battles

with the weapons of Satan. Re-

pay not sneer with sneer, for

under scorn Our Lord “answered

nothing.” The world gets most

of its amusement from a Chris-

tian who fails to be Christian,

but none from his respectful si-



62 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

lence. The answer of Our Lord

to Herod was that Our Lord con-

tinued to be Our Lord. Dogs bay

at the moon all night, but the

moon gives back no snarl. It goes

on shining. Shine forth in thy

white robe of mockery, 0 Chris-

tian ! One day, it will be the robe

of thy glory 1

PRAYER

0 God, from Whose hands

cometh the peace the world can-

not give, give us the light to see

that peace is the work of Jus-

tice, and the concord of all na-

tions the fruit of obedience to

Thy Law and Thy Command-

ments. May we seek not so much

to be consoled as to console; to

be understood, as to understand

;

to be loved, as to love, that in

pardoning we may be pardoned,

and in giving we may receive.

We pray for our President, for

our Congress, for our homes, our

people, our children, our broken-

hearted, that we may be reverent

in the use of freedom, just in the

exercise of power, generous in

the protection of weakness, mer-

ciful to those who have been our

enemies. Not for our worthiness,

but because of Thy tender mercy

hear our prayer that we may so

pass through things temporal as

not to lose the things eternal, 0

Christ Jesus, Our Lord.



CLAUDIA AND HERODIAS

Address given on April 7, 1946

One of the most revolutionary

and as yet unnoticed changes in

the Post-war world is the role

assigned to women. There are

only two philosophies of life left

in the Western world; the Chris-

tian, and Totalitarian Red Fas-

cism, sometimes called Commu-

nism. Both of them appeal to

women, for both recognize that

the winning of the world to

Christ, or winning it to anti-

Christ cannot be accomplished

without them.

The Christian appeal to woman

was made on October 21, 1945,

when the Holy Father published

an Encyclical on “Woman’s Du-

ties in Social and Political Life.”

The Red Fascist appeal was

made on November 26th, when

they moved their international

revolutionary set-up to Paris to

disclaim responsibility for a

double game, called an Interna-

tional Women’s Congress in that

city.

The Christian appeal outlined

a program for the Christian

education of women for social

and political life under “the

standard of Christ the King and

the patronage of His wonderful

Mother” in order that they might

be the “restorers of honor, fam-

ily and society.”

The anti-Christian appeal as

presented in an authoritative

pamphlet written by the German

Communist woman leader, Clara

Zetkin, in preparation for this

Congress quoted a statement of

Lenin made to her some years

before concerning “non-party In-

ternational Women’s Congress.”

“We must win over to our side

the millions of toiling women . . .

for the Communist transfor-

mation of society . . . the object

of which is the seizing of power

by establishing the proletarian

dictatorship. . . . Just imagine

those who will meet with the so-

called ‘hyenas of the revolution,’

and if all goes well, under their

leadership—honest, tame, social
democratic women; pious Chris-

tian women blessed by the Pope,

or swearing by Luther; daugh-

ters of Privy Councillors; lady-

like English pacifists, and pas-

sionate French pacifists.” How

well this succeeded in Paris could

be verified by reading the names

of those who attended—even



64 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

from our own Democratic United

States.

Thus it would seem that the

women of the world are to be di-

vided as they were in the Gospel

times, either for the God of the

heavens and the freedom rooted

in the spirit, or else for the cause

of anti-Christ and the beheading

of those who would proclaim the

moral law in the palace of the

dictators. These two roles were

foreshadowed in two women of

the Gospels, Claudia and Hero-

dias.

Claudia was the youngest

daughter of Julia, the daughter

of Caesar Augustus. Julia was

married three times, the last

time to Tiberius. Because of her

dissolute life, Julia was exiled

when she bore Claudia to a

Roman Knight. When Claudia

was thirteen, Julia sent her to be

brought up by Tiberius. When

she was sixteen, Pontius Pilate,

himself of low origin, met Clau-

dia and asked Tiberius for per-

mission to marry her. Thus

Pilate married into the Emper-

or’s family, which assured his

political future. On the strength

of it, Pilato was made the Pro-

curator of Judea.

Roman Governors were for-

bidden to take their wives with

them to the provinces. Most poli-

ticians were very happy about

this, but not Pilate. Love broke

a stern Roman law. After Pilate

was in Jerusalem six years, he

sent for Claudia who was more

than eager to face the loneliness

of life away from the capital of

the world and amidst an un-

known and alien people.

We may reasonably conclude

that Claudia must have heard of

Our Lord. Perhaps from the

Jewish maid who prepared her

bath, or the stewards who

brought news about Him. She

might actually have seen Him,

for the Fortress of Antonia

where she lived was near the

Temple of Jerusalem and Our

Lord was often there. How little

did the women of Jerusalem who

saw Claudia looking out through

the lattice, to catch the flash of

gems on her white hands, or

mark the pride of her patrician

face, ever guess how deep were

her thoughts, how intense her

sorrow, how profound her yearn-

ing.

We must remember that there

was almost a Prussian submis-

sion to law among the Romans.

No woman was allowed to inter-

fere in the processes of law, nor

even to offer a suggestion con-

cerning legal procedure. What

makes her entrance onto the



CLAUDIA AND HERODIAS 65

scene all the more remarkable is

that she sent a message to her

husband, Pontius Pilate, the very

day he was deciding on the most

important case of his whole

career, and the only one for

which he will ever be remem-

bered—the trial of Our Blessed
Lord. To send a message to a

judge while he was in court was

a punishable offense, and only

the awfulness of the deed she

saw about to be done could have

moved Claudia to it. As Matthew

records it: “And as he was sit-

ting in the place of judgment,

his wife sent to him, saying:

Have thou nothing to do with

that just man; for I have suf-

fered many things this day in a

dream because of him” (Matthew

27:19). While the women of

Israel were silent, this heathen

woman bore witness to the inno-

cence of Jesus, and asked her

husband to deal with Him in a

righteous way.

The message of Claudia was

an epitome of all that Christian-

ity would do for pagan woman-

hood. She is the only Roman

woman in the Gospels and she is

a woman of the very highest

rank. There was probably a time

when Pilate would have done

anything his wife asked. But

this time he did not. But the

trial reveals that the political

man was wrong, and the un-

political woman was right, for

Claudia better than Pilate caught

the portents of the hour. Christ

suffered under Pontius Pilate.

But to the glory of Claudia, a

woman’s voice was raised in the

name of justice.

Now look on Herodias, the

second wife of Herod, who was

the son of old Herod the Great

who ordered the massacre of the

infants of Bethlehem. He put

away his first wife, the daughter

of the King of Arabia, and stole

his half-brother’s wife, Herodias,

and took her to his palace, the

Golden House at Machaerus.

Herod was fond of lionizing

strangers and particularly liked

to hear great preachers. Accord-

ingly he invited John the Baptist

to preach in his court. John was

not the kind of man to miss an

opportunity of bringing Herod

and Herodias face to face with

their guilty conscience. Little did

they imagine the theme that the

man of God would choose as his

message in that Golden House.

