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Religion In A Capsule





Religion In A Capsule

Eight Sunday discussions delivered on the Hour of Faith during the

months of May and June, 1950, by Rev. John E. Meehan and various

guest speakers. The Hour of Faith is heard at 11:30 E.S.T. and is

produced by the National Council of Catholic Men in cooperation with

the American Broadcasting Company.

BY

REV. JOHN E. MEEHAN

Church of Our Lady of the Wayside

Woodside, California

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:

Reverend T. E. Dillon

Censor Librorum

Imprimatur:

•b JOHN F. NOLL, D.D.

Bishop of Fort Wayne

088ddlfted



TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE FIRST BEATITUDE 7

THE SECOND BEATITUDE 16

THE THIRD BEATITUDE 26

THE FOURTH BEATITUDE 31

THE FIFTH BEATITUDE 41

THE SIXTH BEATITUDE 52

THE SEVENTH BEATITUDE 62

THE EIGHTH BEATITUDE 72



Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2016 c

https://archive.org/details/religionincapsulOOmeeh



FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

THE FIRST BEATITUDE

Talk given on May 7, 1950

Dr. Hagerty, I am very grateful to have you with me

today in this discussion, and Fve chosen this way of

bringing out our discussion on some of the problems

of our time because I have noticed so frequently in

radio programs, in the press, the various writings and

pronouncements of individuals, that there seems to be

a recognition of the need for something besides the

material approach to the problem of our times, and so

often I have heard it said that the Beatitudes or the

“Sermon on the Mount” was what was needed. Had

you noticed this?

Yes, I have noticed it, Father Meehan. There are a

number of books that have been published on the Beati-

tudes, and people are crying for the deeper, spiritual

meaning of life.

Well, I have often wondered, as Fve heard this espe-

cially from some of the—oh—so called more practical
men of the world, the business men, and the poli-

ticians, too, if they really know what the Sermon on

the Mount is all about. I wonder if they've read it?

Do you think they have?

Well, I would imagine that many people have read it.

There is still a great proportion of our population

that reads the Bible, but the difference between

thought and action is an evident fact of our time.

Well, it seems to me that in our time people are seek-
ing religion in a capsule, and they want their pros-

perity and their pleasure in large doses. It has oc-

curred to me that perhaps they are thinking about

—

instead of the Sermon on the Mount (that's pretty

long) that they were probably really thinking about

the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount which we

call the Beatitudes, and, I thought these things which

looked like eight small capsules of religion given to

us by our Lord might be a good basis for our dis-

cussion.

That would be a marvelous prescription, Father, to

give to America. I imagine that more people would



8 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

DOCTOR
HAGERTY
CONT:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

take capsules in the form of penicillin or even hista-

mine, don't you think?

Well, they're taking plenty of those. Now, do you

suppose we can change it over a little and perhaps the

cure we can offer will be even more effective?

I would imagine that the capsules that are contained

in the Beatitudes would be more potent perhaps than

even the atom or the hydrogen bomb.

They certainly would, and I am sure that they would
be if our Lord were to speak them again today. The

first Beatitude, for instance. We find Our Lord with
the multitude gathered around Him at the beginning
of His public mission, and He spoke those words

in His direct way, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for

theirs is the kingdom of heaven." This was certainly

an atom bomb in His time. He was speaking to a

crowd of people that were not looking for that sort

of thing. Don't you think it was a good deal of a

shock to His hearers?

I wonder, Father, how the people of that time under-

stood such a strange pronouncement. I imagine that

today there are many—in fact I know of many—who
receive that Beatitude with a certain cynicism.

Yes, I think that's very true. I think the people in

our time react much as the people did then. They

heard the word “poor"—and in their time there was a
good deal of prosperity in the Roman Empire, and

the standard of living was high in Judea. The stand-

ard of living is high in our prosperous time now, and

don't you think the attitude is that there is a certain

disgrace attached to poverty?

That is a theory that developed unfortunately some

centuries ago, and as a result of it, heaven is here.

The good are rewarded by good things here, and so

perhaps that idea of “the poor in spirit" needs some

understanding. What does it mean?

Well, I think the distinction that should be made is

that there is a difference between poverty and desti-

tution. Do you think that's the misunderstanding?

I wonder. Do you think, Father, that in the light of

the way that our world is now constructed, that the



THE FIRST BEATITUDE 9

DOCTOR
HAGERTY
CONT:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

idea of poverty is found in the goods of the earth?

Many people are completely devoid of such goods. On

the other hand, the people who are in control of these

goods can get no joy in them. Whom did you say
are the poor, the destitute?

Well, the destitute are those who are what we call

the victims of society, the victims of our economic

order. I know it’s been my experience in dealing with
what we call the poorer part of a great city that there

are three kinds of poor, or three kinds of people who

are destitute—there were those whom I call the un-
fortunate poor, who seem to have difficulties, some-

times they have great difficulties—once upon a time

they got down and they can’t seem to get up again.

Then there are the, well, shall we call them the stupid

poor, the ones who are certainly not well equipped

mentally or don’t have the capabilities of making a

way for themselves in the world. I think those are

the ones our Lord was speaking of when he said, “The

poor ye always have with you.” And then we have

the third kind, we had them especially during the de-

pression, whom I call the professional poor, the ones
who play the game, and they get all the free things

that are handed out by the social and government

agencies.

I’m impressed by the universality of our Lord’s

thought, and I’m reminded that old Aristotle, in talk-

ing of the ways of life, the ways of pleasure, the ways

of honor, and the ways of goodness, eliminates a way

of money-getting, and he says that people who seek

money as a good are in grave error. Money is always

for something else, and so I wonder if the people who

devote most of their time to the pursuit of wealth,

that sort of wealth, are not poor, not poor in spirit,

Father, but poor in understanding.

Well, I think that’s certainly true. There’s, of course,

poverty of spirit which isn’t limited by one’s financial

condition, but I think too often we see it in our coun-

try that the prosperity of spirit—the prosperity of
goods—is an end of poverty’s spirit. But I think
that we still have a problem—the problem of destruc-
tion, which those who have a good deal of this world’s

goods should recognize and that they should be will-

ing to do something about because, I believe, destitu-



10 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

FATHER
MEEHAN
CON'T:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

tion is a disgrace to society. Poverty is a virtue. Now-

a-days we hear people speak so often of St. Francis

and we see how popular he is—everybody's St. Francis
—and yet St. Francis was wed to the Lady Poverty
and took on to himself a life of voluntary poverty.

That's a delightful idea, Father, to add to our dis-

cussion—voluntary poverty. I think that we have
distinguished and shown that destitution is in itself

an evil. It is possible, too, that the mere acquisition

of goods is not good in the deepest sense, and so some-

where in the middle of that comes what you call vol-

untary poverty. What do you mean by that?

Well, we have the voluntary poverty, of course, that's

been illustrated in the Church for centuries in the re-

ligious orders where poverty is accepted as their way

of life. I don't know where one finds more happiness

and contentment than one does in a religious house of

either men or women. That's the Christian proposal,

and there are many others. On the other hand we

have the effort in our own time which is a departure

from the religious attitudes on the part of so many.

I wonder, Father, when you mention voluntary poverty

—voluntary poverty is an example on the part of holy
men and women in a world that doesn't understand

the ultimate objective. Would voluntary poverty be

possible without detachment—complete detachment
from the world's goods?

I think that's of course the essence of the Christian

ideal and the Christian way of life, that is detach-

ment, renouncement. That's the essence of it, and

it's what our Lord asked of us if we are truly to be

Christian. And I think it's possible for the greater

part of society to accept it. Not only to ask just

smaller groups in religious houses to accept it. It's

that ideal our Lord emphasizes in some of his parables

when He speaks of the stewardship of wealth. I

think that's an ideal that has been lost too much in our

time, and it would do a great deal for our society, and

it would do a great deal to solve our problems of des-

titution if there were the recognition of the steward-

ship of wealth.

I wonder how it's possible for the men who produced

the goods of the earth to be so detached from them



THE FIRST BEATITUDE 11

DOCTOR
HAGERTY
CONT:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

that they will release themselves from slavery to those

goods which are often called “poverty.”

Well, I think the best answer to that is, “If they will

stop to look at life as it is, they will realize that in

the smart saying of the day, 'You can't take it with

you,' and they're going to leave it all behind.” I think

the difficulty is that people are so reluctant to take a

birds-eye view of life—to stop and look at it as a
whole and take it from day to day.

I'm wondering if we haven't a moment in timing here.

The Communists not only don't want us to take it

with us
;
they want to take it from us now.

They're trying to make a heaven on earth, so they

have to take it now.

Wouldn't it be better now if we measured our steward-

ship carefully so that there would be no need of a

mere issue over these transient goods ?

I think that's exactly what brought Communism into

being. I think Communism is a materialistic reaction

to the materialism of our time. It is simply another

way of trying to overcome the problem. It sets about

this in a way that is wrong, because it forces poverty

onto a man and forces him to give up the fruits of

his labor to which he has all just right, and then

says that the State knows best, the State will take

over and administer property because it (the state)

knows better than you what to do with the fruits of

your labor.

Is there the need, in the light of the doctrine of this

first Beatitude, to emphasize that the reward of labor

is not really the property we achieve, that there is in-

volved work, and in work, perhaps, there is something

that we find even in war—blood, sweat, and tears.
What philosophy would enable us to accept that?

Well, the Christian philosophy of course is able to meet

any of these problems, and it meets them even in

time of war because our Lord never promised us

heaven on earth, he never promised prosperity or any-

thing of that kind to anyone who followed Him. He
said to “take up the cross and follow me,” and that



12 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

FATHER
MEEHAN
CON'T

:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

has always been the emphasis in the Christian philos-

ophy of life—that this is not a lasting city; that
we're just passing through here; that we have ultimate

goals that are so infinitely more important than these

earthly things that we should hold them lightly as we

go along and not clutch them to our breasts as too

many are wont to do with their material possessions.

That strikes me, Father, as one of the really profound

senses of the poor in spirit. If we can really grasp

that—have an insight of that—perhaps we are then
prepared to look for the heaven that's envisioned in

that institution of poverty of spirit.

Yes, I think it is entirely possible that we can see

that it has been accomplished, that it is accomplished;

it's possible to make life something very real, genuine,

and a source of happiness and peace if we use it in

the Christian way. The difficulty comes with the lack

of Christianity. Of course, we've had that crack

made so often, we hear that “we've had Christianity

around for 2000 years, and look at the world!" Well,

who did these things to the world that we see now?

As for instance, today we have the liberals, so called,

who are in the saddle. They offer to us the solution

of democracy. Well, now, is it possible, do you think,

to have democracy without a Christian background?

I wouldn't imagine that it was Christianity that pro-

duced nationalism, or industrialism, or international-

ism, but perhaps Christians have watched the passage

and haven't taken their capsules.

That, I think, is very true. We're to blame, of

course, for a good deal of it ourselves. We can't put
off the blame and point the finger. We have too many
of the kind that . . . well, like a good old friend of

mine who, when the doctor prescribed capsules for

her, she would throw them into the stove, so many

each day, so that if anybody in the family counted

them to check up on her, it would appear that she'd

taken them. And I think there are a good many of

our Christian people who take their religion that very

same way.

It would be a wonderful thing if you could institute a

scientific way of restoring our health and giving us

spiritual vitamins, Father, as you would prescribe

each week these capsules of the Beatitudes.



THE FIRST BEATITUDE IS

FATHER Well, we have it. We have the science of the saints,
MEEHAN : and that science has worked. Look at the lives of

of the saints—the vast number of them through the
ages. And we have also the remedies that our Lord

has given to us in the Sacraments, and these are ours

to use, if we use them. And we have also the voice,

the living voice of the Church, especially in the sov-

ereign Pontiffs in our time, who have given us their

great Encyclicals as guides to our actual, practical liv-

ing, if only the world would listen to them.

DOCTOR I'm often moved to think, Father, that the Encycli-
HAGERTY : cals are in a sense prescriptions written by the holy

doctor . . .

FATHER Yes indeed . . .
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR . . . for the world. And those prescriptions have
HAGERTY : never been taken to the drug store of the world

!

FATHER Well, look at the reaction to Pope Leo XIII. He
MEEHAN : spoke out in the height of the Industrial Revolution,

and the reaction was, “You run along, old man, and

say your prayers; we'll take care of the practical

affairs of the world. We know just how to do those
things, and what do you know about them? You're

just an impractical person.” And then look what hap-

pened 40 years after. They listened to Pius XI, I

believe.

DOCTOR I wonder if they've listened to him or if it's one of
HAGERTY : the wonders of the world that Leo XIII and Pius XI

are pointing out the same facts that were pointed

out by Marx and Engels, and now the challenge is be-

fore the so-called “ideologies.” Who will restore the
health of the world? Communism has had a long

time, and we are being led . . .

FATHER Liberalism has had longer . . .
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR . . . and has had longer, so that now is it possible
HAGERTY : that there is a chance for the opportunities of Cath-

olic Action?

FATHER I think it's here!
MEEHAN:



14 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

SUMMARY

The first Beatitude was the utterance of our Divine Lord that

opened His public life. It was certainly a shock to his listeners

and undoubtedly set in motion the thoughts and plans that led

to the final conflict with the powers of the world, that led to his

trial and condemnation by them. It was an utterance that was

offensive to all ears except those that were truly spiritual—those
that truly loved God and understood His way. In the multitude

that came out to hear our Lord, there were many scribes and

Pharisees, the eminently respectable of the community. They were

the ones who were superior because of their learning and piety. They

were shocked when they heard the pronouncement, "Blessed are the

poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” They had not

been consulted by this Galilean who spoke—and with what author-
ity he spoke! They were offended because they heard the word

“poor,” and they were prosperous themselves. They were inter-

ested indeed because they heard the word “kingdom.” That

brought to their imagination pleasant thoughts of power, wealth,

and luxuries. So, they did not move against our Lord at once, but

began their game of watching Him in the hope that He might
somehow reveal Himself- as the liberator of Israel, perhaps even

the conqueror of the Roman Empire! In all of their watching,

though, they were suspicious. They had not been consulted. They

did not wish to lose their own prestige. They did not want to

have any authority speaking contrary to themselves. In the multi-

tude on the mount, there were certainly representatives of the law

—of the political power in ascendency at the time—that is, the
official guardians of the Pax Romana, the loyal servants of the

Empire. Perhaps they were there because they had heard talk

among the people that a Redeemer—a powerful Son of Israel

—

a new Hope, had come. The prophets had foretold that such a

One was to be expected. They were certainly there because they

felt it their duty to keep an eye on any gathering of these trouble-

some Jews whose indomitable spirit and strong religious convic-

tions were alien to the hedonistic Roman outlook. Undoubtedly,

these foreign agents were contemptuous when they heard the word

“poor” and suspicious when they heard the word “kingdom.” It

was all confusing, and about the only thing they could think of

to do, was to see that the business did not get out of hand. They

were the liberals of their time, and like liberals of all times, theirs

was the way of generous tolerance
—

“live and let live”—just so
there was no disturbance of the high standard of living. Yes, as

in all times, the liberal is one who prefers expediency to prin-

ciple. It requires no great effort of the imagination to project the

divine voice of Our Blessed Lord over the centuries and to under-



THE FIRST BEATITUDE 15

stand how He speaks to the multitude now with similar effect. The

eminently respectable bourgeois, small-minded, nominal Christian

of our time, with his pious Sunday pretense, his respect for pros-

perity, his contempt for the poor, takes refuge in the sweet sayings

of the Master, and in them finds refreshment for his own shriveled

soul. He is sure that the kingdom of heaven and all its glory

is meant for himself and that God is good bemuse He has provided

it for him. He is suspicious of any voice that speaks out to the

contrary. The materialists and the secularists of our time are the

representatives of the law—the patriots of our time—who are
sure that the foundations of government and good order are silver

and gold and oil, that the happiness of man rests on the American

standard of living, and of this kingdom there must be no end.

They oppose, of course, the Communist standard, not because it

is unjust, not because it takes from man his rights by force,

not because it takes the fruits of one's labor by government decree,

but because it disturbs the condition of things as they are. It

is not difficult to see that if our Lord were to come again in our

time, He would be crucified. Let it be noted well that our Lord

did not say, “Blessed are the poor in pocketbook" and leave Him-

self open to the accusation of the Communists that religion teaches

that one should not strive to better his economic condition, that

one should be satisfied with what he has, that one should never

disturb the equilibrium of things as they are, in a word, that

religion is the opium of the people. What our Lord said was,

“Blessed are the poor in spirit," and poverty of spirit can be found

in those who have much, but who realize that it has all come from

the providence of God, and that they who have are but stewards.

The poor in pocketbook may be entirely lacking in poverty of

spirit, for they may be envious and greedy and full of hate. They

are far from the kingdom of heaven. In the patriarch Job in the

Old Testament, in whom we find a prefigure of our Blessed Lord, be-
cause he possessed all things, lost all things for the glory of God,

and regained all things by the providence of God, we find the perfect

example of poverty of spirit. Job summed it all up in his virtuous

words to those who reproached him, “The Lord giveth, and the

Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." How many
of those who fear the portent of material destruction and who pious-

ly wave the Sermon on the Mount as a banner over the fortress of

hoped-for safety in things as they are, can truthfully and sincerely

say in their hearts, “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord."



FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

THE SECOND BEATITUDE

Talk given on May 14, 1950

Dr. Hagerty, Fm very glad to have you here with me
again today so that we may further discuss these

“capsules” given to us by Our Blessed Lord, which

may, because of their capsule form, appeal to the

modern mind, and perhaps we can be of service in pre-

scribing them.

It's a privilege to be with you again Father. However,

as we discussed the matter last week, our thought was

that these capsules were strong medicine. I wonder,

Father, is it as difficult to take the medicine of Our

Lord as it is to take some of the medicine that is of-

fered in our day by our great doctors?

