A TRAPPIST

asks:

J4ave you

-Met Qod?

A

Question for

Catholics and Non-Catholics



UNIVERSITY c5f

LIBRARIES

Yale University Archives



A TRAPPIST

asks:

J4ave you

^Met Qocl?

A

Question for

Catholics and Non-Catholics



NIHIL OBSTAT:

Fr. M. Albericus Wulf, O.C.S.O.

Fr. M. Maurice Malloy, O.C.S.O.

Censores

IMPRIMI POTEST:

+ Fr. Fredericus M. Dunne, O.C.S.O
Abbas, B. M. de Gethsemani

IMPRIMATUR:

+ Joannes A. Floersh, D.D.
Archiepiscopus Ludovicopolitanus

1st Printing 10,000

2d Printing 20,000

COPYRIGHT 1941
by the

ABBEY OF GETHSEMANI, INC.



TO

ALL WHO LOVE

• TRUTH

MAY

GOD THE HOLY GHOST

GIVE LIGHT

TO ALL WHO READ



4 Have You Met God?

Have You Met God?

There is a reason for that startling ques-

tion. It is this: When you want to advance
in the business, social or political world, you

seek contacts. You make it a point to meet
the right people, the people with money, in-

fluence or power. In fact, success in life

seems to depend very largely on this matter

of meeting the right people and making the

correct contacts; for without the right con-

tacts you can get nowhere. That is all well

and good; but tell me, have you ever made it
your business to meet God? — That is the
important contact for you : that is the all-

important contact ! For without Him you
can do nothing!

Here is the situation as I see it: You have
been on earth for some years now: undoubted-

ly you have been many places, met many
people and done many things

;
but if you

have not met God, your years are empty and-

your life is a waste. So I say: NOW is the
time; YOU, the person; and THIS, the place
to ask yourself life’s most important question:

Have you met God?
It was only last year that a dentist said to

me, “The most important thing in life, next

to the grace of God, is money.” About life’s

most important thing, he is absolutely right;

concerning his second choice, all I say is that

most people place it first; and in doing so

they are wrong. For while man has been
defined as a rational animal, a gregarious

animal and a social animal, he has never yet

been, and never shall be, rightly defined as a

money animal
;

because definitions must be

true! I admit that money is important, very
important; but I insist that it is NOT the
most important

;
nor is contact with moneyed

men and moneyed women life’s most impor-
tant contact! Far from it! For when weighed

in the finest balance, the truest definition of

man is the one that says he is a religious
-animal. That is why his most important busi-



Have You Met God? o

ness in life is to meet God! Have you done it?

Some people say that it cannot be done; for

God does not exist. Others say it would do

you no good to meet Him; because you can

not know Him, He is beyond our sphere of
cognition. Still others say, “Why, of course,

you have met Him; for He is everything, and
everything is He.” Now what do you say?
If you have met Him, you should know Him;

and if you know Him, you should be able to

tell me much about Him. Can you?
Here is the parallel for you: Were I to ask

you about your wife or your husband, your

sweetheart or your child, you could be fluent.

You could tell me who they are, what they
are like, what their qualities and characteris-

tics. Were I to ask you about your work,

your wages, your hopes for advancement, your

answers would be instantaneous. Why? Why
this readiness and accuracy? — Simply be-
cause you consider these people and these

things important. You know that they mean
much to your happiness. Hence, you have
made them intimate, giving them your time,
thought and closest attention. But what of
your God? Is the situation the same? Can
you tell me who He is? what He is like? what
are His qualities and characteristics? Tell

me honestly, can you be explicit about your
God as you can be about your barber, butcher,
hairdresser or newspaper boy? If not, why
not? Is it that you do not consider God im-
portant? Is it that you have never made it
a point to meet Him intimately?

Perhaps these questions strike you as

strange, and you are wondering why so much
stress is placed on the idea of meeting . Per-

haps you are thinking in terms of knowing,
loving and serving God and are upset by this
idea of meeting Him. If that be the case,
let me ask you if you have ever really known
anyone you had not met? if you have ever
loved anyone you did not know? and if you
can give anything but a slavish service to
anyone you do not love? — Of course not.



6 Have You Met God?

You did not. You could not. You cannot.
You have to know before you love, and love
before you can unselfishly serve. So life’s

most important question looms larger: Have
you met God? Meeting is the first and most

essential step. The others follow as natural

consequences.

If you are an atheist, or atheistically in-

clined, you will laugh at the question and

say, “Of course, I haven’t met God. For you

can’t meet Him who does not exist, and it is
senseless to shake hands with empty air.

Science has proved . .
.”

Pardon my interruption, but before you go
any further, will you please

Look at Your Watch

I am serious, very serious. I know the time,
the exact time. It is time to think! So please

look at your watch.

A fairly delicate and intricate bit of ma-
chinery, isn’t it? Made up of very many parts.
There are wheels and springs and jewels, metal,

enamel and glass. And yet, there is a unity,
a harmony, an apt adjustment of them all.

There is order here and manifest purpose. Cog

fits cog and wheel moves wheel as spring regu-

lates spring; and all are so interconnected that

the second-hand regulates the minute-hand

and the minute-hand that of the hour.

Keep on looking at your watch and think!

Would you have the hardihood to show that
watch of yours to a rational being and say,

“This thing didn’t have a maker; it just hap-

pened. I don’t know where the different parts
came from; they just did. Some blind fate or

haphazard chance brought them together and

wheel just fitted wheel, as spring balanced

spring and jewel after jewel just fell into

place, so that, when wound, everything moves

and these hands tell me the exact time of
day; they give me the hour, the minute and
even the second. There is order here and pur-

pose and magnificent design, but don’t think



Have You Met God? 7

for a moment that it had an intelligent maker.