As soon as he stood before the

court, he pointed an accusing

finger at Herod who had married

a divorced woman and thund-

ered: “It is not lawful for thee

to have thy brother’s wife”



66 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

{Mark 6:18). Herodias winced;

Herod rebelled. Freedom of

spirit does not mean the right to

judge another man’s conscience.

Before John knew it there were

irons about his arms and the

prison door of the underground

dungeon closed in the face of the

“the greatest man ever born of

one whom Our Lord described as

woman.”

A man sometimes forgets these

incidents : a woman never. A

short time later came Herod’s

birthday. The scene is the grim

castle of Machaerus, one of the

most desolate places in the world,

built on the top of an isolated

crag of black rock, 3500 feet

above the Dead Sea’s eastern

shore.

A great Baltasaarian feast is

planned. In the brilliantly light-

ed banquet hall, Herod’s company

is gathered . . . Lords, ladies,

military authorities, hangers-on,

and rabble that always gathers

before a court. The castle is

aglow with light; the noise of

revelry penetrates into a deep

dungeon below where waits the

prisoner of Christ.

Finally, Herod has nothing

more to offer his satiated guests

in the way of excitement. There-

fore, let the stimulus of a sensu-

ous dance complete it, and let the

dancer be Salome, the fair young

daughter of Herodias by her first

husband.

Herod, half drunk with wine,

and over-emotionalized by the

dance, said to Salome: “Ask of

me what thou wiliest, and I will

give it to thee . . . even though

it be the half of my kingdom.”

And she went out and said to her

mother, “What am I to ask for?”

And she said: “The head of John

the Baptist.” And she went with

haste to the king, and asked say-

ing, “I want thee right away to

give me on a dish the head of

John the Baptist” {Mark 6:22-

26).

What would Herod do? The

Gospel said Herod was “grieved”

{Mark 6:26) . . . but he had

sworn to the maiden, and must

keep his promise. Some prefer to

be unfaithful to God, rather than

be untrue to a half-drunken oath.

The guests hear the dungeon

door open. ... A few minutes

later the gory head of John the

Baptist is brought to the maiden

on a silver platter, and she gives

the ghastly dish to her mother.

It is amazing the similarity at

first glance between the two

women. Both were noblewomen,

both the wives of politicians

;

both came in contact with the

greatest religious personages of



CLAUDIA AND HERODIAS 67

all times, Claudia with Christ,

Herodias with John the Baptist;

both sent messages to their hus-

bands, and yet their reactions

were so different; one served

Christ, the other a totalitarian

dictator. Why was religion so

distasteful to one, and so dear to

the other? Why does one react

to the defense of religion, and

the other to an offense against

it? Why does one seek to save a

life, the other to take it?

Everyone in life has at least

one great moment to come to

God. How each of us reacts, de-

pends on whether we have a

background of good will or bad

will. In some there is a will to

sin; occasional good actions be-

ing the interruptions to an abid-

ing evil intention. In others,

there is a good will and though

a bad action may occasionally

cut a tangent across it, the will,

being good, is ready to make

amends and make all sacrifices to

follow the directive of conscience

and the actual graces of the

moment.

Now Herodias had an evil

will; Claudia a good will. The

one embraced religion, the other

rejected it. The good will is like

the good soil. When the seed of

God’s grace falls on it, it sprouts.

The evil will is like the rock . . .

it is incapable of conversion.

“And other seed fell upon the

rock, and as soon as it had

sprung up it withered away, be-

cause it had no moisture” (Luke

8 : 6 ).

Claudia and Herodias are the

prototypes of all women who

have a role to play in the social

and political life of the world.

Women will either be the daugh-

ters of Herodias, wrecking their

own homes by divorce, educating

their children like Salome in the

false wisdom of how to solicit

men to do their worst, aligning

themselves with any political

leader who will further their own

interests or pamper their own

ambitions, who will never forget

the just rebukes of modern

Johns, and never scruple at being

Beasts of Belchen to behead the

heralds of Christ. Or women to-

day will be the daughters of

Claudia, challenging politics

when it would send righteous

men to death; urging the path

of highest duty when indecision,

cowardice and compromise allure;

being to a husband an unfailing

preacher of righteousness; his

counselor and his saviour; ever

braving stern law rather than be

unfaithful to conscience; and

never scrupling to talk about the

just and righteous Christ even



68 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

when its penalty might well be

the spurning of love.

The level of any civilization is

the level of its womanhood. What

Claudia was, that Pilate could

be; what Herodias was, that

Herod was. It is loves that make

the world rather than knowledge.

Knowledge is broken down to

suit the mind to which the

knowledge is given. That is why

we have to give examples to chil-

dren. But love always goes out

to meet the demands of the ob-

ject loved. If the one loved is

virtuous, we must be virtuous to

win it. Hence the higher the

love, the loftier must be those

who pursue. The nobler the

woman, the nobler the world.

When the sacred fires of a com-

mon tenderness are melting twin

souls predestined for their flame,

each can often make of the other

whatever is ardently desired. The

mere buckling of a knight’s

armor by a feminine hand was

not a mere caprice of romanti-

cism
;

it was the type of an

eternal trust. The soul’s armor

is never well set on a man ex-

cept by the one whom the man

will respect when in danger of

losing his honour. Maybe men

are always being born of women.

Men we need, yes, strong men

like Peter who will let the broad

stroke of their challenge ring

out the shield of the world’s

hypocricies
;

strong men like

Paul, who with a two-edged

sword will cut away the ties that

bind down the energies of the

world, strong men like John who

with a loud voice will arouse the

world from the sleek dream of

'unheroic repose.

But we need women too—who
will have pity on the rational

stupidities of man, who will

hold back those currents which

threaten the home, who will take

the tangled skeins of a wrecked

and ruined life and weave out of

them the beautiful tapestry of

sweetness and holiness. And if

this is the kind of woman you

are, we salute you and toast you

;

not as the modern woman who

descended from Herodias, once

our superior now our equal, but

as the Christian woman— in-
spired by Claudia—closest to the
Cross on Good Friday and first

at the Tomb on Easter Morn!

PRAYER

0 God, from Whose hands

cometh the peace the world can-

not give, give us the light to see

that peace is the work of Justice,

and the concord of all nations the

fruit of obedience to Thy Law

and Thy Commandments. May



CLAUDIA AND HERODIAS 69

we seek not so much to be con-

soled as to console; to be under-

stood, as to understand; to be

loved, as to love, that in pardon-

ing we may be pardoned, and in

giving we may receive. We pray

for our President, for our Con-

gress, for our homes, our people,

our children, our broken-hearted,

that we may be
.
reverent in the

use of freedom, just in the exer-

cise of power, generous in the

protection of weakness, merciful

to those who have been our

enemies. Not for our worthiness,

but because of Thy tender mercy

hear our prayer that we may so

pass through things temporal as

not to lose the things eternal, 0

Christ Jesus, Our Lord.



BARABBAS AND THE THIEVES

Address given on April 14, 1946

I wonder if there is any word

more often used by the modern

world than the word “freedom”

It may well be that as men talk

most about their health when

they are sick, so too they talk

most about freedom when they

are most in danger of losing it?

When is a man free? When he is

without law or restraint or when

he attains the purpose for which

he is made? For an answer to

these questions we turn to the

Eternal Drama of the Cross.