I don’t think it’s nearly as difficult. And, moreover,

we have an assurance, in taking the medicine that Our

Lord offers us, because He didn’t ask us to take it on

blind faith. I think today people in general have a

great deal more faith in the doctors’ medicine than

they have in the prescriptions of Our Blessed Lord.

And we can look to Our Blessed Lord and see what

the effect of His own medicine is because He took it

first. He was the perfect user of His own prescrip-

tions. And we can see the effect of them in His

life and what they will bring in our lives, too, if we

follow Our Blessed Lord. He gave up everything;

He gave up everything in His showing of poverty of

spirit. And then He was in perfect obedience to His

Eternal Father. He gave up His place in heaven. He

submitted Himself perfectly to the needs of man,

and that’s what we’re concerned with. The doctors

of medicine in this world are concerned with the needs

of the body, but the needs of the soul are even more

important.

That seems to be the prescription that you have for

discussion today, Father, does it not?

It is. Our Lord had another of those prescriptions of

His which were, I believe, all of them a shock to the

ears of His time. “Blessed are the meek, for they

shall possess the land.” It must be a shock, certainly,



FATHER
MEEHAN
CON'T:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

THE SECOND BEATITUDE 17

to us -at first, to think that the meek will possess any-
thing.

One difficulty that I find, Father, regarding this Beati-

tude, is that the word “meek” or “meekness” seems

almost to have dropped out of our language in-

sofar as meaning is concerned. It has an entirely

different meaning than it must contain in the pre-

scription, don't you think?

Don't you think it's just the change in the first let-

ter

That's about it.

. . . from “meekness” to “weakness”?

weakness . . .

. . . That's the general attitude today that “meekness”

is about the same as “weakness.”

And 'once again people will smile, perhaps express a

certain cynicism, even to dream that the meek will

inherit the earth. How can the weak inherit the
earth ?

Well, I suppose the weak can't if we really stick to

what the word “weak” means; but if we keep to the

meaning of what Our Blessed Lord said here, the

meek

,

or the “patient,” as Monsignor Knox puts it

in his translation, “shall inherit the earth,” then we

can look back and see that this has been proved.

Again, the medicine of Our Lord has worked. And,

while it may not seem to be true in the immediate

present, and the impatience of man with things as they

are would lead Him to believe otherwise, nevertheless,

we see the working out of it in the long run, and that's

what's important—because a thousand years are but
as a day in the mind of God.

That is very true. But in our day people are in-

dulging in action rather than in contemplation.

Yes. I know they have the idea that anyone who isn't

up and doing all the time is meek. It's in one of our



18 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

FATHER
MEEHAN
CON’T:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

cartoon series in the paper—Casper Milquetoast—who
is never able to do anything. He is weak, and un-

fortunately, moderns consider him meek, too. But he’s

not, he’s just weak, of course, and that’s a different

matter. Well, we see these tendencies, in our time,

don’t you believe, in this entire business of action,

action, action all the time—going places and doing
things rather than thinking things through and paus-

ing sometimes to be meek, to be patient?

The denial of God perhaps is the foundation of this

kind of weakness. We need our medicine, but how are
we going to be restored to God if v/e spend our time

wholly in action?

Well, that’s the great difficulty, of course, and we’ve

had, as you say, the denial of God. But people can’t

just have a denial; so something has to be put in its

place. There has to be something offered to the

minds and thoughts of man, and the thing that has

been offered by some of the prophets of the new hope

is the deification of man. Man has been set up as the

highest evidence of creation, and we have this “men

like Gods” idea.
*

It seems so interesting that that has arisen. It has

sprung up almost like the dragon’s teeth not only in

countries like England, with H. G. Wells, but perhaps

the truly great prophet of “the men like Gods” idea

is Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche has forgotten God,

and in the demand, the desire, the need for Him, he

has made God of himself. That, perhaps, is the very

antithesis of meekness.

We certainly see it in Nietzsche. But we might say
that H. G. Wells was the popularizer of the idea, and

because everyone read H. G. Wells for a while, his

ideas had a great effect pn the minds of people in the

English speaking world. He was simply carrying

over Nietzsche’s philosophy, of course, and we see

its effect in our own country, don’t you believe? For

instance, in the way we’re training children by

bringing them up centered on self. Don’t you think

that that is what we’re doing today, for instance,

with our health and hygiene programs? It’s drum-

med into the dear children all the time that they must

just eat certain foods, and they must have certain



THE SECOND BEATITUDE 19

FATHER
MEEHAN
CONT:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

amounts of rest, and they have their rest periods at

school, and they're taught how to take care of their

teeth, and their toenails, and all of these things

center them on their own little self and welfare.

That is the pragmatism or the functionalism of our

time. It is a frightening thing in terms of the forma-

tion of perhaps a “real” self, if I might say that as a

philosopher.

That is certainly the word, I think. In “rear' self

there is so little of realness, and, for many of our

children today, that false realness is evidenced, I think,

in the lack of good manners in children today. Don't

you feel that there is a good deal of lack of decent

manners ?

If children are conditioned to an egotism and pride

before they know better, I wonder what manner they

could manifest towards their parents and towards

those who are associated with them. Are they not

like the brute rather than the little angel that Rous-

seau imagined?

Well, they certainly would seem that way. Perhaps,

it sounds cynical. There are some, of course, that

are exceptions, but there is an evidence of fear on the

part of so many parents for their children today, and

I must confess that sometimes I am afraid of them
myself, especially with the parents hovering in the

background. Do you remember the motto of New
College at Oxford, “Manners Maketh Man?”

And that is a profound statement, Father . . .

. . . It sounds superficial, maybe in first hearing . . .

. . . but if we were to ask what is the root of manners

rather than consider this superficial conditioning that

we receive by imitation, if manners sprang from the

south, that deep, profound south, then perhaps we

would be in a situation to explore further this idea

of meekness.

Well, meekness is further put out of the minds of

people today, don't you believe, by the glorification of

competition and by the glorification of publicity, and



20 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

FATHER
MEEHAN
CON’T:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

by the glorification of power. We see this constantly.
We see evidences of it even in the young. So many
of these youngsters that get into trouble and get

themselves locked up for it—the first thing they ask
the next day is, “Did it get into the papers?,” and

“What did they say in the papers about it?” It's the

publicity end of it that they’re interested in. And

then the competition in the business world . . .

Perhaps, Father, do you think that the dynamism

that’s behind some of our theories today, for example,

a conflict for survival, fails to overlook or to note that

the survival is based not upon the conflict merely, but

upon a service. I wonder if that isn’t one of the

fundamental elements of meekness?

I think that’s exactly it. We should understand that,
and the world must understand it, I believe, if we are

to survive at all. In the condition that we’ve gotten

ourselves into now, we simply have to understand that

it’s not the struggle, not the competition, and not

the power that’s going to be the salvation of our

civilization and our culture, but it must lie in the

prescription of Our Blessed Lord, “Blessed are the

meek,” and they shall possess the land indeed, and if

they don’t possess it, it looks now as if nobody will.

How, then, can we be led to the insights that are found

in imitating Our Blessed Lord ?

Well, of course, the only way is the old way, and that

is to listen to the voice of Our Blessed Lord—where
that voice is to be heard and where we can hear it

with certainty, where He established Himself in His

Church, where He established that living voice and

gave it a tongue. And that voice is to be heard, is

to be heeded by mankind. Our Lord has said very

definitely that it must be, and if it is not, we pay

the penalty. Now, God spoke to Adam and Eve in the
beginning, and told what He was giving and how

much was to be theirs, and the conditions on which

they received and the conditions under which they

would hold what God gave them, and they turned

against that, and we see what happened. The penalty

was death. Our Blessed Lord came to overcome that

penalty. He gave his prescriptions as to how we

were to overcome death, and death is still the lot of



THE SECOND BEATITUDE 21

FATHER
MEEHAN
CONT:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

man and of civilization unless we heed the prescrip-

tions of God as spoken to us by His Divine Son.

Do you see a difficulty here, Father. The voice of God

comes to us through the Church. There is a tendency

in our time, in the light of the movement of history

—

dictatorship, tyranny, the various political systems

—

to identify the voice of the Church—perhaps as the
voice of a tyrant.

Why, I think that is in the minds of many people. And

certainly there's been a great deal of propaganda to

foster that idea, and that propaganda has come, of

course, from the tyrants of the world who wish to

nut up a smoke screen, or shall we say an “iron cur-

tain," and so we won't see the truth. And certainly

today the world has learned these tricks of propaganda,

and they're using them to the limit. Yet there is one

voice that should be heeded. This is the voice that is

really the voice of meekness as well as the voice of true

power—the Church. The worldly tyrant voice tries to
silence it by accusing the Church of being tyrannical.

That is the great truth that is recognized by every

loyal son and daughter of Holy Mother Church. It

seems to me that the title of love and affection that

is given to the Pope—our Holy Father—is so very
significant. It implies meekness and draws out a cor-

responding meekness on the part of the faithful.

Yes. And that's the thing that is not understood in

our time. There are probably many well meaning

people in the world—sincere people—who would say
that the Church must be tyrannical, that the Pope must

be a tyrant because of his position in the Church,

and because of the power that he wields. But they

forget this—that Our Lord has said, “Blessed are
the meek." It's the very meekness of Our Holy Father

that keeps him from being a tyrant, that keeps him

sincere, and keeps him truly the Holy Father and not

a holy tyrant.

And I note that the title for which he has the greatest

affection is: “Servant of the Servants of God." Meek-

ness is likewise his virtue.

Yes, it certainly is. And if one has ever had any con-

tacts, any personal contact with the Holy Father, and



22 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

FATHER
MEEHAN
CONT:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

DOCTOR
HAGERTY:

FATHER
MEEHAN

the opportunity of observing him at work, one cer-

tainly understands that he is the “Servant of the Ser-

vants of God,” for any man who is elected to the
Papacy immediately gives up all personal life. He
has no possibility of any personal life of his own.

He's at the beck and call of others at all times, and

as Pius XI said at the end of the last Holy Year

—

someone was sympathizing with him for having to see

all the thousands upon thousands of pilgrims that came

in every day, a million during the year
—
“Your Holi-

ness, you must be glad now that this ordeal is over."

And he said, “No, I am not. On the other hand, I
am very sorry, for now, once again, I shall be the lone-
liest man in the world."

Should we make some comment, Father, about the

presence of this great gift in weak human beings, even

at all stations? Is it possible that sometimes the lack

of meekness in a person in authority may cast a
shadow upon such a great organization as the Church ?

Oh, yes. It can happen, of course, because after all,

the Church is, as Christ established it, made up of hu-

man beings in this world. It's a visible society. And

so they are individuals who can and do forget—be-
cause they are human. But that's their misfortune,

and it's the misfortune of the Church, too, when they

forget the virtue that Christ has called upon us to

practice. But that is nothing, there's nothing perma-

nent about it, nor has the effect of lapses been perma-

nent in the Church. Certainly none of this weakness

is to be found, I don't believe, in our present Holy

Father.

No, certainly not. I wonder how we can all imitate

Our Blessed Lord, and some of His great saints, in

developing in ourselves this gift of meekness?

Well, I think it's very easy if we just remember that

we're not all meant to be heroes. We're not all meant

to be doing the great things of the world. The lit-

tle things that come our way to be done, the little

relationships that we have with others in this world

are of tremendous importance in the sight of God.

After all, if we think of the relative importance of

things to God Himself, then we will understand how

important are. the little things of our lives and our



THE SECOND BEATITUDE 23

FATHER little attitudes and relationships. We call them little.
MEEHAN They’re really big. Bearing in mind the bigness of
CON’T: little things in the sight of God is the way character

is forjned, and it’s the sum total of the virtue of the

little people of the world that will make the world

great or will break it.

DOCTOR And this will rise through love rather than through
HAGERTY : knowledge. And we must get it through faith rather

than through natural conditioning?

FATHER We must get it through faith, and we must get it
MEEHAN : through seeking the grace of God which is given to

us in the means established by Our Blessed Lord.

SUMMARY

As the First Beatitude was a shock to the hearers of Our

Blessed Lord, because He offered poverty of spirit as the gateway

to the kinsrdom of heaven, so the Second Beatitude must have puz-

zled them because He declared that meekness was the price of pos-

session of the land. They all had deep inside themselves the desire

for possession, but who of them had thought of meekness as the

way to gain? In the time of Our Lord they had seen how the force

and power of the Roman Empire had taken possession of even

the land of God’s chosen people. They must have resented the

teaching that implied that meekness could ever win it back. Their

immediate reaction must have been that this man who spoke to

them thus was a dreamer, an idealist, and quite impractical, but

they listened. They did not turn away because He did say some-

thing about possessing the land. Over the centuries the voice of

Our Lord comes to the multitude and declares to them the same

truth, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land.”

As I said last Sunday, even the leaders in the secular worlds who

commend the Sermon on the Mount as the great guide for our

time, and urge it as a road leading us out of our confusion, are

calling us to meekness, though one may wonder if they really

practice it themselves. What does it mean? Certainly, in our time

there is a great desire for possessions, for possessing the land,

or anything else. But, what does meekness have to do with it?

The powerful hold the earth, and the atom bomb and worse are

invoked as our hope and salvation. The unthinking may react

as did the multitude in the time of Our Lord speaking on the mount,

and turn away. Yet, there are those who do understand. After the

Bikini experiments with atom bombs, a high ranking Naval officer,

who is a friend of mine, came to see me on his return from that



24 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

revealing show of force. He said that it was possible to forsee

the time when any willful group of men in the world could take

over control. They could do this by placing atom bombs in

strategic places, and then make demands with the threat that if

they were not met, they would push a button and blow up our great

cities one by one. Then he said, ‘There is only one defense that

we know, and that is to form the minds and consciences of men so

that such use of force will be outlawed and rejected. That is your

job.” In as forceful language as I could use, I countered that it was

his, too, that it is everybody's job. He, like a host of others, will

point to the Church and the clergy as the ones to do a job of saving

the world from itself. I asked him if officers could win a war.

They could not, of course. Nor can the clergy alone—the officers
in the army of Christ—when the war against the powers that
threaten in our time. The multitude must be enlisted. And that

is what Our Blessed Lord sought to do in His time, and the re-

sponse was His crucifixion. It has been the same in many places

in the world today, for we can point to Mindszenty, to Stepinac, and

a host of others whose names are known only to God. However, in

faith, we can take courage. For He overcame even death, and has

enunciated the eternal truth that our hope is in such as these, for

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land.” The meek

are those who understand the providence of God, who see what is

evident, to those who are willing to see, that we are not the

source of anything. We have not made our lives, but have re-
ceived them. We are not able to sustain our own lives, but con-
stantly receive from outside ourselves that which is necessary for

our sustenance. We are not the sources of any power, but only
users and transmitters of that which is supplied to us, supplied to

us by the Divine Generator. We may compare our use of God's
power in ourselves to our use of electricity in this material world.

We know that if we use it according to laws that tell us how to
insulate and transmit it, we have something good and useful. But,

if we ignore these laws, we shall be burned. So it is with God's

power. We must use it according to law, His law. If we are men
of good will, if we are friends of God, how then shall we go about

responding to the words of Our Lord? St. Peter spoke to those

who put this question in the early years after they were first spoken.

He reminded them that they were really strangers in exile and must

live among their neighbors so as to be beyond reproach. God ex-

pected them, he said, to silence by honest living, the ignorant chatter

of fools. Let us recall that the most glorious monument in the

world erected to the honor of God and the memory of man stands

over the mortal remains of St. Peter, the meek and humble fisher-

man, who took the words of Our Divine Lord literally. This should

convince us in our time that it is not the big talker, it is not the



THE SECOND BEATITUDE 25

noisy propagandist, not the clever politician, not the writer of

catchy and misleading advertising, not the lords of finance, not

even the scientist who discovers what God has planned, but rather

the one whose manners are formed by the fact that he is here

living in an alien house. For truly we are but guests whose dwelling,

is a loan, and our real home, something far, far better, surely awaits

us if our manners are good, for we have the divine guarantee,

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land.”



THE THIRD BEATITUDE

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

Talk given on May 21, 1950

It is a great pleasure to have you take part in the

broadcast today, Mrs. Norris.

I am very glad to take part in this discussion with
you, Father, and I like the way you have considered

the Beatitudes as capsules.

Yes, the Beatitudes, at first glance, may look like

small capsules of religion, easy to take. They may

appear as gentle moral sayings of the gentle Master

—

suitable doses for those who wish to have their

religion and morals in small lots and their pleasures

and satisfactions in generous measure, with frosting

and no tasteless coating.

That is indeed the desire of many, but they forget

that a capsule can be very effective because its con-

tents are so ‘concentrated. At times, too, a patient

may be a little afraid of the strength of what the

doctor prescribes and concerned about its effects.

How true that is, and Our Lord, who was the eternal
God, became the physician of the souls of mankind,

not to give a prescription of lulling sedatives nor

aromatic stimulants, but to work the cure of sin.

That does take strong medicine.

Yes, the ills He undertook to remedy are deep-seated.

They need much more than a few doses of strong

medicine. They have their roots in the very depths of

life.

To be sure, and this He demonstrated by not stopping

with the Beatitudes, not even with the whole Sermon

on the Mount, but by going on to the sacrificing of

Himself as the Divine transfusion that men might

live, and live eternally. Here, the patient must work

with the Phvsician who said, BLESSED ARE THEY
THAT MOURN FOR THEY SHALL BE COM-
FORTED. Again, in this Beatitude, Christ Our Lord

shocked His hearers by declaring those who mourn

as blessed—but He caught and held their interest by
speaking of being comforted.



THE THIRD BEATITUDE 27

MRS.