No! The thing just happened — that’s all.”
You know what would happen to you, don’t

you? A kind friend might try to quiet you.
An earnest friend would most likely expostu-
late. A sincere friend would most certainly
explode. He would tell you the time! He
would tell you it was time to see a doctor, call

the psychopathic ward or reserve a padded

cell. For design demands a designer, purpose,

an intelligent being, and order a person with

a mind.

All evident, isn’t it? Insufferably obvious.

Good! Now take an open-eyed look at the
watch of the world, the clock of the universe,

and read sun time, or if you wish, sidereal.

It never runs down. It never loses a second!

It is always exact! Do you dare to say that
it had no Maker? Who keeps it wound up?
Who is the Jeweler who cleans it and oils it
and adjusts its main spring? Who is it that
keeps it running so perfectly?

I am not asking you to be a metaphysician
or even a deep philosopher. I am not asking
you to use abstruse or even abstract reason-

ing. But I am pleading with you to use com-
mon sense! A watch demands a watchmaker,
and the world demands God

!

Have you ever heard an echo that comes
from no sound? Have you ever seen a shadow
that was cast by no light? Have you ever
read a poem that was never composed? How,
then, can you look at the watch of the world

and say there is no God? Do look at your
watch and, please, think!

I know that it is becoming ever more com-
mon to deny God’s existence; but that is only
proof positive of the ever increasing stultifica-

tion of modern man. Think of it! For over
a quarter of a century, the ruling powers of

a large nation have been laboring might and
main to destroy what they say does not exist!
If there is no God, at whom are the Russian
reds shaking their fists, and about whom are
they always raving? I have heard of shadow-



8 Have You Met God?

boxing, but the boxer has at least a shadow

to fight; but, if we are to believe Russia, we
must conclude that, for over a quarter of a
century she has been shadowboxing in the

dark! How right Sacred Scripture is: “Only
the fool. . .

."

There are shadows on the earth. There-

fore, there is the Light of the World! Have
you met Him?

* * *

If you are an agnostic you will say, “What's

the use? Even if I did meet Him, I could
not know Him. He is outside my sphere of
cognition. I admit that there is a God, I con-

cede your argument about the watch and the

watchmaker. There is a First Cause; that, I

know. But He is unknowable. Spencer, Hux-
ley, Darwin, Hume. . . .”

Oh ! be modern ! Take Russell and Mencken
and George Bernard Shaw; take Lippmann or
Lenin or H. G. Wells. For in the living of

actual life atheist and agnostic are about the

same. These smart men have outmoded God.
But what hurts most is that their smartness

has taken hold of those who were one time
wise. The reasoning doubter is all around

us. Technically they are agnostics, but actual-

ly many of them are looked upon as upstanding
Christians, and saddest of all, some few as

practicing Catholics!

These people do not deny God's existence.

Oh, never ! But they do musingly wonder

“how we can know anything about God, His
nature and His attributes; how we can know
anything about the spirituality and immor-

tality of the soul; how we can know anything
about Heaven or the life that is to come."

You have met them. Their name is “Legion"!
They never deny. They simply doubt. They

half jokingly say, “After all, you know, no

one yet has come down from Heaven or back

from the dead."

Accurately phrase their thoughts for these

people and they grow offended. Tell them



Have You Met God? 9

that they are talking agnosticism and they are

insulted.

This type of mind is disturbingly common.

Of course it is but the inevitable result of our

unbalanced system of education. Saturate

the mind of youth with the physical sciences,

show him no other method of acquiring knowl-

edge but the so-called “scientific method” —
that of experimentation — and he cannot help
concluding that there is but one font of knowl-

edge and a single source of certitude. He
cannot help concluding that what he cannot

see with his little eyes or feel with his little

hands, what he cannot catch in his telescope

or miscroscope, what he cannot pour into a

beaker or chemical retort, what he cannot

weigh and measure and experiment with, is

beyond his sphere of cognition and for all

practical purposes tantamount to nonexistent.

Now when a man or a woman tells me that
they know nothing about God, I accept their
statement as true; for I suppose them to know
their^ own minds. But when they go further
and say that nothing can be known about Him,
I marvel at the boldness of their assertion and
ask them for proof. Of course I never get it;
for proving has never been the forte of agnos-

tics; assuming and asserting is.

They say that we cannot know God. I say
we can, and prove it by asking you to

Turn on Your Radio

By the slightest manipulation of the dials
you can bring a symphony, an opera, or an
oratorio into your room; you can listen to a
singer, a speaker or a sport-spectacle de-

scribed. Now look! and listen! and think! . .

.

Can you know nothing of the radio’s maker?
Whoever he was, he had a mind; and having
a mind, he was a person. So he is that little
bit less unknowable, even though he is unseen.
He is a person with an orderly mind, an in-
ventive mind, a creative mind. He is a person



10 Have You Met God?

who could dream, as it were, of an instrument
whose sensitive metallic fingers would reach

out and pluck melody from the skies, whose

delicate ears would catch every undulation of

the ether and report them with flawless ac-

curacy to all who cared to listen. He is a
person who, on waking from his dream, would

work, and work until he made his dream
come true. He is a painstaking individual
with an exquisite sense of proportion and a

veritable passion for accuracy of minutest de-

tail. To you the radio may be only a box
with the conglomeration of dials, tubes and

countless wires; yet you know that each little
coil has a purpose, and each tiny thread a

function; you know that behind that box with
its odds and ends of wires and lights and twist-

ing dials there was a man with a mind, an
inventive genius, and the more you study his

creation, the more you know of the man and
his mind.