A prison can house the inno-

cent as well as the guilty. Dur-

ing the rule of an invader it is

possible that more innocent than

guilty will be imprisoned behind

the bars. But without passing

on the morality of the prisoners,

the low dark prison under Pil-

ate’s fortress held many a cap-

tive soul. Among them there

were three who attract our atten-

tion. The name of one we know

—Barabbas. The names of the
two others we do not know. Tra-

dition has given them the names

of Dismas and Gimas.

When the sun arose this par-

ticular morning each of them

looked with hope for release, for

it was customary on the day of

the Passover for the Governor

to release a prisoner to the peo-

ple. Thus the redemption of

Israel from Egypt was com-

memorated by a captive receiving

his freedom.

Pilate knew he would be called

upon to pick some one for re-

lease. The urgency became acute

when Herod returned Our Lord

to Pilate who called together the

chief priests and magistrates

and the people and said to them

:

“You have presented unto me

this man, as one who perverted

the people, and behold I, having

examined Him before you, find

no cause in this man, in those

things wherein you accuse Him.

No! Nor Herod either. For I

sent you to him and behold noth-

ing worthy of death is done unto

Him.”

Pilate had Christ on his hands.

The problem was how to get rid

of Him. His imagination leaped

to the prison. He had a great

idea, politically ! Morally, it was

weak and even rotten. He would

allow the people to vote on the

prisoner who would be released.

Pilate probably was anxious to



BARABBAS AND THE THIEVES 71

insure the release of Christ and,

in order to do so, chose from

among those three men one who

was called Barabbas.

Barabbas, the Gospel tells us

was “notable,” and very likely, as

his name indicates, the son of a

Rabbi. (Matthew 27:16). St.

John tells us he was a robber,

CJohn 18:40) but that later he

was arrested for sedition and

for a murder committed during

a sedition (Luke 23:19). He was

in our language a revolutionist.

When it is recalled that Israel

was under the Romans, the term

“revolutionist” is to be under-

stood as a “patriot” or a member

of “Israel’s underground.” He

was interested in throwing off

the yoke of political tyranny.

The whole nation had been pal-

pitating for a deliverer from the

Roman yoke. Hence they asked

of Christ : “Art thou he that art

to come, or look we for another?”

(.Matthew 11:3). For two cen-

turies Israel had no Judaeus

i

lacchabeus to lead a revolt

gainst Caesar. Barabbas step-

ed in to fill this role and in his

nthusiasm for the freedom of

is people had committed a mur-

er, and, what was more serious

3 Pilate, was a seditionist.

Pilate sought to confuse the

issue by choosing a prisoner who

was guilty of exactly the same

charge as Christ, namely sedition

against Caesar. In a few min-

utes two figures stand before the

multitude on the pretentious

white marble floor of the Prae-

torium. Pilate sits on a raised

platform, surrounded by the im-

perial guard. Barabbas, on one

side, blinks in the sunlight. He

had not seen it in months. On

the other side stood Christ, al-

ready scourged and with perhaps

only one friend in the mob below

—His own Mother. Here are two
men accused of revolution. Bar-

abbas appealed to national griev-

ances; Christ to consciences.

Barabbas would release fetters

and ignore sin; Our Lord would

release man from sin and fetters

would cease to be. The trumpets;

sound. Order is restored. Pilate

steps forward and addresses the

mob : “Whom will you that I re-

lease to you, Barabbas or

Jesus. . . .” (Matthew 27:17).

The question of Pilate had all1

the air of democracy and free

election but it was only its cheap

facsimile. The Gospel tells us

the people themselves were not

inclined to put Our Lord to death

(.Matthew 27:20). For that

reason, some demagogues “stir-

red among the people and per-

suaded them that they should ask



72 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

for Barabbas.” There is always a

rag-tag, bob-tail group, careless

and thoughtless, who are ready

to be at the mercy of that kind of

oratory which has been called

“the harlot of the arts.” The

people can be misled by false

leaders
;
the very ones who shout

Hosanna on Sunday can shout

Crucify on Friday.

Herein is revealed the grave

danger to democracy : the danger

of the people degenerating into

masses. By the people we mean

persons who make their own de-

cisions, who are governed by

their consciences, who are self-

determined by moral purpose and

who uphold the right even in the

face of demagogues. By the

masses we mean the people who

have ceased to be governed by

their consciences, who are de-

termined in their thinking by a

few irresponsible leaders on the

outside, who are susceptible to

the mental contagion of propa-

ganda and who have therefore

a psychological readiness for

slavery.

What happened on that Good

Friday morning was that

through propagandists the people

became the masses; a democracy

with conscience became a mob-

ocracy with power. May we in

America never forget that when

a democracy loses its moral

sense, it can vote itself right out

of democracy.

When Pilate asked: “Whom

will you that I release to you”

(Matthew 27:17), he was not

holding a fair democratic elec-

tion. He was assuming that a

vote means the right to choose

between Innocence and Guilt,

Evil and Goodness, Right and

Wrong. True democracy never

votes on Innocence and Guilt.

Once Right and Wrong are put

on equal footing, the Right in-

variably goes to a cross, there is

no need of counting ballots. To

the eternal glory of American

democracy when we go to the

polls we do not vote on whether

we shall have a regime of Justice

or a regime of Injustice; we vote

rather on relatively good means

to a good end. Every democracy

is rooted in a theological absolute

and political and economic rela-

tivities. Our Democracy assumes

that there is an absolute about

which we do not vote; there are

certain truths which are never

challenged, e.g. “All men are en-

dowed by their Creator with cer-

tain inalienable rights,” such as

life, liberty and the pursuit of

happiness. It is because we never

question this and other absolutes

that we are free to vote. It is



BARABBAS AND THE THIEVES 73

this common, unchallenged faith

in right that makes America

great.

In answer to Pilate’s question

the masses thundered back : “Re-

lease unto us, Barabbas!” Pilate

could hardly believe his ears.

Barabbas could hardly believe his

ears either! Was he about to be

a free man? For the first time

he became aware that he might

again carry on his revolt. He

turned his swollen burning face

toward the Nazarene. He meant

to measure his rival from head

to foot, but his glance no longer

dared to rise. There was some-

thing about His eyes which read

his soul, as if that Nazarene was

really sorry for him because he

was free.

The Gospel tells us: “And he

said to them the third time

:

Why, what evil hath this man

done? I find no cause of death

in him. I will chastise him there-

fore, and let him go. But they

were instant with loud voices, re-

quiring that he might be cruci-

fied; and their voices prevailed.

And Pilate gave sentence that it

should be as they required. And

he released unto them him who

for murder and sedition, had

been cast into prison, whom they

had desired; but Jesus he de-

livered up to their will” (Luke

23 :22-25 ).

The majority is not always

right. Majority is right in the

field of the relative, but not in

the absolute. Majority is a legiti-

mate test so long as voting is

based on conscience and not on

propaganda. Truth does not win

when numbers qua numbers be-

come decisive. Numbers alone

can decide a beauty queen but

not Justice. Beauty is a matter

of taste, but Justice is tasteless.

Right is right if nobody is right,

and wrong is wrong if everybody

is wrong. The first Poll in the

history of Christianity was

wrong

!