NORRIS

CON'T

:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

No, I suppose the people of Our Lord's time were just

as unwilling to accept mourning as they are in ours.

Yet everyone must sometime in his life learn what

is means. We all have great sorrows come to us in

the course of life, and if we take them as they should

be taken, we find that they can make us much better,

they strengthen us, they turn us to finding our com-

fort where it really is, in the spiritual life.

Yes, that is it, but we have similar temptations in our

time that hide that fact as did the people in Our

Lord's time. They were offered the comfort and

prosperity and safety of the Roman Empire and the

pleasures of the Roman way of life.

It is like the “American way of life" when you put

it that way.

Very much like it, and so it was a shock to the ears

attuned to such propaganda, and the third Beatitude

is a shock to the world today for in our time, we hate

being sad, we like to have fun.

Yes, people do like pleasure, and somehow they too

often associate religion with the absence of it. Maybe

that comes from the Puritan background of our

country, for the very word Puritanism in our language

has come to mean the suppression of all that is re-

laxing and comforting.

But the difference is that Our Lord was speaking of

a spiritual sadness. He did not mean that we should

go about with a long face, that we should have a

lugubrious front, or be dour and repelling. He was

speaking of a sorrow that is rational and reasonable

because by original sin we have lost God or because

we lose God again and again through sins of our own.

No, it would not be the way of Our Lord to have people

take out their own limitations and weakness on their

neighbors, so perhaps we can say that Puritanism was

wrong because it tended to do just that. I have known

people who do act that way, and probably, Father,

you have known such people too.

Yes, there are plenty of them for this feeling of loss

is deep and instinctive. Those who have rejected the



28 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

FATHER
MEEHAN
CON’T:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

spiritual way of life must find it a great burden, so

they seek to shake it off by other means such as

habitual attendance at the movies, by drinking, night

clubs, pulp fiction, romantic “love” stories.

Yes, and the so-called comic books that are such a

bad influence today. I receive many letters from

mothers and teachers who are worried about this

problem. They know how great the influence of these

picture books with their lurid depicting of crime and

vice can be, especially on the minds of children. They

feel almost hopeless in the face of it. I think we can

certainly say with truth that they, together with so

much that is like them in motion pictures, are a con-

tributing cause not only to juvenile delinquency but

to the general weakening of the mental fiber of the

young.

Yes, and not only to the young in years, but also to

those who are not so young in years who have failed

to grow up.

Yes, how often you see adults with the “comics” in

their hands and preferring them to adult mental fare.

And the unfortunate part of it is, that all this sort

of thing has taken away from people the ability to

face reality. The result is that war, atom bombs,

evil, and such, breed hate on the one hand, and

frivolity to the other: read the fight terminology in

headlines, in news, in sports, in business reports, in

political activities, in the reports of conferences of

statesmen. For frivolity, read “society” news, style

descriptions, the women's pages in papers and maga-

zines.

You certainly are right, Father, when you say there

is much frivolity in magazines and columns for

women. There is good and bad, to be sure, but I do

feel that there has been a great lowering of standards

in what is offered as of interest to women. Probably

the women themselves are chiefly to blame. They

have sacrificed so much that is feminine and refining

without the sufficiently strong protest that would

have stopped the trend.

Yes, Mrs. Norris, and when the standards of woman-

hood go down, all standards follow. Perhaps too many



THE THIRD BEATITUDE 29

FATHER mothers have forgotten to mourn for the waywardness
MEEHAN of their sons and have sought refuge in frivolity.
CON’T: In the spiritual life, we know that splendid paradox

of Christian life—happiness even though we mourn
in facing the reality with Christ. St. Augustine put

it so well long ago when he said, “Thou hast made

us for Thyself, 0 God, and our hearts are restless

until they rest in Thee.”

SUMMARY

The impact of the third Beatitude on the listeners who had

come out to hear Our Blessed Lord must have been just as much

of a shock as the first two. Again they heard mention of something

desirable, comfort, but it was preceded by a condition that seemed

strange indeed. How could mourning and comfort go together?

The people of Israel who were present had long been accustomed

to mourn but it had not brought them comfort. In the time of

Our Lord, they were mourning again, as they had mourned beside

the waters of Babylon, because a stranger had entered their gates

and taken over the rule of the proud little nation. They chafed

under this domination: it brought no comfort. They could have

readily understood this new teacher if He had said, miserable are

they that mourn for they are without comfort.

The impact of the third Beatitude on those who casually or

incidentally hear the words of Our Divine Lord today are as dis-

concerting and mystifying as ever by the juxtaposition of the

words “mourn” and “comforted.” The modern listener is quite

like the few Romans who might have been on hand to hear Our

Lord as the guardians of good order and government. To them,

religion was an ornament of life, put on or left off according to the

choice of the individual. It was not of vital importance, though

it was useful in keeping people quiet and under control. In our

time, there is a constant and consuming pursuit of comfort, but

that one should mourn to gain it, is inconceivable. If one is going

to preach religion successfully, if his doctrine is to appeal to the

eminently respectable—they are the ones who must be depended
upon to bring success—he must promise comfort, the comfort of
peace of mind undisturbed by any outmoded ideas such as conscience

and guilt, penance and sin. Oh, the Cross may be used as an

appropriate symbol of some vague Christian connection, but it

is to be thought of as related to something that happened a long

time ago and calls for no more unpleasantness now than the firing

on Fort Sumpter does. The doctrine that appeals must promise



30 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

a sure and unobstructed path to the center of Heaven, past a St.

Peter shorn of all authority as keeper of the gates—in fact, the
gates themselves must be abolished, for they are a symbol of all

that is undemocra&c. Then, too, of course the doctrine that appeals

must include financial security, pensions, and no children except

for those who want them—and are “fit” to have them. Marriage
must be a convenience to be put asunder according to the whimsical

sentiment of man, and God must stay out of it arid bide His time

—

if He really has a time, or an eternity.

Yet in spite of all the wilfulness of man, in spite of his demands

and the setting up of his own standards, everyone born into this

world must learn to mourn. According to his use of this necessity,

he will find comfort or misery. If our mourning is according to

the mind of God, revealed to us by the incarnate Second Person

of the Most Blessed Trinity, we shall have comfort. He called us

to mourn in the depths of our souls because the sin of man has

opposed the will of God, because thereby we have lost our heritage,

because the cross of mourning and repentance is the cross that we

must take up if we are to share in the work of Christ the crucified

Redeemer. Blessed are they that mourn in this wise, for they shall

find the comfort of faith and hope and charity; they shall find

the comfort of grace that shall nourish their supernatural life;

they shall find the comfort of Simon of Cyrene who learned to love

when pressed into service; and the comfort of Veronica whose

loving service in the presence of a hostile and mocking crowd was

rewarded by the impression on her scarf and on her soul, of the

face of Him whose mourning brought the whole world gladness.

Through all the ages since, the Saints have mourned with Christ

and have found His promised comfort and led others on the way of

beatitude.

The other way of mourning is the sadness of the flesh. It is

an inevitable sadness, because life in this world is a constant

witness to the fact that the moment we are born, we begin to die.

The flesh mourns the passing of youth, the loss of its beauty, of

its strength. The carnal mind mourns the weakening of its instru-

ment, the brain, as the inevitable years wear down all creation.

All are fated to mourn who do not remember their Creator in the

days of their youth, for inevitably the days will come when they

shall say, I have no pleasure in them. (Ecctes. XII) How all must
mourn without comfort, both the dead and the mourners, who stand

at a grave that is thought to be the end!

Only the blindest beggar at the gate of life can deny that to

mourn is the lot of man, willingly or unwillingly. Lord Jesus,

give us grace to understand and to live by Thy prescription,

Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.



FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

THE FOURTH BEATITUDE

Talk given on May 28, 1950

Mr. King, Fm very glad to welcome you here on our
program in this series on the Hour of Faith. Fve

called this series “Religion in a Capsule” because Fve

taken the Sermon on the Mount, its beginning and

the Beatitudes, as a prescription of Our Blessed Lord

given to us in the . . . form of a capsule . . . Our

Blessed Lord—the Divine Physician—going about the
work of curing the ills of mankind.

How did Our Blessed Lord, Father, happen to get a
crowd about him on the occasion of this sermon?

Well, St. Matthew tells us that Our Blessed Lord had

been curing many people of their bodily ills and that

he had been preaching penance to the people. He
was evidently making preparations to draw a crowd

so that they would listen to His teaching. Our Lord

was getting attention. Up to this time He had been
curing bodily ills. Apparently, that’s what St. Mat-

thew would indicate. St. Matthew also said that He was

preaching penance. That probably didn’t attract very

many people, but He balanced it off with these bodily

cures so He would get a crowd to listen to him. Now,

they were not prepared, of course, for the kind of

remedies that Our Lord offered them in the sermon

on the mount because their real interest, we can be

sure, and their first interest, lay in the cure of their

bodily ills.

Well, that sounds very much like 1950, Father.

Well, human nature is human nature all the way

through, isn’t it? They had not understood what was

necessary as a preparation for what Our Lord wanted

them to do and again we see, as Fve said before in

this series, that Our Lord didn’t ask anyone to do

anything that He Himself did not do. He gave the

examples as well as being the Divine Physician. He

was the Divine Exemplar, for just before this sermon,

St. Matthew tells us that Our Lord had gone out into

the desert and there He had fasted for 40 days and

40 nights, fasted from all food and drink as a



32 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

FATHER
MEEHAN
CON’T:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN;

preparation for this work that He was to do. Jesus
Christ, who was God, was doing this as an example
to us of what we must do . . .

. . .
proving his own teaching about the necessity of

penance . . .

Then he preached penance afterwards. Yes. While

he preached penance to the people, he’d given the

example of penance first, and a very severe penance.

Few of us could ever stand the penance that He took
upon Himself. And so He had to begin the work of

preaching penance and then show it, and at the end

of His life, of course, He gave the supreme example

of penance. But, in the meantime, the people of His

day must have been shocked again when they heard

this Fourth Beatitude as they had been shocked by

the others. They must have been shocked by this

“call to justice” and those words, “hunger and thirst,”

but again you see He uses this means of holding their

attention—He promises that they would be filled.
“Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice,

for they shall be filled.”

If the words “hunger and thirst” sounded pretty harsh

to their ears then, Father, possibly they sound just as

hard to modern ears.

They certainly do. Of course, probably the greatest

difficulty that we have in the world is making the

effort. Hunger and thirst and sacrifice and struggle

of any kind is a difficulty for human nature, but Our

Lord made bold to urge them all on the people because

they are necessary in the scheme of things as they

are arranged by Almighty God. Now, the people of

His day may have been a little disappointed in hearing

that Our Lord spoke of hunger and thirst. They

might have thought, “Here is the one we’ve been

waiting for, here’s the one who is going to be the

restorer of the kingdom of Israel.” Now, in the Old

Testament, you see, God had promised them a land

flowing with milk and honey, and that’s the way He

drew the people. He drew the children of Israel, the

way He got them to leave the materialism and the

material comforts and luxury of Egypt, because He

promised them a land flowing with milk and honey.

And so they were willing to go out of Egypt where they

had all of the high pagan civilization of that time.



THE FOURTH BEATITUDE 38

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING

Well, the expression “hunger and thirst” involves so

much of a personal deep yearning, and I think it more

or less indicates that even the least, even the least

known, even the poorest as well as the richest, are

involved in this particular Beatitude, though of course

hunger and thirst nowadays to some people seem to be

a miscarriage of the whole cosmic scheme, don’t you

think so, Father?

Oh, undoubtedly, because we think of our bodies first,

we think that is the basis of living, we think of living

as a bodily matter; and that if there is any such thing

as life after what we call “death” here in this world,

that it is a very uncertain thing and that it will not be

connected with anything like hunger and thirst any-

way, and they figure, much as the people of the old

law did, that “Why not let God take care of this sort
of thing?” They looked to the law of Moses, and

the law of Moses regulated everything, and they saw

that God had sent prophets and teachers and had used

Divine force to protect his people. “So,” said those of

the old law, “Let God do it.” And people say the

same thing now, don’t they
—
“Why doesn’t God do

this, why doesn’t He do that?”

Well, that’s quite true because sometimes people don’t

care nowadays, it seems to me, to do their own share

of the work that must be done. Now, this matter of

hungering and thirsting after justice, Father. Do you

think that some people could construe this, in our own

day, to mean that “I hunger and thirst after justice

for myself. I want everything that’s coming to me,”

but not particularly recognizing any other duties or

obligations that this Beatitude would involve?

You are undoubtedly right, there. Of course, it may

sound a little cynical when we say that, but the gen-

eral attitude, don’t you believe, in most people is,

“I come first, and after me the deluge,” that sort of

thing. “I want what I want when I want it?” And

wasn’t that the basic difficulty of all mankind? It is

fundamental in the natural order into which man

plunged himself in the very beginning when our first

parents chose their own will in preference to the

will of God, We see that today, we see it’s the same
kind of thing . . .

. . . except, of course, being translated into an alto-



34 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

MR. KING gether different dimension by the life of Our Blessed
CON’T : Lord. He told people to love one another and to have

a care for even the least, even the lowliest. It seems to

me that this is the beginning of an entirely new con-
cept of justice . . .

FATHER . . . Exactly! That’s the point that you make right
MEEHAN : there. That is what our Lord was doing here. He was

bringing to mankind the announcement that they

were to be drawn into the works of God, into the

work of divine justice; that man was once more being
incorporated back into the scheme that God had plan-

ned in the beginning. Our Blessed Lord was to be

the bridge over the gap that had separated man from

God for all this long period of time between the fall of

our first parents and His coming. And so they were

to be drawn into the works of justice.

MR. KING: But, Father, would you say, then, that, on the basis
of this, as of the other Beatitudes, that any human

being at all, no matter who or what he may be, can

become instruments of the divine justice?

FATHER Oh, that’s what Our Lord was calling them for. You
MEEHAN: notice, too . . . here’s an interesting thing: in all of

the Beatitudes, have you noticed that Our Lord al-

ways makes them in the plural? He says “they,”

“they,” “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is

the kingdom of heaven,” and “Blessed are they that

mourn,” “Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess

the land.” All of these are in the plural. They’re not

in the singular. He doesn’t say, “Blessed is the man

who is poor in spirit, for he shall possess the king-

dom of heaven.” There’s something here, you see,

that He’s bringing into our life. There had been a

separation—man had gone apart from God and so
men had gone apart from each other, and we see under-

the old law how that little group of chosen people

were held together just by the very force of God. All

the rest had gone off into paganism and into the dark-

ness of their own ways, and they were constantly at

one another, and the cruelties and the miseries that

came in the pagan countries and among the pagan

peoples is well known as a matter of history. But here

speaking in the plural, Our Lord was indicating the

beginning of a new way of life.

MR. KING: Well, that word “they” then is just as broad as the

whole human family.



THE FOURTH BEATITUDE 35

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

It is just that, and it certainly is most significant.

It has its very important place in the consideration of

what Our Lord was saying.

Well, Father, don’t you think that that’s very impor-

tant for our own times, 1950, that every person, every

human being, should feel both the obligations and the

benefits of the exercise of justice?

Well, certainly, that is true too, and not understood

and appreciated enough. I think it’s a very good

point that you make, that we should understand that

each individual has his place. We have been raised
in dignity by Our Blessed Lord by the very fact that

the Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed

Trinity, came into this world and took on to him-

self human nature. And so it raises all human na-

ture by that very fact to a dignity which is of tre-

mendous importance.

Yes, that’s quite different than the ideas we some-

times read about and hear about nowadays. It

would make a human being just a unit of energy,

or an entry on a ledger, or a cog in the wheel . . .

. . . That’s right. Just disregard human dignity

completely. Yes, that’s one of the great difficulties

of our time, I believe—the disregard of human dig-
nity. As you say, the disregard of the individual’s

work. There is too much of considering of the in-

dividual in the mass.

That’s right, Father. That’s right. And of course

that is complete injustice, because it doesn’t give a

person his due.

Don’t you believe that’s a consideration, for instance,

in our general attitude in our educational system to-

day, that we consider the children as a “mass?” We
don’t consider them as individuals, although there’s

some effort to say we’ll classify them, but still they’re

in groups and not individuals and considered as chil-

dren of God—and that there’s a heaven. They’re just
little possible cogs in the future wheel that will work

the works of the world.

MR. KING: Yes, and turned by someone else. But it seems to
me that nowadays the concept of justice is something

that people expect to be applied to them, to their



36 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

MR. KING
CONT:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

lives, to their families, by possibly the state, or by

some organization to which they belong, and that

precious and wonderful individuality of every human

being begins to be submerged.

I think that’s undoubtedly true. Oh, we think that

organization and regulation is so important today.

We’re always being shouted at to organize and get

together in groups. Well, it’s a good thing, of course,

if organization is kept as a real organization and

not just, well, what we call today “pressure groups,”

and to give somebody a job. We organize and we elect
the officers, and we set them up and say, “Now, here,

you go to work,” and “you do the work; we’ll supply

the funds, and we’ll supply the background of num-

bers and so the others drop back into just this group of

numbers, and the few take over and do the work, and

the first thing you know, people get used to that idea,

and they lose their identity . . .

. . . and they also lose any conception of justice that

they may owe other people. Sometimes it’s rather

difficult for the individual, sitting back in the

“Bleacher seats,” shall I say, and simply paying his

dues and going along and not expressing his own con-

victions, moral or otherwise, to practice this particular

Beatitude.

Yes, it’s difficult. But, of course, difficulty is the

maker of character. And you believe that we can

have social and economic justice in our time without

tyranny or paternalism?

Oh, absolutely, Father. We can certainly have social
and economic justice. I think, on one point, if we can

ever again restore the original American, and of course

the original Christian concept of the dignity and the

importance of each individual, we’re bound then to

have a broad moral base of self-respect, of mutual re-

spect and esteem, and out of that kind of root I

believe you can have the flowering of social and eco-

nomic justice. Assuming, of couse, that there is

enough enlightened and ready intelligence to apply that

particular type of pattern to human life.