So, too, with the world. To you it may be
only earth, air, water and sky; and yejt you

discern a balance, a proportion, a relation be-

tween all. You see order! The more you study
it, the more clearly you learn of the Creative

Genius, the Mind, the Person, the One behind

it all — God!
Listen to your radio and think ! There

comes a station announcement; immediately

you know that there is a station announcer!
Listening to him announcing, can’t you learn

anything of his mentality and personality?

From the mere sound of his voice, can’t you
tell whether he is intimate, friendly, warm
and cheering, a pleasant sort of person to

know? or whether he is cold, distant, formal,
a mere robot with a definite assignment? Of

course you can! And that is precisely why
some announcers get longer and better con-

tracts, while others go looking for some other

job. But the point I make is this: he is un-
seen, but he is NOT unknowable. Neither is
God!



Have You Met God? 11

When an artist, either vocal or instrumen-
tal, comes on the air, can you know nothing

of his or her mind, heart and soul? Is he

or she, because unseen, absolutely unknown

and unknowable? Now think! You know,
anyone can sing or finger out the notes that

are set on the score, but not everyone can

render the master’s composition! No indeed.
More than a throat or two hands full of

fingers are needed. A soul is in demand. A
soul that has mind, imagination and deep

appreciation. A heart must be had, one that
is alive with feeling and a pulse with real emo-

tion. That is why artists leave you limp, while
singers only make you mad ! Of course the un-
seen is not unknown. It is very, very knowable

!

When you listen to a speaker, is it only
his words that you catch? Do you not also
learn what manner of mind the man possesses?
Do you not ascertain whether he is logical,
learned and full of life or just smart, super-

ficial and clever with words? Don’t you learn

much of the man, his heart and his head? Of
course you do ! For the unseen can be very well

known and is far from unknowable!

Now turn off your radio and look at the
stars or listen to the sea. God is unseen,
but He is not unknowable. His mind, His
power, His absorbing beauty, are clearly seen

by those who will intelligently look, and His
symphony is heard by those who will intel-
ligently listen. If I can know much of Shake-
speare from his Hamlet and of Dante from
his Divina Commedia; if I can know much of
Raphael from his Madonnas and of Michel-
angelo from St. Peter’s Dome; if I can know
very much of Bach and Beethoven from pre-
ludes and Moonlight Sonatas and of Haydn
and Handel from their magnificent Messiah;
why can I not know much of God as I listen
to the silent symphony of the singing spheres
and the wash of the weariless sea?

As I watch the winter melt into a pleasant
spring and the spring flower into a brilliant



12 Have You Met God?

summer, as I see the summer mature into a
mellow autumn and the autumn die in Decem-
ber’s snows, dare I say that I know nothing
of the great God who regulates it all? Do
I not clearly see that He is, that He is a
Person

,

that He is a Mind
,
that He is Intel-

ligence, that He is Beauty, that He is Omni-
potence? I see all this; and you shall, too,

if you will only turn off your radio now and
then and stop! look! listen! and THINK!
You know, Agnostics always make me think

of a certain great surgeon who one day slur-
ringly said, “I have cut into every part of

the human anatomy many times; but never
yet have I seen the human soul.” His in-
ference, of course, was obvious. He wanted
everybody to conclude : Therefore, there is

none. But this truly brilliant surgeon was
shown his ignorance, his arrogance and his

place that day by a little nun who quietly said,
“That is very interesting, Doctor; but tell me,

have you ever yet, in all your cuttings, come

across and examined pain?”

That is the irrationality of Agnosticism

that irritates — its unwarranted conclusions.
If Agnostics would voice only their subjective

doubts and ignorances, they might be tolerated

and pitied; but when they give vent to down-
right dogmatism, they become unbearable. No
Agnostic has ever yet seen love, loyalty,

patriotism or hate. No Agnostic has ever yet
seen fearlessness, heroism, generosity or de-

votion. But will they conclude : Therefore,

these things are as unknowable as if they

did not exist? Hardly! There are too many
lullabies and tributes to mother, too many
Lover’s Lanes and Honeymoon Hotels, too
many heroes and too much real History! You
can prove Agnostics silly by simply turning

on your radio and showing them that the un-

seen is clearly discernible!

In one thing the Agnostics are very true

to their name. They do not know that the
physical sciences, as sciences

,
cannot begin to

compare with Rational Psychology or Natural



Have You Met God? 13

Theology. They do not know that Chemistry,
Biology and Physics, after a certain number

of laws, which may be easily verified, deal
very largely in pure hypotheses, while the ra-

tional sciences are concerned with ultimate

truths . They do not know that, when the Ra-
tional Psychologist argues from the spiritual

operations in man to his possession of a spir-
itual soul, he is being most methodical and

most scientific. For while dogs may bay at
the moon they will never know Astronomy;
nor will roosters who crow at dawn ever
worship the Sun. Spiritual concepts demand
spiritual faculties! They do not know that,
when the Natural Theologian argues from
the order and design patent in the Universe

to the existence of the Designer and Orderer

of that Universe, he is being methodical and

most scientific. For, before you will hear a

baby’s cry, there must be a baby! Finally,

they do not seem to know that, when the
metaphysician argues from the finite and

conditioned to the Infinite and the Uncondi-

tioned, he is being as scientific and methodical

and, to say the least, every bit as rational as

the learned Agnostic and experimental scien-

tist who, seeing smoke, argues to the presence

of fire ! For, before you have a swinging

pendulum, you must have a fixed point from
which it can swing!