Barabbas was amazed beyond

his fondest hopes. He had fought

for political liberty. He had pro-

cured the names of a few Quis-

lings, had sabotaged Roman

works, had organized a few pa-

triotic followers, had gained

some prestige by being arrested,

for arrest also heightens the

prestige of revolutionists. But

all that was nothing compared to

the deafening shouts for him as

their leader, their hero. He was

no longer an outlaw, but a free

man. It meant death for Christ

—but that was nothing!

Barabbas was free! He had



74 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

four freedoms, in the sense of

absence of constraint:

1. Freedom from fear—no
more Roman prisons.

2. Freedom from want—no
more coarse bread and water.

3. Freedom of speech—he
could once more talk revolution.

4. Freedom of religion—he
could talk against religion if he

wanted to.

Freedom for him meant free-

dom from something. And it was

an empty freedom. It was as

tasteless as water and he thought

it would be red like wine. He no-

ticed that after the voting no one

followed him. It was the queerest

election in the history of the

world. No torch light proces-

sion for the Victor; no one

hoisted him on shoulders; no

mob followed the Victor with

cheers. But everyone followed

the defeated candidate. To have

the mob with him he had to

follow the mob that followed

Christ. With them unnoticed he

moved down to the basement of

Pilate’s fortress where he watch-

ed the scourging of the defeated

candidate and saw born the first

flag with the three great primal

colors.

As the cloak was torn from his

shoulders there stood revealed

the white of innocence; one blow

of the scourge and the blue of

loyalty was born; another and

the flag was red with sacrifice.

And as the crown of thorns was

laid on that field of red and

white and blue, it seemed as if it

had all been crowned with the

stars of heaven to remind us all

that perhaps in a great crisis we

are saved by other stars and

other stripes than those of our

flag, namely by the stars and

stripes of Christ, by whose stars

we are illumined and by whose

stripes we are healed.

When the scourging was done,

Barabbas followed the defeated

candidate up the hill of Calvary

—it was still the only way Bar-
abbas could have a following.

But lo and behold ! His two

fellow prisoners were also there.

They were not so fortunate as to

have been nominated for election.

Barabbas said to himself: Too

bad they are not free. They

were to be nailed on either side

of Our Lord, Dismas on His

right, and Gimas on His left.

When finally all the three

crosses were unfurled against

the dark sky, Barabbas heard

Gimas on His left curse, swear,

and ask to be taken down. But

he also heard Dismas on His

right ask to be taken up: “Re-

member me when thou shalt



BARABBAS AND THE THIEVES 75

come into thy kingdom” (Luke

23:42). To which plea came back

the divine promise; “This day

thou shalt be with me in para-

dise” {Luke 23 :43). What kind

of freedom, Barabbas was asking

himself, was this with which

Dismas was satisfied? Can one

be nailed to a cross and still be

free? Can He Who is pinned to

that Central Tree be the Giver of

freedom, Guardian and Saviour

of liberty? Then Barabbas saw

the freedom which he was seek-

ing was the freedom to be free

from something, but that the

only true freedom is to be free

for something. Now he sees

freedom is not an end, but a

means. Freedom is for the sake

of doing something worth doing.

a) What good is freedom

from fear unless there is some-

one to love ?

b) What good is freedom

from want unless there is a Jus-

tice to be served?

c) What good is freedom

of speech unless there is a Truth

to defend?

d) What good is freedom of

religion unless there is a God to

worship ?

Barabbas would now have

given anything to have been

Dismas. Dismas was free! He

was not. Only nailed love is

free; unnailed love can compel

and therefore destroy freedom.

Hearken ye, revolutionists!

Follow not Barabbas, the revo-

lutionist who would re-make so-

ciety to re-make man
;
but rather

Christ, the Revolutionist, Who

would re-make man in order to

re-make society. Believe in vio-

lence, yes, but not the violence

that draws a sword against a

neighbor, a class or race, or color,

but rather draws it against self,

to cut out lust, envy, greed and

hate. Attend ye, believers in vio-

lence! Be violent not against

fellowman but against selfish-

ness, for “the kingdom of heaven

suffereth violence, and the vio-

lent bear it away” {Matthew

11 :12). Learn ye, all who prattle

about freedom in a land of free-

dom, that the only true freedom

in the world is the freedom to be

a saint!

PRAYER

0 God, from Whose hands

cometh the peace the world can-

not give, give us the light to see

that peace is the work of Jus-

tice, and the concord of all na-

tions the fruit of obedience to

Thy Law and Thy Command-

ments. May we seek not so much

to be consoled as to console
;
to be

understood as to understand; to

be loved, as to love, that in par-



76 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

doning we may be pardoned, and

in giving we may receive. We

pray for our President, for our

Congress, for our homes, our

people, our children, our broken-

hearted, that we may be reverent

in the use of freedom, just in the

exercise of power, generous in

the protection of weakness, mer-

ciful to those who have been our

enemies. Not for our worthiness,

but because of Thy tender mercy

hear our prayer that we may so

pass through things temporal as

not to lose the things eternal, 0

Christ Jesus, Our Lord.



THE SCARS OF CHRIST

Address given on April 21, 1946

The world still wears the scars

of war. Forty million displaced

persons, wander haggard, haunt-

ed, and hunted across the vast

expanse of the world and, as

they fall, the very earth that

should have ministered unto

them takes the measure of their

unmade graves; calloused hands,

weary from a cross of forced la-

bor, look up in vain for Cyren-

eans to lift their burden
;
wound-

ed soldiers limp across a world

they fought to make free, and

yet see not that freedom for

which their dead comrades went

to graves as to their beds.

While our earth wears these

scars, who can bring us hope

that better days lie ahead, and

that all this pain and anguish is

not a mockery and a snare?

One thing is certain. No heal-

ing can come to our broken wings

from that Liberal Christ invent-

ed by the Nineteenth Century

which made Him only a moral

teacher like unto Socrates and

Mohammed or Confucius bound

like them in the fetters of death.

The only one who can bring

solace to our times is a Christ

with scars, Who Himself had

passed through death to give us

hope and life, and this is the

Christ of Easter Morn. What

figures large in the Easter story

is the scars of Christ. Magdalen,

who was always at His feet,

either in Simon’s house or at

the cross, is there again in the

garden; and not until she sees

on those feet the red livid mem-

ories of Calvary’s war does she

recognize her Lord and cry out

“Rabboni!” Master. Then Christ

came to the sceptical, doubting

world in the person of Thomas,

whose melancholy made him a

doubter. When told by the oth-

er disciples that they had seen

the Lord, Thomas said to them,

“Except I shall see in His hands

the print of the nails, and put

my finger into the place of the

nails, and put my hand into his

side, I will not believe” (John

20:25). Eight days later when

the disciples were in the room

and Thomas with them, the doors

being shut, Our Lord stood in

the midst of them and said,

“Peace be to you.” Then He said

to Thomas, “Put in thy finger

hither, and see my hands; and

bring hither thy hand, and put



78 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

it into my side; and be not faith-

less, but believing.” Thomas an-

swered, and said to him: “My

Lord, and my God.”