Well, there I think you make a good point, too, that we

have to have that enlightenment, we have to have



THE FOURTH BEATITUDE 37

FATHER
MEEHAN
CON'T:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

guidance, and I do believe we have it, don't you,

in our time. For instance, the Papal Encyclicals.

. . . Oh, definitely . . .

. . . how much they've offered to us . . .

. . . Very, very much . . .

. . . with a call to the paying of the just wage, for

instance . . .

. . . Well, I like that idea in the Encyclicals. It is

certainly a wonderful principle. It's a true principle

that we absolutely must give to each man what is
his due. It must be done.

And then don't you believe, too, that we should re-

member this : that the Popes have called on us in the

Encyclicals to remember that each one has to give

his just day's work for that which he is paid.

Oh, yes. We can't go along and have a free ride or
simply continue to eat pie in the sky, or . .

.

. . . break the handles on the shovel ...

. . .That's right, Father. That's right.

Well, I read in the paper not long ago of a labor

leader who—I hope he's not like all of them—but
there was one labor leader, anyway, who is quoted as

saying, “If they pay you 95 cents an hour, do 45

cents worth of work." And he was reported to have

said this at a big meeting.

Well, he was probably an exception to the general

rule, but still that individual stands as a good ex-

ample of what one should not do, if one is interested

in justice.

Yes, that's the sort of thing that we have to watch,

and the reason, don't you think, that we have to develop

some real Christian leadership in our world today. It's

not sufficient for our people to sit back and just say,

“Well, we'll let those who are doing the criticizing

bring us out of it, but we must be willing to face

criticism too ourselves, and have the courage of our

convictions, regardless of the little dogs that bark."



38 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

MR. KING: Yes, I would even say, Father, that we must hunger

literally, and we must thirst literally after justice, or

justice is going to vanish from human life.

FATHER That's exactly it. And we have got to get that idea
MEEHAN : into our lives today. And certainly our Catholic peo-

ple must get it into their lives that we have got to

take this word of Our Lord literally; that there must

be sufficient zeal in us that we're willing to sacrifice if

we're going to be of any use in this matter of doing

what Our Divine Lord stated here that we must do.

After all, we can't beat the game when we play against

Him . . .

MR. KING: . . . That's right, Father . . .

FATHER . . . We have to pay this cost, this price, for accom-
MEEHAN: plishing what He desired, and that means sacrifice,

hunger and thirst, and a willingness to give up things,

and to go empty if it's necessary . . .

SUMMARY

The ear attuned to the Divine voice of Christ can hear in the

Beatitudes the very pulse of the Sacred Heart. There was first

its sublime pressure, forcing into the mind of the listener the call

to penance and spiritual action in union with God and then the

drawing of the soul thereby into the stream of the Divine Life:

poverty of spirit is entrance into the kingdom; meekness, patience

of spirit brings possession of the land of promise
;
mourning, contri-

tion for sin brings the comfort of eternal life; hunger and thirst

after justice is the filling of the veins of the soul. Oh, the Divine

paradox of the way of God! But the ears of those who heard

Our Divine Lord on the Mount heard only with difficulty. They had

been closed by the blandishments of the prosperity of the Roman

Empire with its comfort of the security of political unity and a

peace purchased by force. They had lived in the presence of man's

success, which is always transitory, in accomplishing man's desire.

They had been deceived by men who seemed to be as wise as God

:

the ancient tempter had prevailed—for his brief hour.
Once again in our time, man claims to have lifted himself

up to the heights. Science is unlocking the secrets that have been

hidden since the foundation of the world. There are no unknown

lands, there are no uncharted seas. In the pride of his heart, man

looks forward to the subduing of the last untamed forces; he is on

the threshold of making his own weather, for is he not making



THE FOURTH BEATITUDE 39

the clouds to rain and building so the earthquake cannot destroy

his work? But all his success has not solved the greatest of all

problems, man's inhumanity to man, for the most powerful discov-

eries are turned to the uses of destruction and the human heart can

still hate.

Some who realize that this problem still remains are moved

to complain against God and they chide the faithful as they were

reproached long ago, "Where is your God?" How can war and
misery and hate go on their way if there be a God such as you

claim there is? They listen to the pride of their own hearts and

put their own plans first because they have not listened to the Voice

that has spoken from the Mount of Beatitude, they are unwilling to

conform their wills to the will of the Creator. They forget that the

price of redemption must be paid : that indeed, it has been paid, but

that they must use the coin minted by the Eternal God if they are

to buy it for themselves and their children. The voice of God could

cry out to the generation, as to the children of Israel breaking the

bondage of captivity of Egypt: the price of liberation, the price of

redemption, the price of passage to the land of promise is the blood

of life; I have given the blood of my Divine Son, His life, His humil-

ity, His obedience as the payment for your redemption. The voice

of God might well say to this generation, use this, even as I com-

manded the children of Israel to use it that they might be spared

from the visitation of the angel of death. He might well say, as in-

deed it seems that He has said, If you do not, if you deify your-

selves, if you think you have made of yourselves men like gods, then

you must act in a godlike way and you shall give the blood of your

sons, for such is the price that justice demands if you are to break

away from bondage. Man makes the attempt and war is the result
—war that brings no peace but only increases the burden of bond-
age. The rulers of the earth offer vain substitutes and deceive even

the decent godless so that they look for salvation for themselves

and for the world in the inventions of men, in the discoveries of

science, in the political arrangements of the United Nations.

So, forgetting the prescriptions of Our Blessed Lord, who was
the Eternal God and the way, the truth, and the life

%
the people

cherish vain dreams. In our time, we can repeat with the Psalmist
(Ps. 11) "See how the kings of the earth stand in array, how its
rulers make common course, against the Lord and against the King
he has anointed." Unless we heed the voice from the Mount and
go into the desert of the civilization made barren and parched by
the new paganism, by the vain dreams of the peoples who have
denied God, ever ready and willing to hunger and thirst after

God's justice and to seek in Him our filling, we shall fail and die;
but we can be sure that ever and always the hunger and thirst



40 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

after God's justice will bring us the filling of peace, strong and

certain peace. Shall we doubt when we remember the first Pente-

cost, the coming of the Spirit of God with such power that the

mortal ears of the witnesses thought of a great wind. They saw

too, how the fire of God does not consume but enlightens and they

were the receivers of light. They immediately went out and taught

the truth concerning what David had foretold, “Mine to proclaim

the Lord's edict; how He told me, Thou art my son; I have begot-
ten thee this day. Ask thy will of me, and thou shalt have the na-

tions for thy patrimony; the very ends of the world for thy do-

main." In our time, in the light of the Holy Spirit of God we may

say, “Princess take warning . . . Tremble and serve the Lord, re-

joicing in His presence, but with awe in your hearts . . . When the
fires of his vengeance blazes out suddenly, happy are they who

find their refuge in Him." We who have so much more than
David, we who have so much more than those who gathered about

Our Lord on the Mount must hear and understand, Blessed are

they that hunger and thirst after justice for they shall be filled.



FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

THE FIFTH BEATITUDE

Talk given on June 4, 1950

It is very pleasant, indeed, to have you with me again,

Mr. King . . .

Thank you, Father . . .

. . . We shall go on with our discussion of the “cap-
sules” which Our Lord prescribed for what we might

say were for the strengthening and curing of the

spiritual life of the world. Perhaps these listeners

thought as He spoke of justice that He was strength-

ening up these “capsules” in order they would be

more to their liking, and that He would speak for

the domination of Israel.

That's quite understandable, don't you think, Father?

People who have been bitterly subjected to domina-

tion, feel that justice should be for them.

Yes, I suppose their long history of being overrun by

nations and taken into captivity—the last under
the heel of the Roman Empire—had brought them to
seek justice and to desire justice for what they felt

was their supreme task in the world—their Messianic
mission.

Do you think that possibly they mistook justice for,

say, divine vindictiveness?

Well, that’s probably true, because the old law which

had been promulgated by God for the protection of

these people had said, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth

for a tooth.” Perhaps that led them to believe there

would be a day of vengeance; perhaps, divine ven-

geance, in their favor.

This is quite understandable for conquered people who

suffered under the Romans.

Yes. They certainly felt that if wrong had been done

to the chosen people—would not their God of justice
require much of their conquerors. So this word

“justice” came up and was very welcome to them, but



42 RELIGION IN A CAPSULB

FATHER
MEEHAN
CON'T:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER

MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

they didn't like, perhaps, the “hunger and thirst" part

of it.

That's quite understandable. They probably felt they

were hungry and thirsty, after which they conceived

it to be the “justice" that their redeemer would give

them.

Yes. But the justice that was to come to them, of

course, was another kind. It’s natural for us to think

of vindication. That's natural. We are seeking the
supernatural life where Our Lord was emphasizing

here the supernatural virtue, the supernatural change,

which was to be brought into the lives of the people

of the world. It's that supernatural change which we

have to convince the world of today, because we have

natural living. Some is good and some is bad. But

it is the supernatural living that is the only safe way

for man to pursue in this world if he is to live accord-

ing to the purposes for which God made him. After

Our Lord said, “Blessed are they that hunger and

thirst after justice, for they shall be filled," they

must have been disappointed with the next capsule,

which although seemingly weak, was nevertheless bit-

ter. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain

mercy."

This must have been quite a shock to those who had

expected some sort of political vindictiveness on the

part of their Messiah.

Yes. They certainly weren't expecting Him to speak

of mercy because here their conquerors were the pagan

people, and mercy is not a virtue that is found in

paganism. On the conquest of the Empire, the Ro-

mans had shown no mercy. They failed to show mercy,

even to one another. We know the stories of the great
games which took place in Rome in the Circus Maxi-

mus, and we think of the Colosseum where mercy was

unheard of and where cruelty was the rule. Isn't it

true that cruelty is the rule of paganism?

Yes. Because cruelty is about the only way people

who worship force can actually assert themselves, as

did the gladiatorial combats. To the modern mind,

this sort of thing is absolutely repulsive. Fellow



THE FIFTH BEATITUDE 43

MR. KING

CONT:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

2aptives, fighting each other in the ring, usually with

tremendous fonds and steel bars, for the sake of pro-

viding not a spectacle, but for the simple sport of a

public execution. Mercy was far away from their

notion of life.

Don't you think that we have something of that today?

We don't have slaves and captives which we bring in

from other places, but we have the slaves and cap-

tives that are held in bondage by, shall we say, that

great God prophet—money. For us they come in and
put on their gladiatorial combat and knock one an-

other around in such fashion that sometimes it is

fatal.

Sometimes it's true, Father, that there is no mercy

in the life that is led in our own times, but I think

it is because we still have a tremendous amount of

paganism in our attitude toward life.

Yes—we certainly do. And I think it is one of the
difficulties that we have today, not only in the minds

of our pagan people, but also makes for difficulty and

confusion in the minds of our own people, the minds

of Christian people, and of our Catholic people. Be-

cause of this mixture of paganism and Christianity

in our own time and place, we have paganism and

Christianity together
;
a strong paganism, and a Chris-

tianity—confused by its breakup into a vast number
of sects. And so, there's confusion in the minds of

people, and this sort of thing comes and takes its

place again.

The Christians, normally speaking, can recognize

probably best at Christmas time, at least it seems so

to me, this wonderful thing which happened to human

life. This was the fact that with the birth of Christ,

a system that preached mercy, came into the world,

raising mercy to the eminence of a genuine beatitude.

It means also more than simply giving the other fel-

low a break.

As you speak of Christmas, I am again tempted to be
a little cynical on the subject. It reminds us of

Christmas bells and cash register bells, too, doesn't it,

at Christmas time? It certainly gives a great many



44 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

FATHER
MEEHAN
CON'T:

MR. KING

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER

MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

merchants a break, saving some of them from bank-

ruptcy, if that's what you mean.

Well, that's probably true, Father. Undoubtedly, it

may be. But on the other hand, perhaps in our times

we're faced with the same sort of conflict that may

have struck the minds of the contemporaries of Christ

when they heard Him say, “Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy," which was an altogether

new concept to their thinking.

Yes. And we need the renewal of that concept in our

time because as in the spiritual sense, you say, it is

giving every fellow a break. It's kindness. It’s

generosity. It's compassion. It leaves judgment to

God.

Well, Father, if we could, as individuals, leave judg-

ment to God and give other people a break, it would

noj; be easy for any one of us to condemn someone

at first sight and feel satisfied our judgment is cor-

rect. Likewise, the saying of charitable things about

someone, when it causes no trouble certainly serves

better the interest of both justice and Christianity.

Yes. That is indeed true. In talking on these little

things which we fail the worst, we can do the

heroic things much better sometimes than we can

the little things. So often you will find that one will,

after hearing a discussion of a point such as this, do

some little thing so very contrary, showing that it

hasn’t affected him. He will make judgment. It's

here in this matter, as you say, of leaving judgment

to God and of giving the other fellow a* break. God is

merciful, not because He is weak or because He's sen-

timental, but because He knows all things. Don't

you think that our judgments are warped too often

by the fact that we don't know everything and we

judge, as you say, a man by his surface qualities and

our first meeting with him? We make “snap" judg-
ments, as we say.

That's true. I think everyone has probably experienc-

ed the emotion of regret when he may have been un-

kind toward someone, perhaps from not knowing the

circumstances. Later, when he finds out the story, how

much he may regret it . . ,



THE FIFTH BEATITUDE 45

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

Yes. . .

. . . be ill tempered or mean judgment that they may

pass on to others . . .

That's very true indeed. But the point here, I think,

that Our Lord was making was that it should be a

Christian habit and not something that is left for

regret afterwards.

That's true, Father. If we could ever get the habit

driven deep into every Christian heart and soul, I

wonder how many social, domestic, national, and even

international issues could be resolved.

What a world it would be if the prospects had had it!

Wonderful to contemplate, isn't it, when you stop to

think of it?

It is ! And what a world it would be if this Beautitude

had never been uttered.

If mercy were only the rule of the world . . . But

how mercy has been twisted. By paganism in the

old times and by materialism or the secularism of our

time.

. . . and by the so-called “mercy killing," where indi-

viduals assume by petty arrogance, the right to com-

mit such a crime as playing God and inflicting death

upon some other human being.

I like that phrase, “by use of petty arrogance." It is

indeed just that. And don't you believe that it is

mixed with a great deal of selfishness, also?

I believe you are right, Father. I think that one of

the strongest statements on that particular misuse of

the term “mercy" in connection with killing, was used

by the New York Medical Society recently when they
spoke about how precious each person's life is, and
how in the progress of medical science, there will be
found remedies for illnesses now regarded as more
or less incurable. To them, as I think to most think-

ing people, for an individual to put another to death,

to take his life under any circumstance now passing
as mercy killing, is nothing but arrogance. IT'S MAN
TRYING TO PLAY GOD.



46 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

FATHER

MEEHAN

:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

Yes, and then again we have this unwillingness to
carry a cross. After all, as you say, the medical so-

ciety said that every life is precious. Isn't it true,

also, that all suffering is precious? After all, the prec-

ious suffering of Our Blessed Lord is what brought us

salvation. The precious suffering of each of us in

this world is what enables us to share with Our

Blessed Lord the carrying of the cross. And that's

what He called on us to do. He said, "Take up the

cross and follow me." And so, isn't it a precious op-

portunity, then, which we have, instead of a burden?

These people who take it upon themselves to end the

sufferings of another, saying that it's "mercy killing,"

are just desirous of relieving themselves of a burden

that is a handicap to them or as we may say, "cramp-

ing their style."

That's probably correct, Father. At any rate, I think

the accent should be on the second word of those two.

Not mercy killing, but mercy killing .

Yes, indeed. And then we have this other pagan

business that's coming up now. We have it more and
more, and that is "euthanasia." Do you remember

the book of Robert Hugh Benson that came out in

1907 entitled "Lord of the World"? It created quite a

stir and brought a great deal of criticism upon Ben-

son's head. He was accused of all sorts of things by

those of early faiths too. Back in 1907
,
Benson was

using the word "euthanasia," and putting it in the

civilization of one hundred years hence of which he

wrote, as a regular thing. And now, here we are,

face to face with it.

We certainly faced it when the Nazi style of thought
was paramount. They felt it in their arrogance, which

is only a modification of mercy killing, that they

had a right to put the perfectly innocent people of

the Jewish faith to death.

Well, we don't have to go as far as the Nazis, even.

We have a Euthanasia Society in the United States,
and it has grown in influence, and with the word com-

ing up more and more. You remember the old propa-

ganda system of tapping away on something until it

makes an impression, until people get to thinking it's

a part of life. That's the scheme of propaganda. Here



THE FIFTH BEATITUDE 47

FATHER
MEEHAN
CON'T:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING

FATHER
MEEHAN:

we have euthanasia which is taken as something that's

a good idea by a great many people, especially people

without any Christian persuasion.

Christian persuasion, at least, for respect for the

dignity of an individual human being. The individual,

after all, has a right to life that is strictly circum-

scribed, and nobody can take it away under the guise

of mercy killing or euthanasia, simply because they

feel it is the thing to be done. I think euthanasia is

one of the worst possible results of a completely pagan

civilization.

It has come in, this right of mercy killing. This would

give the right to destroy another's life. Then euthan-

asia would also give the right for a person to take

his own life. It would simply make the killing of

oneself something all right in the eyes of the state.

Perhaps all these people, who are in favor of it would

say it would be surrounded by the proper laws, to make

it safe and sure, the same way with mercy killing.

But, would you allow someone to have the final say as

to when your life will end?

You mean if I had to depend on mere whim?