Yes, turn on your radio and think. Do it,
and never again shall you say, or shall you

allow anyone else to say, “After all, no one

yet has come down from' Heaven or back from
the dead”

;
for you will remember that St. Paul

came down from the third heaven, Lazarus came
back from the dead, and Jesus Christ split the

tomb!

The next time you meet reasoning doubters
and wish to see them writhe, place them on
the horns of this dilemma. Ask him or her
whether this First Cause, which they admit

exists, is intelligent or not. They watch them
writhe. They dare not say It is not intel-
ligent; for you have the radio, the watch and



14 Have You Met God?

the world to show them; and they know that
an intelligent piece of work proves intelligence

in the worker. They hate to admit that the

First Cause is in some way intelligent; for
this is to abandon their Agnostic stand that

the unseen is utterly unknowable. But what

can they do? No one likes to rest on sharply
pointed horns!

So despite the Agnostic’s reasoned doubt and

the Atheist’s unreasoning denial, you see that

God can be met and very intimately known.

Hence, I say,

Let Reason Introduce You as You
Listen to the Rain

Schopenhauer once said, “Astronomy has

pushed the limits of the universe so far as to

leave no room for God.” Is that not flippant?

Is that not foolish? God is not the subject

matter of Astronomy. You do not have to
walk the Milky Way or ride the Betelgeuse to
meet Him. You do not need even a telescope.
All you need is a mind; for a little reason,

a little quiet reflection enables you to pass

beyond the gateway of the stars and meet the

star Maker and the star Mover — God.
Have you ever listened to “vernal showers

tinkling on the grass?'” As I write, the rain
is falling. Softly, gently, almost caressingly.

You have seen it fall thus a thousand different
times; but I’ll wager that you have never
thought of it twice ! Where does it come
from? — “The clouds,” you say. “Good!” say
I; “but where do the clouds come from?”

And I think that most will pause at that ques-
tion. But suppose you say, “Why, a cloud is
nothing but a collection of visible vapor.” Then

I will say, “Good!” again; but then ask you,

“Where did the vapor come from? How was it
collected and placed up there in the heavens?”

The answer is simple enough; the sun with

its radiant heat vaporizes the water of lakes,

ponds, rivers and oceans, and the tiny in-



Have You Met God? 15

visible particles rise toward the heights of

heaven. What a marvel is this process! You
see, water is hundreds of times heavier than

air. It could never rise a millimeter unless

it were vaporized. Think of it! the water

that comes down to earth is water that has been

drawn from earth. The subtle magic of the

sun vaporized it, lifted it several miles above

us, had it come in contact with a colder atmos-

phere, condense and then float as a frail, fluffy

bit of wondrous whiteness.

How often have we looked at clouds, and
how seldom have we thought of what they
mean to us! Rightly have they been called
“sunlit galleons, loaded with precious cargo.”

Do you realize that water is the lifeblood of
our earth? Most of us do not like rain. It

spoils too many lawn-fetes, picnics, ball games
and days at the beach. But it means life to us.

I remember my first visit to California. It
was January, and there was plenty of rain.

I had heard much about the “wonderful Cali-
fornian climate”; I had heard that “at a con-

servative estimate
,
the sun shone there 365

days of the year”; so I insisted that Cali-

fornians listen to the rain. They liked neither

the sound nor my insistence; but, one of them,
to make the most of a bad situation, said,
“Why, this is worth millions and millions to
those down in the Valley.” He was right!
Without rain you cannot have growth; with-

out growth you cannot have a harvest; with-

out a harvest you will have poverty, want and
death. Truly water is the lifeblood of the

earth; and yet, you and I take its rhythmical

migration from sea to sky and sky to sea again
as a matter of course.

Listen to the rain and think! Look at the

clouds and think! See them floating there
without helmsman or crew, and reflect that
they are loaded with a cargo that means life
to you, to me and to all mankind; reflect that
they will be emptied of that cargo with never

a human hand having aught to do with them!



16 Have You Met God?

Watch them as they are swept along by a
current of air and carried into the deep heart

of some thirsting continent, there to discharge

their precious freight over fields that are

panting for life-giving waters. Realize that

a single cloud sometimes contains thousands

of tons of liquid which, if released all at once,

would sweep away not only all vegetation, but
even the soil itself. There are cloudbursts, I

know; but they are the exceptions that prove

the rule. Usually, rain falls as it is falling

now — softly, gently, almost caressingly.
The jonquils do not bow their golden heads
beneath it, nor is the timid grass the tiniest

bit shaken. Billions and billions of drops are

alighting from heaven’s dizzy heights, and yet,

not a single leaf is tattered nor a tiny blade

bent.

Do listen to the rain and think! Is this
cycle of vaporization and condensation, this

rising unseen and falling as rain, a result of

chance or fate? Does it not rather proclaim

what Catholics call “Providence,” that attri-

bute of God which involves the forming of a

plan by the intellect, and the carrying out of

that pian by the will? Oh, listen to the rain

and reason! and you will see that the world

is not some mere plaything for the sport of

celestial beings, nor a worthless work that has

been abandoned by its architect. You will
see that it cannot be the product of blind

force nor yet the outcome of aimless chance.

Listen to rain and reason! and you will see

that it is the ordered achievement of the

Creator, who owes it to his own infinite wis-
dom so to direct and govern it that it may
attain to the purpose He had in mind when
He called it into being. Listen to the rain
and reason! and you will have to acknowl-

edge an introduction to God

!