The kind of Christ the world

needs today is the Virile Christ,

Who can unfurl to an evil world

the pledge of victory in His own

body, the scar-spangled banner

of salvation. No false gods who

are immune from pain and sor-

row can solace us in these tragic

days.

Take out of our lives the

Christ of the Scars, Who is the

Son of the Living God, Who rose

from the dead by the power of

God, and what assurance have

we that evil shall not triumph

over good? If He Who came to

this earth to teach the dignity

of the human soul, Who could

challenge a sinful world to con-

vict Him of sin, had no other

issue and destiny than to hang

on a common tree with common

criminals and thieves to make a

Roman holiday, then each of us

may say, “If this is what hap-

pens to a good man, then why

should I lead a good life?” What

motivation is there for virtue

if the greatest of all injustices

can go unredressed, and the

noblest of all lives can go un-

vindicated.

What am I to think of a God

Who would look down unmoved

on this spectacle of Innocence

going to the gallows and would

not pull out the nails and put a

sceptre there; or would not even

send an angel to snatch a crown

of thorns and place a garland

there?

What am I to think of human

nature if this white flower of

blameless life is trampled under

the hob-nailed boots of Roman

executioners and then is destined

to rot in the earth like all

crushed flowers rot? Would it

not send forth the greater stench

because of its primal sweetness

and make us hate not only the

God Who had no care for truth

and love but even our fellow-

man for being party to His

death? If this is the end of good-

ness, then why be good at all?

If this is what happens to jus-

tice, then let anarchy reign.

But if He is not only man but

God, if He is not a teacher of

humanitarian ethics, but a Re-

deemer, if He can take the worst

this world has to offel* and then

by the power of God rise above

it; if He the unarmed can make

war with no other weapon than

goodness and pardon^ so that

the slain has the gain, and they

who kill the foe lose the day,

then who shall be without hope



THE SCARS OF CHRIST 79

as the Risen Christ shows us

His Hands and Side?

What do the scars of Christ

teach us? They teach us that

life is a struggle: that our con-

dition of a final resurrection is

exactly the same as His; that

unless there is a cross in our

lives, there will never be an

empty tomb; unless there is a

Good Friday, there will never be

an Easter Sunday; unless there

is a crown of thorns, there will

never be the halo of light; and

unless we suffer with Him, we

shall not rise with Him.

The Christ of the scars gave

us no peace which banishes

strife, for God hates an inert

peace in those that are destined

for war against evil.

The scars are not only remind-

ers that life is warfare, but they

are also pledges of victory in

that war. Our Blessed Lord said,

“I have overcome the world.” By

this He means that He has over-

come evil in principle. The vic-

tory is assured, only the good

news has not yet leaked out. Evil

will never be able to be stronger

than it was on that particular

day, for the worst thing that evil

can do is not to ruin cities and

to wage wars and to drop atomic

bombs against the good and the

living. The worst thing that

evil can do is to kill God. Hav-

ing been defeated in that, in its

strongest moment, when evil

wore its greatest armour, it can

never be victorious again.

Think not, then, that the

Jesus of the scars and His vic-

tory over evil gives us immunity

from evil and woe, pain and sor-

row, crucifixion and death. What

He offers is not immunity from

evil in the physical world, but

immunity from sin in our souls.

The final conquest of physical

evil will come in the resurrection

of the just. But He does teach

a noble army of the world’s suf-

ferers to bear the worst this life

has to offer with courage and

serenity and to regard all of its

trials as “the shade of His hand

outstretched caressingly,” and to

transfigure some of life’s great-

est pains into the richest gains

of the spiritual life.

With St. Paul then, we cry

out in an ecstasy of triumph,

“Who then shall separate us

from the love of Christ? Shall

tribulation? Or distress? Or

famine? Or nakedness? Or dan-

ger? Or persecution? Or the

sword? . . . But in all these

things we overcome because of

Him that hath loved us. For I

'am sure that neither death, nor

life, nor Angels nor principali-



80 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

ties, nor powers, nor things to

come, nor might, nor height, nor

depth, nor any other creature

shall he able to separate us from

the love of God, which is in

Christ Jesus Our Lord.” (Ro-

mans 8:35-39).

Over against the Christian

faith in the ftisen Christ is a

materialist philosophy which

puts its faith not in God but in

man, and principally one man

who fulfills the role of the dic-

tator.

Our Western world sees the

danger in this new faith but is

impotent to oppose it, for its

defenses rest only on the vacil-

lating and fluctuating opinion of

politicians and leaders who have

no convincing standards to of-

fer the people, who themselves

are without a faith and, there-

fore, can never give a faith.

What has made the cause of the

Western world weaker is its

aversion for doctrine, its hatred

of dogma, which leaves it with-

out an ideology to oppose an

ideology and, therefore, power-

less to deal with the enemy ex-

cept by offering a few indifferent

cabinet changes. Because our

Western world has turned its

back upon those authentic fires

that were lighted at the eternal

altars of the Living God, it leaves

the people’s torches unlit. Now

like a moth in the dark, the West-

ern man flutters to a smoky

candle of Totalitarianism, flies

into it, and is lost. The struggle

today is too unequal. The mater-

ialistic forces of the world have

a philosophy of life; the West

has none.

Since basically all quarrels are

theological, it follows that if we

surrender the faith in Christ

that made our Western Christian

Civilization, then we can offer

no goals to journeys and no hope

to a lost generation. You cannot

oppose an ideology with an opin-

ion, or a philosophy of life with

appeasing compromises. The

mere fact that you give your

right arm to a bear is no guar-

antee that he will not take your

left. The real case against the

new materialism must be a theo-

logical one. Doctrine must be

invoked to combat doctrine. This

is certain. Unless we can give

men of the Western world a faith

to combat the false faith, the

fanatical disciples of world revo-

lution will capture and inflame

the loyalty of millions, and we

shall be destroyed by what is

false within.

If, however, we have faith that

in the conflict between good and

evil, God still works in history,



THE SCARS OF CHRIST 81

then ultimate victory of good

can come out of tragedy, as once

more eternal love becomes tri-

umphant when sin has done its

worst.

If it would seem that the scars

of Christ are but small and

feeble security against the well-

armed powers of evil, then look

back to the former conflict be-

tween the forces of good and

evil in the persons of David and

Goliath. Goliath assumed that

any champion who would come

forth to meet him must himself

be a spearman, quite forgetful

that the cause of God rests on

other arms than those of spears.

David took a sling-shot, a

rather harmless looking instru-

ment hewn from the forest, and

choosing five small stones from

a brook he went out to meet the

Philistine.

So hard-set was Goliath’s mind

that it was to be a battle of arm-

aments that when he sees David

coming to him with no armor on

his body and nothing in his hand

except five tiny stones and a

sling, he takes umbrage at the

insult and says to David, “Am

I a dog, that thou comest to me

with a staff?” (I Kings 17:43).

And David answered and said,

“Thou comest to me with a

sword, and with a spear, and

with a shield : but I come to thee

in the name of the Lord of hosts,

the God of the armies of Israel,

which thou hast defied” (I Kings

17:45).

Goliath steps forward pano-

plied from head to foot and with

only his unvisored forehead as

a target. With the first shot

from his sling, David struck Go-

liath on the head, the stone being

fixed in his forehead as he fell

to the earth. Having no other

sword than that of the Philistine,

David took it and cut off his

head.