... If you had to depend on any human being. Which

would you rather take? God, or human being, to say

when your life will end?

Well, the answer to that is obvious. I would rather

have God.

How silly these people are, then, who place the decis-
ion in the hands of one human being, believing it is

a fine idea. How very silly it is!

Apart from that, even to those people, I suppose, we

owe some mercy. Probably there is a good reason

for our continuing to try to convert them back to

sanity or at least to some kind of moral balance. If

we need anything in our civilization, we need mercy

and the practice of it!

Yes. But we need the right kind of mercy. . .

. . . That's right . . .

... we have this kind that's glorified in sentimental
writing of which we have so much today impressed



48 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

FATHER
MEEHAN
CONT:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

in books—the sentimental kind of mercy which is non-
sense.

That’s right, Father. It’s a sort of meringue which

has a sweet taste and is nothing but puffed up air.

Yes, exactly that. Then we see again the lack of

mercy in man’s judgment in war, where man

turns against man. Here we have, then, the judgment

of man coming out in war, with its hate and ven-

geance. But we have mercy that we look for in the

courts, and we have legalism and sentimentality. But

mercy is not emotional. It’s a cool and gentle endeav-

or to act as God acts. As has been said by the Psalm-

ists, “But thou hast mercy upon all because thou canst

do all things and overlooketh the sins of men for the

sake of repentance.” Lack of mercy in our time is in

intolerance, and prejudice, and bigotry.

Don’t you think, Father, that mercy is simply treat-

ing other persons as you yourself would like to be

treated by them?

Yes. It’s partly the Golden Rule, but it’s more than

that. We can go beyond that, and we can treat some-
one better than we treat ourselves. That’s really

Christian mercy. But today we see where people say

that they will treat us as we should be treated and

make a judgment on ourselves as a result of their

emotionalism, ignorance and bigotry, it becomes a

rather dangerous thing. A look at the writers who
today are writing against the Church and the Catholic

people, placing them in a bad light by questioning

their patriotism, motives, citizenship, and American-

ism, should prove this.

I suppose even there, Father, charity and mercy should

enter into our judgments. If people are going to do

the wrong thing, they are not going to base their

judgments on fact and knowledge, and on authentic

information.

Yes. We have the obligation of tolerance. But we have
to distinguish, since, tolerance is for persons, and not

for wrong ideas. It is not for the false and the evil

beliefs, but for persons. There is justice for the false



THE FIFTH BEATITUDE 49

FATHER and the evil, and mercy for persons, or tolerance, but

MEEHAN' we have to do it in the Christian way, and understand

CON’T : that persons are the important thing in the matter of

tolerance. Too often there is confusion, in the matter

that mercy is for the false idea, and tolerance is rec-

ommended for that which is false in thought and pur-

pose without distinguishing the person from the thing

which is wrong!

MR. KING: The person is always subject to salvation and convers-

ion by the Grace of God, but the idea has to be fought.

FATHER That’s it, exactly. And so we have to do it by bring-

MEEHAN : ing ideas out in the open. For instance, the great
American dictum, “Never bring religion and politics

into a polite conversation,” prevents us from having

the open discussion that we should have for bringing

out ideas and for understanding one another. It

makes conversation thus chit chat, that we lose so

much time and opportunity in the accomplishing of

what we should accomplish in the way of understand-

ing and tolerance.

MR. KING: That’s right. Then, the perfection of any human

character—this attribute of mercy—is probably the
thing that makes a person a regular giant of the

moral order.

FATHER Exactly.
MEEHAN:

SUMMARY

Our Divine Lord did not leave the subject of mercy with just

the brief words of the fifth Beatitude, “Blessed are the merciful for

they shall obtain mercy.” He returned to it again and again during

His public ministry. When He saw that those who followed Him
were hungry, He said, “I have compassion on the multitude” and

He gave them bread. In the midst of His final agony on the Cross

His mercy was a flaming light, brighter and far more lasting than

the lightning flashes in the darkness that gathered and hung over

Calvary. In His agony. He appealed to the mercy of His eternal

Father in heaven, “Father forgive them for they know not what

they do.” With Divine compassion He spoke to the penitent thief
the most consoling words ever addressed to the ears of a single

man, “This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.” Dare any
real Christian condemn a fellow Christian, even in the name of



50 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

patriotism, for such patriotism must surely be false. Yet, how poor

human nature remains ever the same, swayed by emotion and de-

ceived by Satan! Our Divine Lord was condemned by His own in

the name of patriotism, for did not His ears hear the cry, “We

will have no king but Caesar.” But who loved this people more,

Caesar or Christ? Who can doubt the answer to that question?

Let us, then, who have sought always to follow the way of Our

Divine Master, who have sought always to be faithful citizens of

our country, who have offered ourselves without reservation in time

when it needed defense, wear with patience and a plea for mercy,

the badge of opprobrium that some have tried to place upon us. We
must, following the example of Our Blessed Lord, be tolerant of

those who err, of those whose wilful blindness even, tries to force

us into compromise. This does not mean, of course, that we should

sit idly by and let deception prevail. We have the right and the
duty to express the truth, to condemn error, to seek knowledge and

speak wisdom, to hunger and thirst after justice that our children

may be filled, that our land may know peace, that the world shall

be freed from iniquity.

Who should be more merciful than we who have known the

mercy of God brought to us in such generous measure by His

Divine Son, Jesus Christ? In the first place, we have His word,

“Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.” Shall we

doubt it? We have His further word in the Sacred Scriptures, for
St. Luke has recorded His words for us in his Gospel, “Be merciful,

then, as your Father is merciful. Judge nobody, and you will not

be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and gifts

will be yours; good measure, pressed down and shaken up and

running over, will be poured into your lap; the measure you award

to others is the measure that will be awarded to you.” We must
also plead for mercy for those who condemn us falsely, for in the

spirit of Christian charity we must pray for those who speak and

act in error, even against us who are of the household of the truth,

for St. Luke also records that Our Lord spoke ominous words re-

garding such, “Can one blind man lead another? Will not both fall

into the ditch together?” In all mercy, we may use the words of

Our Lord in our own defense, for He foresaw what His followers

would have to face and so He gave them a divine defense to quote,

“How is it that thou canst see the speck of dust which is in thy

brother's eye, and are not aware of the beam which is in thy own?

By what right wilt thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me rid

thy eye of that speck, when thou canst not see the beam that is in

thy own eye? Thou hypocrite, take the beam out of thy own eye

first, and so thou shalt have clear sight to rid thy brother's of

the speck.”



THE FIFTH BEATITUDE 51

Yes, we should show mercy, for how great is the mercy shown

to us? We have gone so often to the mercy seat, we have taken ad-

vantage so frequently of the work of forgiveness of Our Divine

Lord in that Sacrament of mercy which He instituted when He

breathed on the Apostles, the first priests of the New Law, and

said to them, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall

forgive, they are forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain

they are retained.” In this institution, we and those w7ho have gone

before us in the faith, have taken advantage of the paradox of

this strange commerce that is established in the way of Our Blessed

Lord. It is mercy that has made it possible. Through the little

wicket of the confessional, we pass to the Lord's clerk the base-

ness of our sins. He receives them in Christ's name and presents

them with an appeal for mercy that is never denied, and in that

name most merciful he returns pardon and grace. Who could have

invented such a scheme of commerce save only the merciful Re-

deemer of the race, the God-Man Jesus Christ, who purchased mercy

from the infinite and eternal God with the infinite and eternal

price of Himself, the only begotten of the Father. In the Old Law

God commanded mercy as His way, for He said, “When thou reapest

the crops on this land, do not raze all to the level of the ground

or pick up the scattered ears; do not hoard up the clusters or the

grapes that have fallen. Leave something for poor men and wander-

ers to glean; remember what God you worship.” The compassion of

God has given us the true gleanings of His creation in Him who
abides in the wheat and the grape of the Bread of Life, and we

are strengthened to follow the way He opened when he said,
“Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.”



FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

THE SIXTH BEATITUDE

Talk given on June 11, 1950

Mrs. Norris, it’s very fine to have you here again for

a discussion over the air on the Beatitudes in these

“capsules” which Our Blessed Lord prescribed for

the cure of the world, and which certainly we need

today. As Our Divine Lord progressed in offering

His prescriptions for beatitude, that is, for happiness,

to His listeners, it must have become more and more

clear to them that He was putting the root of hap-

piness in the spirit, and indicating plainly that the

material world could not offer the joy that was to be

found in His kingdom.

Would you know, Father, in a very quiet way, I have

found that out from many, many years through letters

that come to me from women and men all over the

union. And I find that whether they’re humble, or

rich, prominent, or obscure—if the faith is there, if
some belief is there—there is happiness, and if it is
not there, happiness cannot simply exist.

Yes. That’s indeed true. We find it true from the
experience that we find as a result of those who live

in accordance with the will of Our Blessed Lord. He

didn’t prescribe any revolution in government or

violence against the resented rulers. He was pre-

scribing an inner revolution. Isn’t that what we need

today? A change in attitude, purposes, and renewed
understanding? A renewed understanding, I say, be-
cause we’ve lost so much of the things of God.

Well, that understanding is the solution, Father, for

ail these feverish, terrible troubles that are sweeping

back and forth over the world. Just that! Just an

understanding that this is not our true world. This

isn’t our true home, but we are living in a certain

darkness here and have to fight for light which is

beyond this particular phase of our understanding.

Don’t you think there’s been a good deal of forgetful-

ness of that fact?



MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

MEEHAN:
FATHER

THE SIXTH BEATITUDE 53

Oh, Father. Everywhere. Magazines, books, pictures,

comic . . .

. . .You know how we have talked along this line from

the very beginning of the discussion of the Beatitudes.

But yet I had a letter last week from a gentleman who

took me to task and asked me if I thought the people

of today were living according to the Beatitudes. I

certainly must say “no.” If I thought so, Fd talk about

something else here. I think this is a need, and that's

why we bring it out. Certainly we have that need

for a renewed understanding of the Beatitudes and

the Sermon on the Mount. The whole thing all the

way through. Not only the Sermon on the Mount

that Christ preached, but also the Sermon on Calvary

where Christ died.

. . . lived, and died . . .

. . . that's the whole point. And so, because of man's

nature, we need these renewals. Man must recognize

the fact that he must seek God in faith, hope, and

charity, and that always there is a basic desire in

man to know God directly. We always have it. I
think it's a leftover of the days before the fall of our

first parents. We wish to know God directly, or as
we say, to see Him. The sight is the keenest of the

senses. So the Sixth Beatitude must have been of

the greatest of force for those who heard it first, for

it probed, on the one hand, deep into man's life, and

on the other, held this greatest of promises, “Blessed

are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.” Now,

what sort of things occur to you as being the things

that soil the heart, that cloud over man's love for God

and his neighbors?

Well, Father, take a small child. A child need only
be three or four years old, when if he does something

that puts him out of his mother's good graces, his

little heart is heavy and troubled. He cannot, for the

time being, see others. He loses mother. In the same

sense, it applies to God. We cannot see Him, but yet
habitually go on doing the things that place a veil

between us and Him.

And don't you believe that the greatest veil, or

obstacle, between us in our seeing of God, is ourselves



54 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

FATHER
MEEHAN
CONT:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

. . . from the worship of self and the satisfying of

self which is, shall we say the religion of our time?

It is. It really is. This particular Beatitude means

a good deal to me because I have come to feel that one

thing that we, believing women, must do—I speak
perhaps especially of Catholic women—is clean up this
indecency. But there are thousands of others who

know that this “modern indecency,” this indecency in

books, in schools, and even in these frightful “beauty”

contests, in which girls, almost undressed, parade

among newspaper men, while their charms and qual-

ities are valued as though they were young horses,

or pedigreed dogs. It seems to me we could stop that

if we let the movie people know that we are not going

to theaters where those exhibitions are held.

Yes. We have more than the movies. The chambers
of commerce . . .

. . . and the magazines . . .

. . . All of these different organizations are putting

these contests on, trying to get publicity for the local

glories of the country, whether it be a particular

town, county, or state. A stupid method for publicity,
isn’t it?

Don't you think there could be a generation of

mothers and fathers, perhaps a hundred years from

now, who would look and find it hard to believe that

we allowed this type of exhibitionism and immodesty

to flourish?

Well, I hope and pray to God that there may be a

generation that will look back, and perhaps there will.

I remember that before the first World War, there

was a very interesting book by the Comptroller of

the City of New York, a man named Kohler, who

called his book, “Two and Two Make Four.” Unfortu-

nately, I think it's out of print now, it being a very

splendid piece of work. In it he took up the question

of our American educational system, some of its

teachings and some of its weaknesses. I remember

one statement—and this was back about 1911 or '12
that the book came out—that the teaching of eugenics



THE SIXTH BEATITUDE 55

MEEHAN
FATHER
CON’T:

MRS.

NORRIS

:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS

:

FATHER
MEEHAN

MRS.

NORRIS

:

—it was called in those days—for fifty years in our
public schools would leave the Catholics in possession

of Christianity. A hundred years of teaching it
would leave them in possession of the earth. Now,

perhaps, that gives that generation a hundred years

from now . . .

Well, that might be. But Father, it seems to be

strange that men and women and fine educators who

wouldn’t attempt to teach a child of five anything

about the fourth dimension, will take the adult sub-

jects, especially subjects relating to marriage, to sex,

and attempt to interest little unformed minds in things

that they are completely unable to grasp.

Yes. That’s well put. They don’t teach them about

the fourth dimension, but they teach them about the

fourth appetite.

Oh, don’t say . . .

. . . now we have our four appetites. The basic

appetites were given to us by Almighty God. They

were all given to us for good and for fruitfulness.

We have the appetite for food, for the nourishment
of the body. We have the appetite for drink, for the
refreshment of our body, and we have the appetite

for sleep and rest, for the renewal of our body. And

we have the sex appetite for the renewal and continua-

tion of life. Now, all of these are good. And yet

they can be abused, and they are. We can over eat
and become gluttons. We can overdrink and become
alcoholics. We can over-rest and become just lazy
loafers. And when the sex appetite is overindulged

and overfed, it becomes a master, and cleanness of

heart is gone. God is blotted out. It becomes a god

worse than an idol or plague.

In their adolesence they burn out the feelings and

the natural appetites that ought to wait for a moderate

development. That’s why marriages go on the rocks,

and why so many thousands of children grow up with-

out parents. It’s simply because sex has been abused

and overused and awakened, much too soon, and

through the wrong channels. You would want to be

sure that it was a very carefully selected teacher

that told your child anything . . ,



56 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

. . . well, there’s no teacher like parents . . .

. . . No! And parents who have a sense of faith and

moderation, and who know that “Blessed are the

clean of heart.”

Well, doesn’t this whole problem come back to just

one thing—to the banishing of teaching of religion
and morals from our schools and from the lives of

the young? Now, so many children today don’t have

any. They don’t even have Sunday School or the

“released time” which is utterly inadequate. One

hour a week is perfectly inadequate to balance off

or counteract what they’re hearing all of the rest of

the week, and what they are having given to them

and taught to them for five days a week in school.

It is here I think, our educators, perhaps some of them

well meaning, and I think there are others who have

a vicious purpose, promote this sort of thing. They

would like to see the breakdown of American life so

something else could be substituted. But they are

seeing there is terrific and alarming promiscuity

among our young people today. Since religion and

morals have been banished, they don’t have that as a

means to combat it in the educational process, so

they’re looking for some substitute, with the only

apparent substitute they have been able to find so far,

sex education.

. . . this, of course, puts religious and home education

out. I believe with you that some educators take a

deep satisfaction in venting a sort of restless dis-

content of their own in undermining what the children

might be taught at home. By this, they do a thing

that has always been punishable in all states and

countries and all civilizations. It’s simply high treason

. . . high treason to their parents and high treason

to God . . .

. . . Yes . .

.

. . . The result is they go on further and further.

Books, movies, and magazines are now passing all

bounds, all control.

Well, our education of today goes back to just what

Our Lord said was the pagan education of His time.



FATHER
MEEHAN
CONT:

MRS.

NORRIS

:

FATHER
MEEHAN

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

THE SIXTH BEATITUDE 57

They used to say, to quote His words, “What shall we

eat, and what shall we drink, and wherewith shall

we be clothed ?” Today we have another thing which

you speak of as “beauty contests/' It reminds me

how many schools, even our own schools, are having

these “style shows," to raise funds. Constantly we see

this parade. Of course, it's a means that is much

easier and causes less effort than it would be to put

on a good amateur theatrical or something of that

kind. So, children and the parents are let out easy

in the responsibilities we leave, by putting on this

style parade since people are so style conscious, be-

lieving they've got to be pretty.

. . . and what is, would be, amusing, if it wasn't

pretty sinister, is that the mother who scrupulously

raises her children in physical cleanliness of their

teeth and their eyes—suffers if a little girl of nine
has put on glasses, practically collapsing with grief.

“She won't be attractive. People won't like her. She

won't be successful." With all of that worry, about

their appearance—and of course little children now,

—

Father, I don’t know whether your world wide ex-

perience includes a knowledge of what the word

“permanent" means, but it now means an artificial

hairdo that . . .

. . . Well, of course, how could I miss that? . . .

. . . that costs anything between seven and twenty-

five dollars . . .

. . . Really . . .

. . . But there are children in our town of four years

old who have their little “permanents" every six

months so that they're physical beauties. Yet those

children already read comics, listen, to programs, and

use words which mark them for life as blind to the

actual sight of God by their own parents.

Well, you speak of this pattern of “permanents."

Now, just to let you know how . . .

How sophisticated you are . . ,



58 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

FATHER
MEEHAN:

FATHER
MEEHAN:
CONT.