* * *

That, in very brief, is one of the Catholic’s

arguments for the existence of the Supreme

Being, and I think that you will allow that

it is logical. It is only common sense; but



Have You Met God? 17

common sense at its most sensible. Perhaps

you recognize it as the argument from design,

the “teleological argument,” and may be
tempted to say, “Why, that thing is old; it

is obsolete.” Many say that. Agnostics and
Atheists are very fond of saying that. But

a statement is hardly a refutation ! The argu-

ment is old, very old! But it will never be-

come “obsolete.” As long as the human mind
argues from cause to effect, as long as man
and maid will look at stars and listen to the

sea, as long as human beings will turn on
their radio, look at their watch or listen to

the rain and then think! they will always

meet God!

The world is a revelation of God, but it

must be seen in perspective. The eyes of the

mind must look at what the eyes of the body

see. When they do, then man bows in ac-
knowledgment of his introduction to God.

Arguments for the existence of God and ar-

guments about His nature and attributes are

all around us. The physical world is replete

with His vestiges and the moral world abounds

with His pictures. Facts are stubborn things,

and the Atheist has to face the terribly stub-

born fact that from the dawn of history man-
kind has worshiped God. Plutarch was right
when he said, “If you traverse the earth, you
may find cities without walls, literature, laws,
fixed habitations or coins, but a city destitute

of temples and gods no one has ever seen or

ever shall see.” And I like to repeat what
Fulton Sheen relates in “Liberty Under God”:
Recently a group of peasants were found in

Russia sacrificing chickens to the gods ! —
And that after a quarter of a century of an
Atheistic persecution the like of which history

has never seen, a persecution to banish the

very name of God from the Russian realm!
It cannot be done!

Yes, facts are stubborn things, and as long
as little girls blush and little boys hang their
heads, while grown men and women try to
blot out certain memories or drown a cease-



18 Have You Met God?

less remorse, we shall have to face the fact
of CONSCIENCE, recognize its imperious
voice as the dictate of a law, and conclude

to the existence of a Lawgiver!

You know we do not change the nature
of a thing by speaking of it in the abstract

and writing its name in capitals. By the
Absolute, the Ego, the Ultimate Reality, the

World Soul, etc., etc., Atheists, Agnostics,

Pantheists and Skeptics are talking about

God. Why can’t they be honest? Such sub-
terfuge is irritating! But what hurts more
is to see the youngsters on our college

campuses basing their unbelief on the author-

ity of a few men not much older, certainly
not much wiser, than they themselves, while
at the same time they ignore the statements

of very much older and far greater scientists,
scorn the reasoning of real scholars and dis-

dainfully reject the testimonies and traditions

of 1900 long years! It is really crushing to

see them, in their smart learning, turn their

backs on the Light of the World to bow down
to the ten-watt glow of some pseudo-scientist

whose filament will have burned out before

the dawn!

Use your reason and meet God. From the
visible rise to the Invisible, from matter go

to your Maker.

Let History Introduce You and
Meet God in the Light

The light of natural reason is a light, never

doubt it; but it can be colored and even

obscured. Passion and prejudice can make

what is white look grey, green, yellow or red;

while ignorance can make of that light a
twilight, and even a dark!

It is true that a wristwatch, a radio or

rain can tell us that there is a God, an in-

finite, intelligent, personal and provident God.

From such evidence bright minds can go on
reasoning and construct the whole science of

Natural Theology. But how many of us have



Have You Met God? 19

such bright minds? Every time that I walked

Seattle’s downtown streets I got the answer

to that question; for there in one of her

prominent squares is a gigantic totem pole.

People worshiped that thing one time! And

every time that I open the dictionary I get

an answer to that question; for there I see

pictures of Allah, Brahma and Buddha, to

be modern, and Jupiter, Apollo and Venus, to

be somewhat ancient. And if crossword puz-
zles are still in vogue, almost every time that

you make one out, you get an answer to my
question; for you almost always have to write

in Ra, Isis or Osiris!

All of which indicates two things: first, we
need revelation ! secondly, that one religion

cannot be as good as another and

You Cannot Be Indifferent

Our nature is such that we have to worship
God. Man is instinct with religion. And of
course we must worship God the way He
wants to be worshiped. That is only common
sense. And yet, if one is to judge from cur-
rent literature and present-day life, this sense

is most uncommon; for the curse of America
is not so much Atheism or Agnosticism as it
is Indifferentism

!

I have read it. I have heard it. I have

seen it. And so have you! What? — The
lie: "It is not what you believe that counts;
it is what you are and do.” Or in this form:
"As long as you lead a good, clean, sober,
honest and upright life, one religion is as good

as another.” That is a lie, a downright lie,

and two minutes’ thought will show you its
stupidity. It is arrant nonsense to ask, "Isn’t

one religion as good as another?” For the
only sane reply that can be made is: Yqs!
One religion is just as good as another IF
. . . drunkenness and debauchery are as good

as sobriety and purity; for Bacchus has been
worshiped as a god and Venus has never shel-
tered virgins! Yes! One religion is just



20 Have You Met God?

as good as another IF . * . adultery is as good

as marital fidelity; for divorce with remar-

riage is open adultery; and divorce with re-

marriage is sanctioned by many a Protestant
sect! One religion is every bit as good as
another IF . . . bigamy and polygamy with the
sacrifice of children are as good as monog-

amy and love of your offspring; look at
Turkey and India! Be sensible! Of course,
one religion is not as good as another UN-
LESS ... Peggy Hopkins Joyce is as good as
the Little Flower: UNLESS ... Henry VIII
is as good as the Cure of Ars; UNLESS...
Mary Baker Eddy, with her three marriages,
one divorce and her Christian Science, is as

good as the spotless Lamb of God, Jesus
Christ

!