One day this prefigurement

was realized when Christ on

Good Friday came to do battle

with the Goliath of evil that was

supported by the power of all the

governments in the world. Tak-

ing no other armor than a cross,

from the forest, which looked

like the sling-shot of David, He

picked up from the cascading

brooks of the world’s hate not

five stones, but five scars, any

one of which would have been

enough to have redeemed the

world, and with them slew the

Goliath of evil.

If He, Our Leader, wore five

scars, then must we His soldiers

be prepared on the day of the

Great Review when He comes

to judge the Living and thq



82 LOVE ON PILGRIMAGE

Dead, to show Him the scars we

won in His Cause and in His

Name. To each of us He will

say: ‘‘Show Me your hands and

your side.” Woe then unto us

who come down Calvary with

hands unscarred and white!

If there is any one of those

five scars that we would choose

as David chose one of the stones

to slay the Goliath of evil, it

would be that scar that was made

by the Sergeant of the Roman

Army when he ran a lance in the

side of the Saviour. Until the

day of the final victory we shall

‘march confidently under that

great Captain Who wears for the

first time in history, the Decora-

tion which humanity pinned on

His Breast—the Purple Heart of
the All Loving God

!



THE PURPOSE OF THE CATHOLIC HOUR

(Extract from the add'ress of the late Patrick Cardinal Hayes at the in-

augural program of the Catholic Hour in the studio of the National

Broadcasting Company, New York City, March 2, 1930.)

Our congratulations and our gratitude are extended to the National

Council of Catholic Men and its officials, and to all who, by their financial

support, have made it possible to use this offer of the National Broad-

casting Company. The heavy expense of managing and financing a

weekly program, its musical numbers, its speakers, the subsequent an-

swering of inquiries, must be met. . . .

This radio hour is for all the people of the United States. To our

fellow-citizens, in this word of dedication, we wish to express a cordial

greeting and, indeed, congratulations. For this radio hour is one of

service to America, which certainly will listen in interestedly, and even

sympathetically, I am sure, to the voice of the ancient Church with its

historic background of all the centuries of the Christian era, and with

its own notable contribution to the discovery, exploration, foundation

and growth of our glorious country. . . .

Thus to voice before a vast public the Catholic Church is no light

task. Our prayers will be with those who have that task in hand. We
feel certain that it will have both the good will and the good wishes of

the great majority of our countrymen. Surely, there is no true lover

of our Country who does not eagerly hope for a less worldly, a less

material, and a more spiritual standard among our people.

With good will, with kindness and with Christ-like sympathy for

all. this work is inaugurated. So may it continue. So may it be ful-

filled. This word of dedication voices, therefore, the hope that this radio

hour may serve to make known, to explain with the charity of Christ,

our faith, which we love even as we love Christ Himself. May it serve

to make better understood that faith as it really is—a light revealing
the pathway to heaven: a strength, and a power divine through Christ;

pardoning our sins, elevating, consecrating our common every-day duties

and joys, bringing not only justice but gladness and peace to our search-

ing and questioning hearts.



93 CATHOLIC HOUR STATIONS
In 39 States, the District of Columbia, and Hawaii

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.. 610 kc

..1260 kc

.. 550 kc

.. 790 kc

..1450 kc

..1370 kc

..1240 kc



93 CATHOLIC HOUR STATIONS

In 39 States, the District of Columbia, and Hawaii

Nebraska Omaha . . ........WOW

New Mexico Albuquerque _ KOB

New York ..Buffalo WBEN
New York WEAF
Schenectady...;.'.; WGY

North Carolina ..Charlotte WSOC
Raleigh _.WPTF

Winston-Salem WSJS

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Bismarck KFYR
Fargo — WDAY

Cincinnati ^ WSAI *

Cleveland WTAM
Lima WLOK

TUsa KVOO

.. 590 kc

..1030 kc

.. 930 kc

.. 660 kc

.. 810 kc

..1240 kc

.. 680 kc

.. 600 kc

..1360 kc

-1100 kc
..1240 kc

Pennsylvania Allentown WSAN
Altoona WFBG
Johnstown ..WJAC
Lewistown WMRF
Philadelphia ..KYW
Pittsburgh KDKA
Reading ....WRAW
Wilkes-Barre ....WBRE

WJARRhode Island Providence-

South Dakota

Tennessee

Utah .....

Virginia

— 1470 kc
— 1340 kc
— 1400 kc
— 1490 kc
— 1060 kc
-1020 kc
— 1340 kc
— 1340 kc

.... 920 kc.

— 1250 kc
.... 560 kc
— 1330 kcGreenville ..WFBC

..Sioux Falls..... -KSOO-KELO 1140-1230 kc

..Kingsport .WKPT
Memphis WMC*
Nashville WSM*

Fort Worth ...WBAP*
Houston .KPRC
San Antonio WOAI
Weslaco KRGV

..Salt Lake City KDYL*

-1400 kc
.. 790 kc
.. 650 kc

-1440 kc
.. 820 kc
.. 820 kc
.. 950 kc
-1200 kc
..1290 kc

..1320 kc

Washington ..Seattle—.:, ..: KOMO
Spokane KHQ

Hawaii

* Delayed Broadcast

..Honolulu KGU

(Revised as of March, 1946)



CATHOLIC HOUR RADIO ADDRESSES IN
PAMPHLET FORM

Prices Subject to change without notice.

OUR SUNDAY VISITOR is the authorized publisher of all CATHOLIC HOUR ad-
dresses in pamphlet form. The addresses published to date, all of which are available,
are listed below. Others will be published as they are delivered.

Quantity Prices Do Not Include Carriage Charge

“The Divine Romance,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, 80 pages and cover.
Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $8.75 per 100.

“A Trilogy on Prayer,” by Rev. Thomas F. Burke, C.S.P., 82 pages and cover.
Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $5.60 per 100.

“Christianity and the Modern Mind,” by Rev. John A- McClorey, S.J., 64 pages and
cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities. $6.50 per 100.

“The Moral Law,” by Rev. James M. Gillis, C.S.P., 88 pages and cover. Single
copy, 20c; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $10.50 per 100.

“Christ and His Church,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Joseph M. Corrigan, 88 pages and
Cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities. 10.60 per 100.

“The Marks of the Church,” by Rev. Dr. John K. Cartwright, 48 pages and cover.
Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“The Organization and Government of the Church,” by Rev. Dr. Francis J. Connell,
C.SS.R., 48 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 6 or more, 8c each. In quantities

$6.50 per 100.

“Moral Factors in Economic Life,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Francis J. Haas and Rt.
Rev. Msgr. John A. Ryan, 32 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or
more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“Divine Helps for Man,” by Rev. Dr. Edward J. Walsh, C.M., 104 pages and
cover. Single copy, 25c postpaid ; 5 or more. 20c each. In quantities, $14.00 per 100.

“The Parables,” by Rev. John A. McClorey, S.J., 128 pages and cover. Single

copy, 30c postpaid; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $13.00 per 100.

“Christianity’s Contribution to Civilization,” by Rev. James M. Gillis, C.S.P.,

96 pages and cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid; 6 or more, 15c each. In quantities,

$11.00 per 100.