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN

. . . as a result of experience, and very sad experience

sometimes, I remember, in a large parish in which

I once served. It was in the very depth of the de-

pression, and when it came time for First Communion

and Confirmation, we used to dress most of the chil-

dren in the classes. We'd send out the women of the

parish to the little girls, who dressed the girls from

the skin out for that occasion to make it something

important in their lives, in that material way so

effective in our material time. I remember one family

that was very poor. They had scarcely any furniture

in the house and no rugs on the floor. Yet we dressed

the child, and just before Confirmation, I passed a

little "beauty parlor," so-called, and here was this child

in there getting a "permanent." Now, that . . .

. . . they could afford that . . .

. . . had to be done, but they couldn't buy clothes.

And so that's simply the indication . . .

. . . but if the cleanness of those little souls and the

style of those little hearts could be handled with half

the anxiety that the mothers show in other lines, we'd

have a very different generation of children. We
can't expect that everything will turn towards the

spiritual, Father, but to put that first would seem to

me—to be the real object of any mother who wants
her child as she or he grows to see God, to be pure

of heart, and to see God through His world.

Yes. And how much this would correct all the diffi-

culties that we have. We have the matter, for instance,
of the promiscuity of divorce, which certainly would

be corrected by the understanding of the cleanness of

heart. And we see all of these effects of fleshy living

in history. Why can't we learn our lesson from it?
Of course, there are some who think that cleaning the

heart means "cleaning all religion out" . . . But that

leaves nothing there, and they go on their own stand-

ards. You hear that expression, "Oh, it really makes

no difference now." We hear it over the radio. We
see it in the press, and all that sort of thing, that

we can all go along together because we're good

Americans and religion doesn't make a bit of differ-



THE SIXTH BEATITUDE 59

FATHER
MEEHAN
CONT:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MRS.

NORRIS:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

ence. I think we should keep in mind that it’s more

than sex that's involved in what Our Lord said in

cleanness of heart. The opposite of it we may say as

meanness of heart. We certainly have much of that
in the world today in the suspiciousness and question-

ing of motives, of hate, prejudice, and bigotry. There

is religious bigotry and racial bigotry, racial dis-

crimination. Those things are not found in the clean

of heart. Now, all of these hide the truth, and there-

fore, it follows that they hide God.

And, of course, the attitudes toward the Church and

its teaching are twisted and warped, which means

you can't love your neighbor, and that clouds, of

course, love of God. So to be really pure of heart

means to live as a child—a good child.

Yes, a good child. Of course, children are naturally

good to somebody who gives to a child what it must

have to think with, to live by, standards, ideas, ideals

and purposes. Children are born blank, and I think

that's something that is forgotten today. That what

is put in will make them clean, or will soil them. It

is then what they receive from teaching, from home

example, and from their associates, that is so very

important.

And they want it. Children instinctively want what's

good.

Yes. And they, as we ourselves, even for grownup

children, can't be really happy if mean of heart. It's

impossible because it's not in the ways of God.

SUMMARY

The blind man who besought Our Lord asked for one favor,

“Lord that I may see." What happiness, what beatitude was his

when the Son of God had compassion on him and restored his

sight, for the first light that came to him was the sight of God

in His creation. He first looked up to behold Jesus Christ, the

second person of the Most Blessed Trinity, the Word made Flesh,

the Way, the Truth, and the Life! No matter what burden may

weigh upon the heart of man, no matter what sin may darken the

soul of man, no matter how far one may stray from the will of the

Creator, this remains as the one basic desire of every human

heart—to see, to see perfection, to see God. No distraction, no



60 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

blandishment of the false and the passing pleasure of life can

really turn the human soul, made in the image and likeness of

God, aside from the real desire of the heart which is to see, to see

cleanly, to see perfectly, to see without doubt, without the negation

of evil; to see in the fulness of light; to see, that is to know the

answer to the age old question of man, groping in the shadows of

his own pride and disobedience, why am I conscious, why am I here,
whither am I going, why am I burdened on the way, where is the

cause of my being, toward what end do I move? Forever in the
heart of man there is desire, there is thirst for beatitude. No sin,

no crime, no hate can obscure the desire in every human heart

to see, to realize the goal of desire. The perversion of Sin in all

its forms may twist and darken, but in the end God will not be

mocked, for through it all man desires to s^-e.

In our time, there is a great blindness, a great darkness over

the world, even as in the time of Our Blessed Lord on earth. Men

will not see because they have learned to hate, to make war, to

question the motives of their neighbors, to break the bond of unity

that Christ desired among those who would believe in Him. Well

might Our Divine Lord say again as He looks down upon our

cities, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and

stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have

gathered together thy children as the hen doth gather her chickens

under her wings and thou wouldst not!” In our time, as so often

in the past, the blinded heart asks for a sign, just as St. Mark tells

us that “the Pharisees came forth and began to question with him,

asking him a sign from heaven, tempting him. And sighing deeply

in spirit, he saith: Why doth this generation seek a sign? Amen
I say to you, a sign shall not be given to this generation.”

In our time, as in the time of Christ, there was light for men

to see if they would look up, but because men were not clean of

heart then, as now, so they do not see. There are those who have

sullied their hearts with lust and greed. Their god is money. They

love what money will buy for the satisfaction of their bodily desires.

They may love money for the power it will bring them to lord it

over their fellow men. They may love the honor and salutations

that it brings them in the market place—or even from their
philanthropies. There are those who are blinded by the knowledge

that they can make great profit from pandering to the baser

appetites of human nature in its fallen state, and they maintain a

certain air of respectability by labeling their efforts as entertain-

ment, as literature, as recreation and relief from the cares of

business, as sport, yes, even as truth, though it be false as the

word of Satan.

Worse than these are the successors of the Pharisees, the



THE SIXTH BEATITUDE 61

successors of Saul of Tarsus before his conversion. The light of

Christ abides in His Church, His Mystical Body, for that was His

will. It is easier to understand the sins of weakness committed by

men than it is to understand those that go out in self-righteousness,

self-convinced that they have a mandate to set things right, even

when their method is to attempt to destroy that which Christ

established and which has been kept in wisdom and truth by the

abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. Over all in the time of Our

Lord, there was the great hulking paganism of the Roman Empire

that sought to crush the light in the Chosen People: over all in

our time, there is the great hulking paganism of atheistic com-

munism, of materialism and secularism, of hate and greed, but

the Sacred Heart of Our Blessed Lord must be more wounded by

the evil that He sees in the house of those who would call Him

friend. There are those who divide and thus seek to conquer.

There are those who, like Saul of Tarsus, who thought himself a

champion of God, set out to persecute their neighbors who have

kept faith with Christ and their country. Let us pray that these

shall learn, perhaps even as Saul learned in the blaze of a light

so great that it blinded him for a time, that Christ abides in the

unity of His Church and not in a divided house. Charity will bid

us echo the prayer of Christ that all may be one, that these who

are zealous as was Saul, will like him, be transformed into Pauls,

so that we may overcome the giant evils that hover over Christen-

dom in our time. If men will look up from the petty, from self,

from prejudice and bigotry and free their hearts from the blinding

film of misunderstanding and hate, then shall the world hope, for

there will come a great light and out of the midst of it a voice that

shall say, “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.”



FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

THE SEVENTH BEATITUDE

Talk given June 18, 1950

Mr. King, I’m very glad to have you again today, so

that we can discuss the Seventh Beatitude, or another

one of these “capsules,” as we’ve been saying, which

Our Blessed Lord prescribed for the good of mankind,

and which we certainly need in our time. I think

this Beatitude is particularly important, because in

the heart of every man, there is a desire for peace.

Don’t you believe that’s true?

It’s certainly true today, Father, more than possibly

at any time within the last several years.

Yes. And in the time of Our Divine Lord there was

also a desire for peace, but I think today we have a

greater desire because there is greater fear, and

behind it lies this fear of what is to come. But also

there is some resistance to peace because there are

many who have the false notion that peace is just

doing nothing?

That’s true, Father. I’m afraid also that some people

seem to feel that absence of conflict equals peace.

Yes. But we must have some conflict. There’s con-

stant conflict in the support of our very physical life,

but that is a different matter because the conflict

that we have and which can be peaceful is the con-

flict that comes in action, in legitimate action, which,

St. Augustine says is, “the tranquility of order.”

That’s a beautiful expression, Father . . .

. . . “ordered conflict,” we might call it . . .

. . . Yes. Conflict to achieve certain ends and if pos-

sible defeat other ends. Peace, for example, is not idle-

ness. Do you think it is, Father?

No. Of course not. It’s activity. But it’s activity

which is ordered, as St. Augustine says. And we must

remember that God is action— 1

u

Actus Purus,” as



THE SEVENTH BEATITUDE 63

FATHER
MEEHAN
CONT:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

we learned in philosophy. And certainly the peace

of God will not mean idleness at all. He's given us

the earth for our inheritance—a creation—and so
that means that there is activity, too. He was active

in creating it and giving it to us.

Yes, Father. The misuse, I think, though, of that

activity on the part of some people, some misguided,

some possibly vicious, arises from their own disorder,

their own personal disorder, and having such people

in positions of power over others may be responsible

for the lack of peace in our own times. A lack, in
other words, of order, whether it's tranquility of

order of whatever you might call it.

Yes. The turmoil comes from the kind of activity

that many people who are trying to run the world

today foist upon us, but we also must remember that

this is a part of our nature, perhaps because ... of the

difficulty in the beginning. It was a difficulty of Adam
and Eve in the Garden of Paradise. And the misuse

of will—is basic. That's what we have to guard
against. Here Our Lord in this Beatitude again

returns to that theme that He's stressing, I believe,

all through the beginning of his teaching, that we

are to participate. We're to be drawn back into the

activity of God, into the tranquility of order which

is in God, and not merely to be receivers and partakers

of the beneficence of God, just to live by the providence

of God, but, we're to cooperate. We're to move, to act,

and to will with God. Will again. So we're not just

to remain lazy and loathful and challenge the Creator

to act. We, too, must act with the Divine Will, and

so the Divine Physician gives us His strengthening

capsule of tonic, we may call this, a tonic and a chal-

lenge, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall

be called the children of God."

That's a Beatitude, Father, that should be written in

flaming letters on every possible place where the

people of 1950 could see them . . .

. . . with a line under “makers" . . „

. . . Act/ve . . . Line under “makers." It's interesting,

isn't it, how this Beatitude seems to take all of the



64 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

MR. KING
CONT:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

others and compress them into a focal point. The

Beatitude, for instance, about the merciful; the Beat-

itude about justice; all of these things come into play

right here, “Blessed are the peacemakers . .

. . . for all of these are the works of justice, and of

mercy, and now these things bring peace. That’s

what we’re seeking when Our Lord was calling, then,

for an activity on our part that would make possible

the peace which is the will of God. Now, don’t you

think the question comes often—and you hear it;
probably I do too, that, “Oh, yes, but what can we

little people do?” And there’s always that little hope-

less note that “we’re just little people.”

Well, I think that’s very interesting, Father—the
complaint of the little people. In the first place, it

seems to me that a lot of the concern, and of the

anxiety, about achieving peace in our time, is a result

of the lack of peace in our own minds and our own

souls. In other words, we are so easily, it seems to

me, driven into one side or the other side of an angry

controversy. We can become confused. We can in-
dulge our prejudices. And in all of these things we

are definitely not acting as peacemakers. If you

simply multiply, or* increase, or expand and intensify

the confusion in our own lives—the confusion of the
objects that we’re living for—it seems to me that
they’re bound to reflect themselves in a lack of peace

and in a lack of what you call “order,” not only in

our personal lives, but also probably in our political

lives and in international affairs.

Well, it certainly is very true in our personal life. I

think you’ve said a great deal there, Mr. King, and

that strikes home because, after all, it’s our personal

life and personal relationships of the little people that

stir up and muddy the waters which flow out into

the great stream of life. There we have a difficulty,

and it’s our own pride, it being often our own sensi-

tiveness, or hypersensitiveness. You hear people com-

plain because their toes have been tromped on, but

they never say a word about the toes that they them-

selves step on.

MR. KING: That’s very true, Father. I’m thinking here now of



THE SEVENTH BEATITUDE 65

MR. KING
CON’T:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

the people, let's say, in an ordinary family, where

you're bound to have a difference of opinion once in a

while, and where, as we know there are, let's say,

family feuds. Now, sometimes the very people who

will refuse to try to compose their differences are the

ones who are crying out loudest for our diplomats or

someone else to establish peace in the world when these

very people don’t even try to establish peace in their

own families and probably don't even try to establish

peace in their own soul.

Yes. Of course, you will find no peace in a family

—

if there is no peace in the individual souls which com-

pose it. This is I think the great difficulty today. So

many families just live for what they can do with

Papa's salary. They just want to spend money to have

a good time, as they call it, and to dissipate in one

way or another. Then there are also other irritations

that people allow to grow up with one another in the

family. It seems to me that there are so very many

who forget after the romance, and the first rosy glow

of the honeymoon period is over, that the family

life has to be put on a sane and solid basis. When

they have to get down to something like that, how

often they become irritable with each other, usually

passing so much of that irritability to their children.

Yes. Of course, I had to smile when you mentioned

the passing of the honeymoon stage, Father, because

when that particular stage is over, it seems to me,

from observation again—that the tremendous drive to
compete with everyone else on every level emerges.

That desire particularly reflects on family living being

responsible for a great deal of our turmoil and our

unrest. If somebody is driving a moderate priced

car, and his friend goes by in a high priced car, im-

mediately his peace of mind is shattered until he's

satisfied his desire to purchase such a car, since “he

wants to give everything to his children." That's a

kind of a laudable ambition, but I think it's not con-

ducive to the enjoyment of what he has—the enjoy-
ment of his family, the enjoyment of working for

something without going completely to the extremity

of wishing he had it or wanting it at any cost or

any hazard.



66 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

Well, I think this “family” business is really a prob-

lem. You say these conflicts come in the family, that
children take them out to school, where perhaps they're

spread into the faculty and their reactions. So it goes

on up the line. Now, of course, the children are grow-
ing up. I remembered a friend of mine who was a
teacher in a public school, who told me one day that he
told the children that he was going to a PTA meeting
that evening. And he asked them, “Have you any
message you'd like me to take to your parents so they'll
know your ideas on anything you would like to get
over ?” Well, the children looked at him in amazement

for a moment. Finally one boy put up his hand and

he said, “Tell them to keep their fights till we get out

of the house.” ... I think there's a good deal to that.

If parents would be better peacemakers in the home,

perhaps there would be a fostering of peace in the

world. And when they go on it's carried on too . . .

this sort of thing goes out from the home into the

business world, where there's conflict and turmoil.

. . . Certainly, Father. The “ulcer” is the proof of

that, isn't it—the badge of our civilization. The great

triumph of successful competition seems to be an

ulcer.

Yes. Although they tell us that the people who suffer

from ulcers are superior people, to the others who

don't get them, it is not much consolation. But, of

course, the strife of competition, the greed for money,

and the seeking for luxury, brings so much strife,

that it is a destroyer of peace. Of course, we go into

the larger aspects of it; peace in the social order.

Well, we know that theory of competition and of want-

ing everything possible, disregards the peace and the

enjoyment of the things that every man can enjoy.

Sometimes it seems to me it is responsible to a great

extent for the “give me, give me” attitude that char-

acterizes a lot of our political thinking and a lot of

our political pressures today.

Of course, if greed is to be the basis of so much of our

difficulty, and destroy so much peace . . . why in the

social order do we have racial prejudice? Isn't it be-

cause people want something for themselves, believing



THE SEVENTH BEATITUDE 67

FATHER
MEEHAN
CON'T:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

other people are not worthy of it, since they want to

keep it themselves?

That's very often true, Father.

We have class distinctions. Why do people create
classes? Because, they think they're superior to

somebody else. It's a species of greed and selfishness

again—in setting oneself up over another.

Well, it's certainly fantastic thinking, if that's what

you wish to call it. But the interesting point about

this Beatitude to me is that the peacemakers would

be called blessed, and yet how few there are who are

willing to take on that role personally. It's easy for

you or for me or anyone else to nurse our own little

prejudices and to keep our own particular faults that

promote anything but order, and at the same time

look to the diplomats or the United Nations or to some-

one else to restore peace. You know, I'm afraid,

Father, that some people feel that peace at any price

is a goal worth striving for. In other words, at the

beginning you mentioned the fact that peace calls for

activity. Now there are times when the values of

peace have to be fought for.

But don't you think there are too many people who

like peace at any price, at any price except their own

effort and their own sacrifice . . .

. . . that's right . . .

. . . and that's the difficulty? . . .

Well, that's it. On our national scale, or particularly,

let us say, on a Christian scale, our values that we

cherish most are in danger. Peace at any cost amounts

to surrender. It amounts to an abdication.

. . . just that . . .

I wonder just how that fits in with the Beatitudes

here.

Well, peace at any price, of course, as you say, is an

abdication. It's giving up of will to someone else, and

it's not for the good of the majority. It's simply



68 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

FATHER
MEEHAN
CON'T:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

telling somebody to do what he thinks is good and to
do it in the way he thinks best. But, how many are
there in the political world, and in the social and

economic activities, of our time, who are really inter-
ested in the greatest good for the greatest number?

Do you think there is much real sincere interest on
the part of a good many world leaders today?

Yes, Father. I'm rather glad that you said that, be-

cause I often wonder if those persons are accused of,

let us say, rather cynical action . . . are not actually re-

flecting what, you might call, “pressure groups" want

them to do. In other words, I often feel that some

persons who are leaders and who are too responsive

to pressure groups, particularly with respect to peace,

in respect to abandoning positions that they should

hold, often do that because of the fact that many,

many other people besides that individual are re-

sponsible for the decision. In other words, the pres-

sure that is on a person may sometimes make him

collapse. It's deplorable and it's regrettable, and on

a large enough scale it could be tragic.