Some try to maintain this thesis by limit-
ing their contention to Christians. But that

will not work; for Catholics say that Jesus

Christ is really present, body and blood, soul

and divinity, in the Holy Eucharist, and they

adore Him there; while Protestants, for the
most part, say, “No,” and treat the Sacrament

merely as bread. So you see that if the

Catholics are right, the Protestants are sac-

rilegious; and if the Protestants are right,

the Catholics are idolaters. So, no matter

who is right, someone is wrong. Hence, one
religion cannot be as good as another.

Restrict the statement only to the Protestant

sects and we are still in boiling water. For
of the many hundred Protestant sects, no
two agree exactly in teaching or in practice.

Lutherans, for instance, bantize infants and

say that they are right; Baptists, however,

say that the baptism of infants is worthless

and wrong. Presbvterians say that there is

a hell and some will go there; while Univer-

salists say, “No! All will be saved.”

Now if red, white and blue make un our
American flag, it cannot be true that red-

white and blue do not make it up! So if
Lutherans are right, Baptists are wrong; and

if Universalists are wrong, Presbyterians are



Have You Met God? 21

right
;
and since error cannot be as good as

truth or vice as good as virtue, one religion

cannot be as good as another!

Of course some dodge that argument by say-

ing, “Deeds count, not creeds. As long as

you live right, that is all that matters.” It

is a futile subterfuge. For, will you tell me
what “living right” means? I thought con-

duct depended on convictions, that between

the intellect and the will there was a neces-

sary connection, that as you think so will you

act. And I still maintain that when I say
a person’s beliefs ultimately shape his or her

life, I am voicing the common consent of man-
kind, and hence, making a statement that is

absolutely true!

Is it not a bit insane to talk of right living

independent of right thinking? In other

words, do not your deeds ultimately depend

on your creeds? The right reason of the

world says so! And the Indifferentist, bar-
ricaded behind his shibboleth of “Deeds not

Creeds,” must face the fact that what is right

to him may be very wrong to me, and vice
versa. The advocates of birth-prevention hold

that race suicide is right, reasonable and per-

fectly permissible; the right-reasoning bulk of

mankind recognize it as a degrading, demoral-
izing, disgusting, sinful self-indulgence, a be-

trayal of the individual and the race and an

insult to God. So too, with divorce, violence

in industrial disputes, and sharp practices in

business. What one claims to be honest,
sober, clean, kindly and upright, the other
may see as anything but! Now, black cannot
be white at the same time that it is black,
nor can white be black and white. Truth and
error, you know, are further apart than oil

and water!

No. The theory will not work. It cannot
work either for the individual or society; for
if there is to be morality, there must be a
law; but if a law, there must be a lawgiver;
and if a lawgiver, he must be obeyed. Hence,
my likes and dislikes, my ideas and my con-



22 Have You Met God?

tentions, my concepts and subjective attitudes
must all yield to His will; and so must yours!
If we are to live right, we must think right,
and that means in accord with God's revealed
truth!

Yes, that is what I am coming to . . . REV-
ELATION. It is an historical fact; so In-
differentism is folly! Hence I say, let His-

tory introduce you to God and meet Him in
the Light. Meet Him in Jesus Christ who
said . of Himself, “I am the LIGHT of the
World.” Now let us look at

History that is History

I have four history books before me. They

say that Jesus Christ lived, claimed to be

the Son of God and proved that claim by a
life, death and resurrection that are compatible

only with the Divine. More! They say that

He instituted a visible society called the
Church, for the purpose of preserving entire-

ly, preaching universally, and teaching in-

fallibly the doctrine He gave to man for man’s
salvation. This doctrine He claimed to have
received from God the Father, and its accept-

ance He demanded of all men under pain of
exclusion from heaven.

That is the startling summary of the Four
Gospels. If that is real history, I would be

the biggest fool in all creation to be indifferent

to it. If that is true history, there is only

one thing for me, or you, or anyone else to

do: find that Church; listen to its teachings;

wholeheartedly accept its doctrine and adore

God the way He wants to be adored. If that
is genuine history, I can meet God in the

Light! I can fulfill the end for which I was

created! I can win eternal life! But is it

history? And is it true?
Well, if histories are judged by their

authors, and authors by their knowledge and

truthfulness, the Gospels are the surest, safest,

most reliable histories in the world. Why do
I say that? — Because no character in all



Have You Met God? 23

history has been so ardently loved or so

violently hated as Jesus Christ, nor have any

other books been so viciously attacked and so

jealously defended as the books containing

the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Hence, we are

surer that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

wrote the books ascribed to them than we are

that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, Cicero, “Pro

Milone” or H. G. Wells his “Outlines of His-

tory.” Beyond the possibility of doubt the

Gospels are authentic. Their enemies have

proved them so

!

You see, the Gospels are unique. They con-
tain a history that changes all history and

a doctrine that challenges all men. If these

four books are authentic and authoritative,

no man can any longer serve self or Mam-
mon and still claim to be rational. If they
are authentic and authoritative, every man
must accept the teachings of Jesus Christ and

do the will of God. From the very beginning
mankind has realized this; and that is why
these books have been microscoped ! Love

and hate have scrutinized their every dot.

And with what results? With the result that
you and I are as sure that these four books

are genuine, authentic and substantially un-

changed as we are that the Declaration of
Independence was signed in Philadelphia or
that the 18th Amendment was repealed under
Franklin D. Roosevelt. And it is from the
enemies of the Gospel that we get our greatest
testimony.

Professor Adolph Harnack is admittedly
the highest of the so-called “Higher Critics.”