“Manifestations of Christ,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, 123 pages and

cover. Single copy, 30c postpaid ; 5 or more, 25c each. In quantities, $15.00 per 100.

“The Way of the Cross,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, 32 pages and cover
(prayer book size). Single copy, 10c postpaid; 5 or more. 5c each. In quantities,

$3.50 per 100.

“Christ Today/' by Very Rev. Dr. Ignatius Smith, O.P., 48 pages and cover.

Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“The Christian Family,” by Rev. Dr. Edward Lodge Curran, 68 pages and cover.
Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $7.75 per 100.

“Rural Catholic Action,” by Rev. Dr. Edgar Schmiedeler, O.S.B., 24 pages and

cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $5.00 per 100.

“Religion and Human Nature,” by Rev. Dr. Joseph A. Daly, 40 pages and cover.
Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“The Church and Some Outstanding Problems of the Day,” by Rev. Jones L Cor-

rigan, S. J., 72 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In

quantities, $8.75 per 100.

“Conflicting Standards,” by Rev. James M. Gillis, C.S.P., 80 pages and cover. Single

copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $8.75 per 100.

“The Seven Last Words,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. J. Sheen, (prayer book size) 32 pages

and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 5c each. In quantities, $3.50 per 100.

“The Church and the Child,” by Rev. Dr. Paul H. Furfey, 48 pages and cover.

Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“Love’s Veiled Victory and Love’s Laws,’’ by Rev. Dr. George F. Strohaver, S.J.,

48 pages and cover. Single copy. 15c postpaid ; 5 or more 8c each. In quantities,

$6.50 per 100.

“Religion and Liturgy,” by Rev. Dr. Francis A. Walsh, O.S.B., 32 pages and

cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $5.50 per 100.

“The Lord's Prayer Today,” by Very Rev. Dr. Ignatius Smith, O.P., 64 pages

and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities $6.50 per 100.

“God, Man and Redemption,” by Rev. Dr. Ignatius W. Cox, S.J., 64 pages and
cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“This Mysterious Human Nature,” by Rev. James M. Gillis, C.S.P., 48 pages
and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“The Eternal Galilean,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, 160 pages and

Cover. Single copy, 35c postpaid ; 5 or more, 25c each. In quantities. $17.00 per 100.

“The Queen of Seven Swords,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen (prayerbook size),

32 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 6 or more, 5c each. In quantities,

$3.50 per 100.

“The Catholic Teaching on Our Industrial System,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. John A. Ryan.

32 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities,

$5.50 per 100.



“The Salvation of Human Society,” by Rev. Peter J. Bergen, C.S.P., 48 pages and
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“The Church and Her Missions,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. William Quinn, 82 pages and
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“The Church and the Depression,” by Rev. James M. Gillis, C.S.P., 80 pages and
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“The Church and Modern Thought,” by Rev. James M. Gillis, C.S.P., 80 pages and
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“Misunderstood Truths,” by Most Rev. Duane G. Hunt, 48 pages and cover. Single
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“The Judgment of God and The Sense of Duty,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. William J.

Kerby, 16 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 5c each. Im

quantities, $4.00 per 100.

‘^Christian Education,” by Rev. Dr. James A. Reeves, 32 pages and cover..
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“What Civilization Owes to the Church,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. William Quinn, 64
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“If Not Christianity: What?” by Rev. James M. Gillis, C.S.P.. 96 pages and cover.
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“The Prodigal World,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, 140 pages and cover.

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“The Coin of Our Tribute,” by Very Rev. Thomas F. Conlon, O.P., 40 pages and
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“Pope Pius XI,” by His Eminence Patrick Cardinal Hayes. An address in honor
of the 79th birthday of His Holiness, 16 pages and 4 color cover. Single copy, 10c

postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.00 per 100.

“Misunderstanding the Church,” by Most Rev. Duane G. Hunt, 48 pages and cover.
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“The Poetry of Duty,” by Rev. Alfred Duffy, C.P., 48 pages and cover. Single

copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.00 per 100.

“Characteristic Christian Ideals,” by Rev. Bonaventure McIntyre, O.F.M., 32 pages

and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $5.50 per 100.

“The Catholic Church and Youth,” by Rev. John F. O’Hara, C.S.C., 48 pages and

cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“The Spirit of the Missions,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Thomas J. McDonnell, 32 pages
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“The Life of the Soul,” by Rev. James M. Gillis, C.S.P., 96 pages and cover.

Single copy 25c postpaid ; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $12.00 per 100.

“The Banquet of Triumph,” by Very Rev. J. J. McLarney, O.P., 32 pages and

cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $5.60 per 100.

“Society and the Social Encyclicals—America’s Road Out,” by Rev. R. A. Mc-
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“Pius XI, Father and Teacher of the Nations,” (On His Eightieth Birthday) by

His Excellency, Most Rev. Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, 16 pages and cover. Single copy,

10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 5c each. In quantities, $3.50 per 100.

“The Eastern Catholic Church,’ by Rev. John Kallok. 48 pages and cover. Single

copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“The ‘Lost’ Radiance of the Religion of Jesus,” by Rev. Thomas A. Carney, 40 pages,
and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“Some Spiritual Problems of College Students,” by Rev. Dr. Maurice S. Sheehy, 40'

pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.50)

per 100.

“God and Governments,” by Rev. Wilfrid Parsons, S.J., 48 pages and cover..
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‘Justice and Charity,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen

Part 2
—
“The Individual Problem and the Cross,” 80 pages. Single copy, 15c-.
postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $8.75 per 100.

“Saints vs. Kings,” by Rev. James M. Gillis, C.S.P., 96 pages and cover. Single'

copy, 25c postpaid ; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $12.00 per 100.

“In Defense of Chastity,” by Rev. Felix M. Kirsch, O.M. Cap., 72 pages and!

cover, including study aids and bibliography. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more,

10c each. In quantities, $8.75 per 100.

“The Appeal To Reason,” by Most. Rev. Duane G. Hunt, D.D., LL.D., 72 pages
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“Practical Aspects of Catholic Education,” by Very Rev. Edward V. Stanford,
O.S.A., 48 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more. 8c each. In quan-

tities, $6.50 per 100.

“The Mission of Youth in Contemporary Society,” by Rev. Dr. George Johnson, 40

pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities. $6.50

per 100.

“The Holy Eucharist,” by Most Rev. Joseph F. Rumnrrel, S.T.D.. LL.D., 32 pages
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“The Rosary and the Rights of Man,’ by Very Rev. J. J. McLarney. O.P., 56
pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $6.5.G
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“Human Life,” by Rev. James M. Gillis, C.S.P., 96 pages and cover. Single copy,
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“Freedom,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen.