Well, it is tragic. We're having tragedy enough from

it now, but we have it all the way through. Then

again, it's the little people who support this sort of

thing by their very weakness and wanting to pass

off the work of peace to someone else and to fall for

the propaganda that is passed out to them. Then, of

course, the great leaders, and such things as the

United Nations—that sort of thing they talk about
being diplomacy—but is it diplomacy? It's just seek-
ing for a balance of power. Then, the little people

who have their affection for power themselves allow

such things as the atom bomb to threaten the world

and all that, because they have their own little atom

bombs in the way of their automobiles, and their

planes, and their guns, and they play around with

these, with everyone a little bit par-mad and speed-

mad.

... I think you're quite right, Father, and particularly

I'm impressed with this fact, that we can't look to

someone else—to a diplomat, to a leader, or to a group
—to bring peace to the world, if the average person,
the ordinary people like you and me, are unwilling



THE SEVENTH BEATITUDE 69

MR. KING
CON'T:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

FATHER
MEEHAN:

MR. KING:

to try at least to be peacemakers to the best of our

ability in our own small circle, whether it’s the family,

or the fellow next door.

... in our parish . . .

. . . that's right. Whatever it may be, on whatever

level, each one of us is capable of being a peacemaker.

And I think that it's a poor excuse to look from the

errors and the mistakes of our own and failures of

ourselves in this regard and to wonder why others

in a position of higher authority don't establish peace

when we're unwilling to do our part of it.

Well, of course, the difficulty is that there're too many

who won't take the way of peace. It's been lost. There

are so many who don't know of it today. Ignorance is

one of the great barriers to peace. We're always

talking about increasing education, and we have

UNESCO, and all these different things. We're ad-
vancing science, as we say, and we're building schools,

but still there is nothing being done particularly in

them about teaching the way to peace and indicating

what it is. People have to have something tangible,

something that they can get a hold of. And here we

have it in the world, and it is neglected. We have the
voice of Christ, the Prince of Peace, speaking to us

today. That voice has been speaking to us all through

the ages. Today we hear it in the person of His

vicar, Pope Pius XII, and here is an example, isn't

it—Pius XII, who is such a power in the world, and
yet without armies, or navies, or planes, or guns, or

atom bombs.

Yes. It reminds you of that insolent remark of Mr.

Stalin, “How many divisions does the Pope have?"

Well, he has plenty of them, but they're not the kind

that Mr. Stalin is developing . . .

That's right. But they are the kind, Father, that can

begin now to launch that crusade for peace, not the

peace of surrender, but for peace . . .

. . . the peace that the angels sang on the first Christ-

mas night—peace that comes to men who are God's
friends.

That's right, Father.



70 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

SUMMARY

The promise of Our Blessed Lord of beatitude, of happiness,

was not to those who desired peace, not to those who merely talked

of peace, not to those who longed for peace, but to the peacemakers

In the nature of man, there is no peace; in the ways of man there

is no peace, because peace was lost in the Garden of Eden when

man made his choice between God and self, between the spiritual

order, the perfect order of God’s will, and the strife that was

engendered by the choosing of the knowledge of good and evil, by

the acceptance on the part of man of the penalty of which he was

forewarned by God, that his freedom could set at odds matter and

spirit, body and soul. Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, came into this

world to restore the way of peace. He came to make it possible

for man to set himself once again in the path of peace. There can

be no peace when there are two worlds, two conflicting wills, and

because of the failure of man, the fall of man as we term it in

theology, peace was lost. Disorder was the fruit of conflict, dis-

order remains as the fruit of conflict. In Christ, and in Him

alone is the conflict stilled, in Him alone is there peace, because

the Son of God, the Second person of the Most Blessed Trinity

by becoming man, made Himself the Pontifex, the Bridge, the

Way for restoration of union between the Creator and creature.
He brought grace once more into the life of the human race, that

grace, that stream of divine life, which had nourished man before

his rebellion when he knew peace, the tranquillity of order that

Adam knew in the beginning.

Our Blessed Lord did not come into the world to force man

to take His way, to take His truth, to take His life. His eternal

Father had given the gift of free will and He never recalls His

gifts. So too, He gave His Divine Son, and though there are those

who do not accept Him, nevertheless He remains for those who

will. In our time, then, the essence of conflict, or strife, of the

loss of peace in the world lies in the acceptance or rejection of

Christ. This is true in all times, and we can look at history and

see how the cause of peace has been fostered or defeated. There

was a tension in Israel in the time of Our Lord because there

were two worlds at odds, God’s world, God’s action is his chosen

people and the pagan world of the Roman Empire which moved

and lived and grew by force, by the will of man, and it demon-

strated its final rebellion by defying the emperors. After the

purging of the world, there came into being that unity among the

civilized nations that we call Christendom. It was fruitful in

producing great minds, great literature, great art.



THE SEVENTH BEATITUDE 71

In the 16th century, the unity of Christendom was broken,

and again there came conflict and strife. All peace was lost, first

in the so-called religious wars, apd then in the political wars that

were spawned in the divisive deception that Christ foretold when

He said that the time would come when men would deceive and

cry out, “Lo, here is Christ, or there !” He had also said, “Go

ye not out!” but men did go out. They have gone out until we face

another division which divides our very civilization, that divides

the very roots of life, for now it is not only the deception of “Lo,

here is Christ, or there,” but the very denial of Christ, the denial

of God. In this, there is no hope for peace. The remedies that

men offer for the restoration of peace are vain apart from Christ,

apart from unity in Christ, the Divine Source of peace.

Where shall we place the blame for the war and strife that

characterize our time, where shall we place the blame for the loss

of peace? It is human nature to seek a scape-goat, but if we are

honest and willing to accept truth, bitter though it be, we must

place the burden of failure on ourselves. We have not been peace-
makers because we have lost poverty of spirit, meakness before

God, contrition and a sense of sin, we have been too soft to hunger

and thirst after justice, we have not shown mercy, we have let

uncleaness of heart bring us to compromise. We must place the
blame on those who promote dissension between White and Negro,

between Christian and Jew. We must blame those who foster the
suspicion and misunderstanding that makes for warring sects

among those who claim Christ as their Lord. We who are Catholics
have a right indeed, to point an accusing finger at those who

question our loyalty, who would reduce us to second class citizens,

who would deny our children privileges of public service given to

the rest. But we who are Catholics, who are nearing the word

of God spoken to us by the successors of the Apostles, we who are

receiving the Bread of Life in Holy Communion have the greatest

responsibility. We are the ones who must be peacemakers, because
we have been ordained in the sacrament of Confirmation to be

soldiers of Christ, defenders and extenders of the kingdom of God.

In our time, this demands much of us, but with the help of the

grace given us so abundantly in the Sacraments, in the Holy Sac-

rifice of the Mass, as the fruit of prayer and good works, we

can be peacemakers. Our home life, our parish life, our work, our

recreation must center in Christ for it must ever be our preoccupa-

tion that peace is only in Him. His Divine voice has said it, BLES-

SED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS FOR THEY SHALL BE
CALLED THE CHILDREN OF GOD.



THE EIGHTH BEATITUDE

Talk given June 25, 1950

The traditional eight Beati-

tudes are indeed like the cap-

sules in more ways than one.

They add to or sum up these

Beatitudes. To consider the

eighth—to sum up what we've
considered, instead of having

the usual discussion, I would like

to give an opportunity to some

of the people who have been kind

enough and interested enough to

write to me to use some of their

letters as a basis for a discus-

sion, as it were. It's a distance,

but they have a chance to ex-

press themselves too.

The Beatitudes contain so

very much. They are so very

vast in their implications. But

they are by no means all. The

Divine Physician gave them, like

earthly physicians give their

cures and remedies, as a prepa-

ration for the larger and more

important portions of food and

nourishment, of life strengthen-

ing exercise and sunshine and

fresh air. We're not cured by

medicine. We're only helped by

it. Nature is simply given a lift.

We have to have those God-given

means which are supplied to us

by Divine Providence. We, in

our discovery of the laws of

chemistry and so on, have found

certain medicines and certain

helps, certain capsules that we

can give to help a person to as-

similate what God has given us

in the normal, natural order of

life. And so it is here in the nor-

mal, natural order of the super-

natural life, of the spiritual life.

We must have much more than

just these little eight Beatitudes.

We must have more even than

the whole Sermon on the

Mount. That was not enough,

nor was the teaching of Our

Lord for three years enough.

As I said in the beginning of

the series, that many people to-

day like their religion in cap-

sules, while they take their

pleasures in large quantities.

Many letters which have come

in bear out this statement.

Many seem to have expected that

in the eight short discussions of

the Beatitudes everything should

be settled. And that's quite im-

possible. There are too many

questions. I've ony approached a

few things that needed to be con-

sidered, and we had time for con-

sidering in the brief minutes



THE EIGHTH BEATITUDE 73

allotted for the discussion. Even

Our Lord couldn’t do everything

in the eight Beatitudes. If He

could have, He would have stop-

ped there. But He went on for

the longest course of the Sermon

on the Mount, which the Beati-

tudes are an introduction. He

went on, too, with three years of

His teaching, along with the ac-

tion of His miracles, and finally

came the tremendous act of

giving Himself, His suffering,

His life. For good measure He

added His Resurrection, the

work of the forty days there-

after, and His Ascension. Even

that was not enough, for He sent

the Holy Ghost to vivify His

living Church as a Mystical

Body in which He chooses to live

and act until the end of time.

Satan had lost heaven for trying

to imitate God’s omnipotence; is

still trying to do so, and he con-

tinues in his hopeless and tire-

less efforts in trying to destroy

it.

Now, the persecution of the

Church is the persecution of

Christ. We have the witness to
that in the very beginning, and

so we see the persecution today

which is directed, as we say,

against the Church, is really a

persecution of Christ, Our Lord,

Himself. In the very beginning

of life of the Church when Saul

of Tarsus, before his conversion,

was persecuting the Church, and

on his way to Damascus when he

was struck from his horse and

thrown to the ground, the voice

that came to him then and re-

proachfully said to him, “Saul,

Saul, why persecutest thou me?”

The voice didn’t say, “Why do

you persecute my Church? Why

do you persecute Christians?

Why do you persecute my follow-

ers?” He was doing all that. But

the voice said, “Why persecutest

thou me?,” because Christ and

His Church are one, Christ lives

in His Church and acts in His

Church through the ages and

will so act until the end of time.

And so, then, this persecution of

the Church means the persecu-

tion in the lives of those who

try to live in union with Christ.

And there is this persecution go-

ing on in the world today.

There’s the persecution—a con-
stant persecution—of all those
who have during all the ages

tried to live according to the life

of Our blessed Lord. The world

instinctively persecutes. And

so Our Blessed Lord has said,

“Blessed are they that suffer

persecution for justice’s sake,

for theirs is the kingdom of

heaven.”



74 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

Now, the reaction to these

words in the time of Our Lord

was probably similar to the re-

action in our time. The first

question would be, “Why suf-

fer ?" Why suffer purposely,

even? We feel that we have

enough suffering that comes our

way without seeking it, or we

should ward it off, do everything

possible to keep it from coming.

Suffering is nothing that we

should welcome. Suffering has no

purpose in life in the minds of

so many people. They say ... so

many will say, “Don't we get

enough hell on earth without

getting ourselves into something

that will merely add to our prob-

lems, our difficulties, our perse-

cutions?" Well, of course, there

is hell on earth, oftentimes. But

certainly we make our heaven or

our loss of heaven here in this

life. It is our work here. It's the

one work that is important for

them to do while he's living this

life. It's the only thing that

gives it significance—that gives
it any sense of reality—in that
it has an eternal fulfillment. If

it were something just tempor-

ary—life in this earth and these
our bodies with all that there is

—then certainly it would not be
worth living. It would simply be

a taste of tremendous reality

which would be taken away from

us at the end of life, and if

there is nothing but oblivion at

the end of life, then we have

lived in vain.

Now, we take what comes in

this world. We can take it in two

ways. We can take it in the spir-

it of resistance—the suffering
that comes, that's inevitable, the

trials and difficulties, the perse-

cution for justice's sake. We can

take that in the Christian spirit.

We can take it in the way that

Our Blessed Lord meant here in

the eighth Beatitude. We can

understand what St. Paul meant

when he said it is useless to kick

against the goad. For the goad

which was used to keep the ani-

mals going when they were driv-

ing them for plowing or harvest-

ing crops, the goad is a pointed

stick. And when the animal kick-

ed against it, the goad just sank

in all the deeper. So here, St.

Paul then uses this picture

which was understood by the

people of his time. It is useless

to kick against the goad. Well,

we may sit back and in a stoical

sort of a way say, “Well, we'll

take what comes, and we will live

accordingly." But that is not

virtuous living. The stoic is just

steering himself to what he con-

siders to be necessary evil.



THE EIGHTH BEATITUDE 75

Now, suffering is not an evil

if it's used as Christ meant us to

use it, if we use it as Christ used

His suffering. What He accom-

plished with His, we can accom-

plish with ours in a lesser de-

gree. Well, of course, we see

around us the pagan world hat-

ing and fleeing from suffering.

That is the essence of paganism

—to seek pleasure, to seek satis-
faction, to use all the means at

one's command for gaining these

pleasures and satisfactions that

come to our senses in various

ways. But that, of course, is but

. . it doesn't mean that we have

to go around being very sad and

that we have a long face and

that we can't enjoy anything.

We are sorrowing and sad all the

time. Not at all! We can have

the greatest joy and the greatest

happiness in the world if we use

suffering in the sense that we

use it for justice's sake.

Now, the pagan world is pret-

ty strong today. We live in the

midst of a growing paganism.

Perhaps it's reached its growth.

There are indications that it has,

but nevertheless it is certain

that Christians have been in-

fected by the paganism of our

time. We see that everywhere.

We see the coldness and indiffer-

ence of Christians—the luke-

warmness of faith, the luke-

warmness of zeal—which is only
too often evident among people

who call themselves Christians.

They're unwilling to suffer.

They're as unwilling as a pagan.

They're unwilling to sacrifice.

They're unwilling to give them-

selves, their time, their effort,

and their strength. There are so

many Christians, too, who often

say, oh . . . they admire heroic

suffering. Well, the interesting

thing of that is the admiration

for St. Francis of Assisi. There

is so much admiration for him.

And, of course, here in the great

city of St. Francis by the Golden

Gate we hear a great deal about

the good St. Francis. There have

been many pictures made of him

by local artists, and statues, and

all this sort of thing . . . And

that's been done over the world,

and over and over again. And so

often St. Francis is pictured as a

sort of a sweet little man. They

talk about the poor little man of

Assisi, and he's pictured with

flowers and birds around him in

a sort of soft and senti-

mental way. Well, that's as far

from the true picture of St.

Francis as anything could be. St.

Francis, today if he were living,

would scorn the paganism of

our. time. He would scorn our



76 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

Christians who have been infect-

ed by it. He would be very in-

sistent in calling them from

their ways, and he would not be

a gentle sweet, little, mushy man

doing it. He would speak in no

uncertain terms. St. Francis was

strong. It took strength and it

took character to do what he did

—to deny himself, to live the life
of voluntary poverty, and to live

it with virtue, which can be done

and should be done. Then, these

people who admire St. Francis

so much ... if he came along

today, they wouldn’t have any-

thing to do with him. They’d say

that his clothes were tattered

and torn, they were dirty, and

that he was not up to the stand-

ards of our time, and the way he

was groomed, and all that. And

they would say that he was an

odd character, and they would

just lift their eyebrows and pass

by. And that is the truth.

Now, many of these people

who admire St. Francis and the

other saints would say, “Oh, if

I only had the opportunity that

they had, the opportunity to do

great and heroic things, I could

be a martyr. I could sacrifice tre-

mendously and do great things if

the opportunity came my way.”

But the opportunity doesn’t come.

They don’t know how to take

the ones that do—the little daily
recurring opportunities, the ir-

ritations and trials of life, of

work, of relationship with others,

the trials and difficulties that

come in family life. They don’t

accept these, even. Then, how

could they take the big ones?

They’ve been weakened so much

by the pagan attitudes that they

complain, and they grow irritable

with even the little things. They

take refuge in divorce, and they

use painkillers. Look at the wide

use of them today ! The first

thing anyone wants is a pain-

killer if anything happens to

him. And then they seek mental

salves in the form of movies and

romance and thriller fiction, and

all that sort of thing. We see so

much of drinking to excess to

bring about forgetfulness, to an-

esthetize our suffering to get us

away from it. And, of course, it

doesn’t do anything of the kind.

It only increases it eventually,

because we cannot beat the

game. We cannot beat the game

when we’re playing against God.

Suffering is a part of the build-

ing of characters, we can see.

We can see that in the old law

—

how God did it—with the
Jews who came out of Egypt,

who had been softened by their

four hundred years of living in



THE EIGHTH BEATITUDE 77

Egypt with the pagan civiliza-

tion there. They had been re-

duced to a slave mentality, and

they had been turned aside from

the strength of purposes by the

ease and the comfort and the

luxury of the pleasurable living

which was the feature of pagan

life in Egypt. God took them

out of that country to bring

them back to their own, but He

kept them wandering in the des-

ert for forty years in order that

the generation which came out

of Egypt might die off, and a

new and stronger generation be

born and brought up in the suf-

fering and trials and difficulties

of desert life* And so, when that

new generation grew up, God

brought them back into their

own country.

We can see, too, how suffering

builds character in individuals.

The pampered child is not noted

for good character, and the boy

or girl who may face some diffi-

culties, has some trials in life,

and these are the ones who have

character, and they are the ones

who do not attempt to find

simply pleasure in life.

Now, of the correspondence

that has come in, there had been

much helpful literature mailed

to me—printed literature. Some
of it was interesting, and some

of it was just nice and ethical,

and some of it was a little fan-

tastic! There are schemes and

interpretations from all sorts of

people, and apparently there are

many who are earnest and sin-

cere, who are trying to think

things through, but they forget

some very fundamental princi-

ples— some very fundamental
and basic needs in our time.