After a lifetime spent in trying to prove the

Gospels faulty, he finally had to admit openly
that they are genuine history. That is the
way it has always been. The deeper the ene-
mies probe, the greater the proof they find

for the authenticity of the Gospels.

As for the authority of the works all that
need be said is that Matthew and John were
eyewitnesses to all they wrote, while Mark
and Luke were secretaries to Peter and Paul



24 Have You Met God?

respectively. That is enough for the most

demanding. The Evangelists’ knowledge of

the facts is unimpeachable. As for their
veracity and sincerity — death is a surer
test than fire; and Matthew, Mark and Luke
died for what they wrote, while John went

into a caldron of boiling oil!

Some shallow minds have called the Gospels
fiction. But this very charge is a confession

not only a lack of knowledge but of a vory

great lack of thought! Why, you and I have
a much better chance of deceiving the people
of Toledo in Spain by writing false facts

about the Heroes of the Alcazar, or of de-

ceiving the people of America by Actionizing

the Presidential Campaigns for 1928 and 1,940
than the four Evangelists had of deceiving

the Jews of Judea about the life, doctrine and

death of Jesus Christ. It simply could not

be done! Neither love nor hate would permit

it.

You must remember that these books were
published within the lifetime of those who
saw, heard and knew Jesus Christ. You must
remember that they were read by or to those

who had been cured of blindness, deafness,
dumbness, the palsy, leprosy, or lameness; by

or to those who had been loosed from the grip
of torturing devils; by or to those who had
seen the Widow of Naim’s son being carried
to the grave, brought back to life again and

given to the embrace of his mother. You must
remember that those who laughed Jesus to
scorn at the wake of Jairus’ daughter read

of their own ridicule and of Jesus’ power.
You must remember that those who wept with
Martha and Mary, then saw Lazarus come

forth from the tomb, heard or read the

Gospels. But most especiallv must you re-

member that those who hated Jesus to mad-
ness, those who had plotted and effected His
capture and death, those who had sealed His
tomb and placed around it the Roman guards,
read of His Resurrection as written by Mat-

thew, Mark, Luke and John. And yet, no



Have You Met God? 25

Jew or Roman ever attacked a single asser-

tion of the Gospel narrative! Now that is
overwhelming! They bribed the Roman
guards to lie about the empty tomb and the

Apostles; they sought to murder Lazarus; for

his healthy aliveness was too indicative of

Jesus’ greatness. Obviously, they would stop

at nothing. Yet they never denied a line

of the Gospels! Why? — Because everyone
knew that they were TRUE

!

Indeed, the books are authoritative and

authentic. They speak for themselves. When
a reflective man reads that Jesus was weary,
that He wept, that He sweated blood; when
he reads that He was scorned by His own
people and sent to a malefactor’s death, then

he knows that the Evangelists were writing

fact! Who would think of inventing such
things if he were writing fiction? In very

truth, the Gospels are their own best testi-
mony. They give us facts! And what facts!
They tell us of a claim that was heard for

The First and Last Time in History

You remember that Moses met God in the
light — in the light of a burning bush; and
when he asked Him His name, God replied:
“Yahweh” — “I am who am.” The Jews so
reverenced that name that after the Babylo-
nian exile they would not so much as pro-
nounce it; for it they substituted “Adonai.”

Some 1600 years after Moses, God was met
again, and in the Light! But the Jews failed
to recognize Him; so Jesus awakened an
echo in their consciousness by saying, “Be-
fore Abraham was — YAHWEH — I am!”
And the result? — He was called a blasphemer
and ultimately crucified.

That was the claim of Christ. Time and
time again He said that He was the Son of
God; that He and the Father were One; that
He was the “Expected of the Nations,” the
Messiah of the World. That he was under-
stood and taken literally is evident from their



26 Have You Met God?

attempt to stone Him; from Caiphas’ rending
his garments and saying, “He hath blas-
phemed^; and from the fact that Christ was
sent to Pilate with the charge: “We have a
law, and according to that law, He ought to
die, because He made Himself the Son of
God.” There is no questioning the claim

,

Jesus made it publicly, solemnly and under
oath. He died for it!
Now the arresting part of this is that it

is the first and last time in all history that

any person has claimed to be God. Hence,

the question for you and me is this: Did
Jesus prove His claim? — If He did, then
you and I can meet God in the Light! But,

did He?
Well, how does a man prove that he is a

man? Isn’t there only one way — that is, by
performing human actions? So, too, there is
only one way for the God-Man to prove that
He is the God-Man — that is, by performing
actions that are human and divine. Did He
do it? That Jesus was human, no one doubts;

for He lived, loved, sorrowed, suffered and
died. But was Jesus divine? That is the

point. Was He? Well, if our test is infalli-
ble — and it is — then no reasoning man can
question the divinity of Jesus Christ; for He
worked miracle after miracle in His own right

and spoke prophecy after prophecy from His

own sight. Now those two works can be per-
formed only by a person who is divine.
Read the Gospels and you will see that He

prophesied His own Passion and Death down
to its minutest detail. That prophecy was

fulfilled! Read the Gospels and you will see

that He prophesied the destruction of Jeru-
salem

;
and the generation that heard the

prophecy saw Jerusalem without a stone upon

a stone. Read the Gospels and you will see

that He prophesied His own Resurrection. The
High-priests remembered it and told Pilate

about it; and both Pilate and the High-priests

were furnished with evidence that the proph-

ecy was fulfilled by babbling soldiers, an



Have You Met God? 27

empty tomb, and fifty days later by the more

startling proof of preaching, fearless, many-

tongued Apostles!