Part II—“Personal Freedom,” 96 pages and cover. Single copy, 25c postpaid

;

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“Toward the Reconstruction of a Christian Social Order,” by Rev. Dr. John P.
Monoghan, 48 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid

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quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“Marian Vignettes,” by Rev. J. R. Keane, O.S.M., 32 pages and cover. Single
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“The Peace of Christ,” by Very Rev. Martin J. O’Malley, C.M., 32 pages and cover.
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“God’s World of Tomorrow,” by Rev. Dr. John J. Russell, 40 pages and cover.
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“What Catholics Do At Mass,” by Rev. Dr. William H. Russell, 72 pages and cover,
including study club questions and suggestions, and brief bibliography. Single copy, 15c
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“The Catholic Tradition in Literature,” by Brother Leo, F.S.C., 40 pages and cover.
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“Prophets and Kihgs: Great Scenes, Great Lines,” by Rev. James M. Gillis, C.S.P.,
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“Peace, the Fruit of Justice,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, 64 pages and
cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“The Seven Last Words and The Seven Virtues,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen,
80 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $8.75
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“1930—Memories—1940”—The addresses delivered in the Tenth Anniversary Broad-
cast of the Catholic Hour on March 3, 1940, together with congratulatory messages and
editorials, 80 pages and cover. Single copy, 25c postpaid ; 5 or more. 20c each. In quan-
tities, $11.00 per 100.

“What Kind of a World Do You Want,” by Rev. Wilfrid Parsons, S.J., 40 pages and
cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“The Life and Personality of Christ,” by Rev. Herbert F. Gallagher, O.F.M., 48 pages
and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“Law,” by Rev. Dr. Howard W. Smith, 40 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid
;

5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“In the Beginning,” by Rev. Arthur J. Sawkins, 40 pages and cover. Single copy,
15c postpaid; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.00 per 100.

“America and the Catholic Church,” by Rev. John J. Walde, 48 pages and cover.
Single Copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities. $6.50 per 100.

“The Social Crisis and Christian Patriotism,” by Rev. Dr. John F. Cronin, S.S., 40
pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.50 per
100 .

“Missionary Responsibility,” by the Most Rev. Richard J. Cushing, D.D., LL.D., 32
pages and cover. Single copy. 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $5.50
per 100.

“Crucial Questions,” by Rev. James M. Gillis, C.S.P., 64 pages and cover. Single
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“War and Guilt,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen of the Catholic University of
America, 196 pages and cover. Single copy, 50c postpaid; 5 or more, 40c each. In
quantities, $20.00 per 100.

“The Purposes of Our Eucharistic Sacrifice,” by Rev. Gerald T. Baskfield, S.T.D.,
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“The Case for Conscience,” by Rev. Thomas Smith Sullivan, O.M.I.. S.T.D., 32 pages
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“The Catholic Notion of Faith,” by Rev. Thomas N. O’Kane, 40 pages and cover.
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“Freedom Defended,’ by Rev. John F. Cronin, S.S., Ph.D., 32 pages and cover. Single
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“The Rights of the Oppressed,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Martin J. O’Connor, 40 pages and
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“The Practical Aspects of Patriotism,” by Rev. George Johnson. Ph.D., 40 pages and
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“Peace.” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, 160 pages and cover. Single copy,
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“Christian Heroism,” by Rev. Robert J. Slavin, O.P.. 64 pages and cover. Single
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“A Report to Mothers and Fathers,” by Rev. William A. Maguire, Chaplain, U. S.
Army, and Rev. Christopher E. O’Hara, Chaplain, U. S. Navy. 24 pages and cover.
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“The Liturgy and the Laity,” by Rev. William J. Lallou, 32 pages and cover.
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“The Catholic Interpretation of Culture,” by Rev. Vincent Lloyd-Russell, 40 pages
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“Conquering With Christ,” by Rev. John J. Walde, 48 pages and cover. Single
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“The Victory of the Just,” by Rev. John F. Cronin. S.S., 40 pages and cover.
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“Thoughts for a Troubled Time,” by Rev. John Carter Smyth, C.S.P., 32 pages and

cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c. In quantities, $6.50 per 100.

“We Are the Children of God,” by Rev. Leonard Feeney, S.J., 32 pages and cover.
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“Justice,” by Rev. Ignatius Smith, O.P., 32 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c
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“The Crisis in Christendom,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen. 112 pages and
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“The Christian Family,” by Rev. Dr. Edgar Schmiedeler, O.S.B., 32 pages and cover.
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“Social Regeneration,” by Rev. Wilfrid Parsons, S.J., 24 pages and cover. Single

copy. 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $6.00 per 100.

“Second Report to the Mothers and Fathers,” by Catholic Chaplains of the Army
and Navy. 48 pages and cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In

quantities, $8.50 per 100.

“Sainthood, the Universal Vocation,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Ambrose J. Burke. 24 pages

and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $6.00 per 100.

“The Path of Duty,” by Rev. John F. Cronin, S.S., 40 pages and cover. Single

copy. 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“The Church in Action,” by Rev. Alphonse Schwitalla, S.J., Rev. Paul Tanner, Rev.

William A. O’Connor. Rt. Rev. James T. O’Dowd, Very Rev. John J. McClafferty, Rev.

Dr. Charles A. Hart, Very Rev. George J. Collins, C.S.Sp., Rev. John La Farge, S.J.,
and Rev. Lawrence F. Schott. 64 pages and cover. Single copy 20c postpaid ; 5 or more,

15c each. In quantities, $7.50 per 100.

“The Foundations of Peace,” by Rev. T. L. Bouscaren, S.J.. 32 pages and cover.
Single copy, 15c postpaid

;
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“Human Plans are Not Enough,” by Rev. John Carter Smyth, C.S.P. 32 pages and
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“One Lord: One World,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen. 100 pages and cover.
Single copy, 25c postpaid ; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $13.00 per 100.

“The Catholic Layman and Modern Problems,” by O’Neill. Woodlock, Shuster, Mat-
thews, Manion and Agar. 68 pages and cover. Single copy 20c postpaid ; 5 or more,

15c each. In quantities, $9.00 per 100.

“God,” by Rev. Richard Ginder. 36 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid

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“The Moral Law,” by Rev. T. L. Bouscaren, S.J. 32 pages and cover. Single copy,

15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities. $6.50 per 100.

“The Sacramental System,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Ambrose J. Burke, 40 pages and cover.

Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Concerning Prayer,” by Rev. John Carter Smyth, C.S.P. 36 pages and cover.

Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $7.50 per 100.

“You,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen. 104 pages and cover. Single copy,

25c postpaid; 5 or more. 20c each. In quantities, $13.00 per 100.

“Problems of the Postwar World,” by George N. Shuster, Richard Pattee, Frank

Sheed, Fulton Oursler, G. Howland Shaw. William Hard, Rev. Timothy J. Mulvey, O.M.I.

128 pages and cover. Single copy, 35c postpaid ; 5 or more, 25c each. In quantities,

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“Saints For The Times,” by Rev. Thomas J. McCarthy. 48 pages and cover. Single

copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.50 per 100.

“Do We Need Christ?” by Rev. Robert I. Gannon, S.J. 40 pages and cover. Single
copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Happiness and Order,” by Rev. Robert Slavin, O.P. 48 pages and cover. Single

copy, 20c postpaid; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.50 per 100.

“Love On Pilgrimage,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen. 96 pages and cover.
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(Complete list of 120 pamphlets to one address in U. S. $16.25 postpaid. Price to

Canada and Foreign Countries, $20.00.)

Address: OUR SUNDAY VISITOR, Huntington, Indiana.