Some of this literature also came

from Catholics, and they showed

great interest in signs and wond-

ers of the time, and we have the

greatest wonder of all— the
Mass and the Holy Eucharist.

And that should be our first con-

sideration. And if we take that,

then the others will come and

take their place properly.

The Blessed Mother has work-

ed signs and wonders for us—at
Lourdes and Fatima— but She
asked for penance and prayer.

Now, there's a great interest in

the manifestations of Our Bles-

sed Mother at these places, but

the penance and prayer is lag-

ging a little behind. And that's

what we must have.

Then, I had another letter

which was interesting, because it

misunderstood the whole pur-

pose of my theories . . . This

gentleman who wrote to me seem-

ed to have the idea that I was



78 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

boasting about the superiority

of Christian life and practice,

and that we are living according

to the standards of the eight

Beatitudes. Well, I certainly am

not boasting anything of the

kind. I took the eight Beatitudes

as a basis for these discussions

and these broadcasts. It seems

to me our Christian people need

to be reminded of them very

seriously, and they are not living

according to them. If they were,

I would have taken something

else that would have been more

helpful and more needful in their

time. But this is exactly why

I’ve taken the eight Beatitudes

to bring them back to the minds

of our Catholic people.

Now, this gentleman also took

me to task for indicating that

the Christian rulers of the

world, as he calls them, are

meek, and practicing meekness.

Well, I don't know who the

Christian rulers of the world

are. There aren't many that are

really Christian in their practice

and certainly in government, and

the politics of the world hasn't

much of Christianity left in it.

And he also makes the mistake

of calling everything Christian

which is not Jewish, as he him-

self is. That is a mistake, of

course, that we must distinguish

—that there is Christian and
pagan, and there are a great

many other standards of life,

and everything that can be just

bunched together and called

Christian. He says the Christian

world looked on and did nothing

while Adolph Hitler killed six

million Jews. I thought the

world did a great deal. It seems

to me that we went to war, and

Hitler has been polished off.

Now, he says that the Christian

world is arming the enemies of

Israel to take away their little

piece of land again. I don't see

that either, and I hope the Jews

keep it, and certainly they are

welcome, we say again, to the

Waters of Babylon. My own

people left their native land a

hundred years ago because of

persecution. Many have been

persecuted in this world, and

they are making a struggle and

have made a struggle for hun-

dreds of years to straighten out

the difficulties in their own land

and their own situations.

Another letter said that I

should take up the question of

nudity on the beaches. Another

one asked that I do something

about the problem of the murder

of the unborn. All of these could

be done, of course. They are

evils that cry for justice in this



THE EIGHTH BEATITUDE 79

world. But the basic need, and

the one thing that is necessary,

we must not forget, is the prac-

tice of virtue and the Grace of

God. People forget the positive

side.

SUMMARY

We are concerned in our time

with the question of survival in

this world—the survival of our
form of government, the survival

of our civilization, with the very

survival of life. The ingenuity of

man has conceived the means for

his own destruction by delving

into the power put into Nature

by its creator and turning that

power from its original purpose.

God made all things for good.

God made all things for love. But

man, because of the blemish of

pride, may fail to realize this

fact, and by the misuse of the

gift of free will they forget and

be tempted to listen to the voice

of the spiritual tempter who

knows in his Satanic wisdom

that the corruption of the spirit-

ual is the way to the accomplish-

ment of evil ends, that the ends

of good and love may be frus-

trated by moving man to the

centering of his life in self, and

by distracting man from the

realization that suffering is the

price of redemption and recon-

struction of self. Instinctively

we turn to good, and it is that

we are concerned with—the sur-
vival which we have accomplish-

ed of our good work, what we

have done of good in our civiliza-

tion.

Can our form of government

survive? This question is calling

for an answer in our time. We

may weigh in our minds other

questions and seek for answers

in various ways, but the answer

will not be known unless we seek

it in the spiritual, for “man does

not live by bread alone.” Whether

our form of government survives

or not, may not decide the fate of

civilization, the fate of the

world. But of this we are con-

vinced—that we have built a na-
tion here in which the voice of

the individual has been respect-

ed, in which the minority has

been considered. And under God

that is good, because God is con-

cerned with all men, with each

individual, and to Him parties

are not of importance. Artificial

labels are not of importance. He

is a God of justice, and to

bring justice to men, to indivi-

duals, to the race. He has spared

no sacrifice.

So it is that Our Blessed Lord

has called upon those who would

unite themselves to His way, to

His sacrifice, for He is the way



80 RELIGION IN A CAPSULE

of Salvation foretold by Isaiah,

“Lift up your eyes to heaven

and look down to the earth be-

neath, for the heaven shall van-

ish like smoke, and the earth shall

be worn away like a garment,

and the inhabitants thereof shall

perish in like manner, but my

salvation shall be forever, and

my justice shall not fail.”

In these inspired words we find

the key to the answers to the

questions that beset us in our

time. The Creator has sent His

own Divine Son into the world

for its salvation. He is the Son

of Justice. He took it upon Him-

self to suffer because men had

refused to suffer the poverty of

spirit, the meekness that requir-

ed him to know less than God,

because man had thought to

make himself wise as God, and

banished humility—the humility
that made him mourn — because
he had lost the eagerness of will

that made him willing to hunger

and thirst after justice, because

arrogance had made him lose

mercy, and because cleanness of

heart had been soiled by mean-

ness and by putting flesh in the

first place, because he had been

unwilling to sacrifice to make

peace and called upon an aveng-

ing God to impose it. Man’s way

was an offense to the Di-

vine Architect. And only by suf-

fering, the suffering of sub-

mission, the suffering of de-

nial of self, could the of-

fense be satisfield and amended

The infinite effects of man’s of-

fense were satisfied for by the

divinity of the Redeemer, the

Son of God, the Second Person

of the Most Blessed Trinity.

In His life on earth He in-

corporated man into His own life

that we might have redemption.

So it is that man has to suffer

persecution for justice’s sake if

he is to be one with the Redeem-

er, if he is to walk with Him in

the way of justice. Our Divine

Lord has said that this is the

way to the possession of the

kingdom of heaven. Whose word

has stood the test of time?

Whose word is the stamp of

truth? His, or yours? If, then,

we are concerned in the large-

ness of our vision, with the ques-

tion of the survival of our gov-

ernment, with the survival of

our civilization, or with the ques-

tion of the survival of our own

individual souls, because the God

who created them desires them

back again, we must turn to

Christ for guidance and truth.

His way is the way of suffering

for justice’s sake. The Found-

ing Fathers knew that the suf-



THE EIGHTH BEATITUDE 81

fering of the people had brought

them freedom and an opportuni-

ty to grow strong in a new world.

They knew in their rugged wis-

dom, born of suffering, that “In

God We Trust.” Lincoln learned

it and prayed that this nation

under God might have a new

birth of freedom. Can we not

learn in our time that some pow-

er must be supreme, because it

is plainly evident that man is

not. For in . . . individual lives

we see that suffering and

sacrifice builds strength and

character and will. Shall we not

then be willing to sacrifice our

pride in the recognition of the

fact that is forced upon us by

universal experience, that it is

God, or the dictatorship of a

demigod, that will hold us in

subjection?

It is important that we inter-

est ourselves in the cause of jus-

tice and freedom in this world,

because if they flourish, then and

then only can the works of the

spirit be made manifest. The

salvation of our own immortal

souls can be brought about more

surely when the justice of God

prevails in the works of man,

and when the Creator is denied,

for God has set us in this crea-

tion to work out our eternal des-

tiny, and that destiny is Himself.

Whether we seek justice in great

ways or small, we must seek it in

God’s way, and Christ has said

we must suffer persecution, for

if we are to know the fountain

of happiness, it is necessary. We

have His Word, “Blessed are they

that suffer persecution for just-

ice’s sake, for theirs is the king-

dom of heaven.”



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Tennessee Jackson WTJS 1390 kc

Texas Amarillo KFDA 1440 kc
FI Paso KEPO 690 kc
San Antonio KABC 1 450 kc
Tevarkana . KCMC 250 kc

Vprmont Burlington.- WJOY 1230 kc

Washington— .Seattle KJR 1510 kc
Spokane .... .... KGA 930 kc
Wenatchee KPQ 560 kc

Wisconsin Green Bay WDIJZ 1400 kc
1 a Crosse .... W! CX 1490 kc
Mnrlison wise 1480 kc

Canaria Montreal .... _ _ CFCF 600 kc

Hawaii Honolulu KULA 690 kc

* Delayed Broadcast

(Revised, March. 1949 )



HOUR OF FAITH RADIO ADDRESSES IN PAMPHLET

FORM

OUR SUNDAY VISITOR is the authorized publisher of all Hour of Faith addresses
in pamphlet form. The addresses published to date, all of which are available, are listed

below. Others will be published as they are delivered.

Prices per 100 Do Not Include Carriage Charge.

“The Faith is Simple,” by the Rev. J. J. McLarney, O.P. 56 pages and cover.

Single copy, 25c postpaid ; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $10.50 per 100.

“Starting From Scratch,” by the Rev. Richard Ginder. 80 pages and cover.
Single copy, 25c postpaid ; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $11.00 per 100.

“Living the Full Life,” by the Rev. Richard Ginder. 40 pages and cover.

Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $9.50 per 100.

“Self-Evident Truths,” by the Rev. Urban Nagle, O.P. 32 pages and cover. Single

copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities. $8.00 per 100.

“The Emotions—Helps to Happiness,” by the Rev. Thomas F. Carey, O.P. 32 pages
and cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“The Four Freedoms,” by the Rev. Brendan Larnen, O.P. 24 pages and cover,

single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more. 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“My Uncles, Right and Wrong,” by the Rev. Urban Nagle, O.P., 112 pages and cover.
Single copy, 35c postpaid ; 5 or more, 30c each. In quantities, $17.50 per 100.

“Sharing Life with Christ,” by the Rev Louis A. Gales. 32 pages and cover. Single

copy 20c postpaid ; 5 or more 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.
“Just Plain Numbers,” by the Rev. Timothy J. Mulvey, O.M.I. 48 pages and cover.

Single copy, 25c postpaid; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $10.00 per 100.

“My Uncles Talk It Over,” by the Rev. Urban Nagle, O.P. 64 pages and cover.
Single copy, 25c postpaid ; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $10.50 per 100.

“The Road Back,” by the Rev. Urban Nagle, O.P. 36 pages and cover. Single
copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.75 per 100.

“Honesty, Now!” by the Rev. John M. McCarthy. 32 pages and cover. Single copj
20c postpaid; 5 or more. 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“On Going A Journey,” by the Rev. Thomas E. O'Connell, 48 pages and cover.
Single copy, 25c postpaid ; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $10.00 per 100.

“Building Christian Personality,” by the Rev. James A. Magner. 32 pages and
cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“The Truth Shall Make You Free,” by the Rev. James G. Keller, M.M. 32 pages
and cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Distinguished Servants,” by the Rev. John M. McCarthy. 32 pages and cover.
Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Man and the Mystery of Life,” by the Rev. Vincent Holden, C.S.P. 32 pages and
cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“According to the Holy Gospel,” by the Rev. John J. Reilly. 32 pages and cover.

20c postpaid; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“American Mythology,” by the Rev. Urban Nagle, O.P. 56 pages and cover. 25c
postpaid; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $10.50 i#er 100.

“The Church And The Working Man,” by the Rev. Charles O. Rice. 32 pages and
cover. Single copy 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Be Doubly Happy,” by the Rev. Hugh Calkins, O.S.M. 32 pages and cover. Single
copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Modern Youth and Marriage,” by the Rev. Hugh Calkins, O.S.M. 24 pages and
cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 ptr 100.

“Humanity's Crosses,” by the Rev. James A. Sheehan, O.M.I. 32 pages and cover.

Single copy, 20c postpaid; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Uncle George And Uncle Malachy Return,” by the Rev. Urban Nagle, O.P. 32
pages and cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00

per 100.

“The Continuation of the Holy Gospel,” by the Rt. Rev. Msgr. John J. Reilly. 24

pages and cover. Single copy 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00

per 100.

“Why Religion?” by the Rev. Dr. Edward J. O’Brien. 32 pages and cover. Single
copy 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Realities of Life,” by Rev. Vincent Holden, C.S.P. 32 pages and cover. Single

copy 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Four Men And The Man,” by the Rev. Thomas E. O'Connell. 32 pages and cover.
Single copy 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“The Five Unknown Sacraments,” by the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Arthur J. Sawkins. 32
pages and cover. Single copy 20c, postpaid

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

“The Miracles of Christ,” by the Rev. Edmond D. Benard, 24 pages and cover.
Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“It's Easy To Pray,” by Rev. Paul G. Corbett, O.P. 32 pages and cover. Single copy,

20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $9.50 per 100.



“Some Modern Scandals,” by Rev. John J. Coffey, O.S.A. 32 pages and cover.

Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $9.50 per 100

“Remaking America,” by Chaplain Francis L. Sampson. 32 pages and cover.
Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $9.50 per 100.

“The Church and Youth,” by the Rev. Francis J. McPhillips. 32 pages and cover.
Single copy, 20c postpaid; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $9.50 per 100.

“Survival In Crisis,” by Rev. Joseph N. Moody. 32 pages and cover. Single copy

10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $9.50 per 100.

“Reaching The Hundred Million,” by the Rev. James Kellar, M.M. 32 pages and
;orer. Single copy 20c postpaid; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $9.50 per 100.

“March Of The Missions,” by the Rev. Martin J. Watley. 32 pages and cover.
Single copy 20c postpaid ; 5 or more. 15c each. In quantities, $9.50 per 100.

“Souls, Saints and Sinners,” by the Rt. Rev. Msgr. John J. Reilly. 32 pages and

cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Careers for God,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Joseph M. Griffin. 32 pages and cover.

Single copy 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $9.50 per 100.

“Practical Ideals for Families,” byRev. Hugh Calkins, O.S.M. 32 pages and cover.
Single copy 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $9.50 per 100.

“The Agony in the Garden,” by Rev. John Courtney Murray, S.J. 32 pages and cover

Single copy 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $9.50 per 100.

“The Lights of Liberty,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Francis J. Furey. 24 pages and cover.

Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities $8.00 per 100.

“Four Prayers,” by Very Rev. Msgr. Mark Ebner. 24 pages and cover. Single copy,
20c postpaid; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“The Love of God,” by Rev. Thomas S. Hansberry. 24 pages and cover. Single copy,
20c postpaid; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“The Angels of Heaven and Hell,” by the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Arthur J. Sawkins. 32 pages

and cover. Single copy 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“This Is Charity,” by Rev. Francis J. McPhillips. 32 pages and cover. Single copy

20c postpaid; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“The Wisdom of the Spirit,” by the Rev. Edward T. Wiatrak, S.J. 32 pages and
cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Faith on the 5:15,” by Rev. Thomas E. O’Connell. 36 pages and cover. Single
copy, 20c postpaid; 5 or more. 15c each. In quantities, $8.75 per 100.

“Designs for Successful Living,” by the Rev. Hugh Calkins, O.S.M. 40 pages and
cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Building Blocks for Peace,” by Chaplain William J. Clasby (Lt. Col.). 36 pages and
cover. Single copy, 25c postpaid

;
5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $9,25 per 100.

“Wisdom of the Cross,” by the Rev. Eugene Burke, C.S.P. 24 pages and cover
Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Helps For Modern Man,” by the Rev. Vincent Holden, C.S.P. 32 pages and cover.
Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Crusade of Prayers,” by the Rev. John E. Muldoon. 24 pages and cover. Single
copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Crises in Church History,” by the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Sawkins. 36 pages and cover.
Single copy, 25c postpaid ; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $9.25 per 100.

“Souls, Saints and Sinners,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. John J. Reilly. 32 pages and cover.
Single copy 20c postpaid

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

“To Wear A Halo,” by the Rev. Thomas J. O’Donnell, C.S.C. 82 pages and cover
Single copy, 25c postpaid ; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $9.25 per 100.

“Looking Forward,” by NCWC Staff members. 36 pages and cover. Single copy,
20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.75 per 100.

“Christ As Seen By The Apostles,” by the Rev. Edward J. O’Brien. 32 pages and
cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.75 per 100.

“Man Is Destined For the Glory of God,” by the Rev. Michael J. Lies. 24 pages and
cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“The Unseen Army,” by the Very Rev. Vincent J. McCauley, C.S.C., 40 pages and
cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“By Greyhound to Heaven, Virginia,” by the Rev. Thomas O’Connell. 36 pages and
cover. Single copy, 25c postpaid ; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $9.25 per 100.

“His Ways . . . His Paths,” by the Rt. Rev. Msgr. John J. Reilly. 32 pages and cover.
Single copy, 20c postpaid; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.75 per 100.

“The Catholic Church And Modern Man,” by Vincent Holden, C.S.P., 112 pages and
cover. Single copy, 65c postpaid; 5 or more, 60c each. In quantities, $38.00 per 100.

“Religion,” by the Rev. Urban Nagle, O.P., and various guest speakers, 96 pages and
cover. Single copy, 50c postpaid ; 5 or more, 40c each. In quantities, $22.00 per 100.

“The Church And The Liturgy,” by the Rev. Michael Ducey, O.S.B., 32 pages and
cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.75 per 100.

“Holy Year Pilgrimage,” by the Rev. Philip M. Hannan. 32 pages and cover. Single
copy. 20c postpaid; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $8.75 per 100.

“Religion In a Capsule,” by the Rev. John E. Meehan. 88 pages and cover. Single
copy, 50c postpaid; 5 or more, 40c each. In quantities, $22.00 per 100.





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