Of course the miracles of Christ have been

attacked from the day they were performed

down to our own. His contemporaries could

not deny them, so they tried to explain them

away by Beelzebub. Our contemporaries can-
not explain them away, so they deny them.

Now, the irritating part of this procedure is

this: these moderns demand divine works to

prove divinity; when you show them miracles,

they shake their heads and deny them. If

you ask them “Why?” they can only say, “Be-
cause they are divine!” Does not that re-

mind you of the cousin from the country who,

when face to face with the giraffe, whose
existence he had not only questioned but ve-

hemently denied, still stamps his foot, shakes

his head and angrily says: “There ain’t no

such animal!”

Here are the facts of history, accepted by

the bitterest enemies of Jesus and the most

critical scholars of our day: Jesus Christ

spoke as God — and the Pharisees, who hated
Him with all the hate of Hell, admitted it.
They said, “Never did man speak like this
man.” Jesus Christ lived as God — sinless-
ness, sanctity, divinity so radiated from Him
that He could stand before the world and
fling the bold challenge in its face: “Which
of you shall convince me of sin?” It was the
first and last time in history! It has never

been answered. It never shall be. Jesus

Christ did the works of God — the blind saw,
the lame walked, the deaf heard, the lepers

were cleansed, the dead came back to life
again. Sometimes these wonders were effected
by His touch; often by His mere word! Jesus
Christ declared that He was God — an as-
tounding declaration; but one that He proved
and proved to the hilt by the irrefutable argu-
ments of His deeds! Explain away His words
if you can, you shall never explain away His
deeds! He knew that, so He one time said,



28 Have You Met God?

“Though you will not believe Me, believe the
WORKS!”

What conclusion can a man with any com-
mon sense draw? Is it not the one reached
by J. J. Rousseau, a man who hated Christ
and His Church, but who was forced by the
force of facts to say, “If the life and death

of Socrates are those of a wise man, the

life and death of Jesus are those of a God”
Is it not the one reached by Harnack who
says: “The message brought by Jesus was
of the profoundest and most comprehensive

character; it went to the very root of man-
kind, and, although set in the framework of
the Jewish nation, it addressed itself to the

whole humanity — the message from God,
the Father. Defective it is not, and its real

kernel may be readily freed from the inevi-
table husk of contemporary form. Antiquated

it is not; and in life and strength it still

triumphs today over all the past. He who
delivered it has as yet yielded His place to

no man, and to human life He still today gives
a meaning and an aim — He, the Son of God”
(“What is Christianity?” p. 130). The italics
are Harnack’s.

Now remember who Harnack was and what
he was — Professor at the University of Ber-
lin, one of the keenest and most competent of

the Higher Critics, a scholar beyond all doubt,

and no friend of the Catholic Church!

Even the apostate Renan had to tell the
truth. In his “Vie de Jesus” he thus apos-

trophizes Christ: “Thou shalt so truly become

the cornerstone of humanity that to blot Thy
name out of the world would be to shake the
world to its foundations. Between Thee and

God men will no longer distinguish. Complete
vanquisher of death, take possession of Thy
Kingdom, whither Thou shalt be followed over

the royal road which Thou hast traced, by
generations of adorers.” The italics are mine,

and I want you to know that this renegade
was Christ’s bitter enemy.



Have You Met God? 29

That is the force of the facts of history.

They make even the adversaries bow down
and make the confession that every thinking
man and woman must make, the confession
that rang out from the lips of Simon Bar

Jona, “Thou art the Christy the Son of the
Living God.”

So I say: Meet God! Meet Him in the
Light! — The Light of the World — Jesus
Christ. And do not think that you have to
go back 1900 years to do it. No! You must
meet Him today, in the Twentieth Century

!

For while it is true that Christ died, it is

also true that He rose again! History tells
us that for forty days He appeared to His
Apostles, disciples and friends; and history

says that almost His last words were spoken

to His Apostles saying, “All power is given

Me in heaven and in earth; going therefore,
teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the

name of the Father, and of the Son , and of
the Holy Ghost

,
teaching them to observe all

things whatsoever I have commanded you;
and behold I am with you all days

,
even to the

consummation of the world.”

Yahweh had said “YAHWEH” again! “Be-
hold I AM with you. Therefore, if you want
to meet God today, find that teaching body

which was established by Christ when He
spoke those words. Find that body which

teaches all men to observe whatsoever He has
commanded. Find that teaching body which

teaches with an authority that is divine and

a voice that is infallible. Find that body

and you have found Christ who is God! It
can be done — with ease!

Let Peter Introduce You to
the Living God

Were I to tell you that in the capital of
your State there was a certain house with
four distinct marks on its door; that in that

house there was money enough to make you
happy for the rest of your life

;
that the money



30 Have You Met God?

was yours if you succeeded in finding the

house and opening the door with one of the

keys I gave you in a bunch of five hundred;

what would you do? I know that most people
would systematically set about finding that

house and trying all the keys. I know that
never a word would be breathed about the

difficulties involved.

The situation regarding the finding the true

Church of Christ is not at all parallel. For

although there may be five hundred or more
churches all claiming to be Christian, prac-

tically all are eliminated by the simple test

of history. Then again, this is not a matter

of a man’s telling you where money and tem-
poral happiness may be found, but of God’s
telling you where eternal beatitude is to be

won. Finally, Christ has given along with

four distinct marks many other indices. His
Church cannot be missed by the earnest ! But

even if the parallel were perfect, even if dif-

ficulty were piled on difficulty, you would be

forced to the search; for it is a matter of life

and death; it is a matter of meeting the Liv-

ing God or dying an eternal death!
I say: Let Peter introduce you; for it was

to Peter, then known as Simon, son of John,
that Christ said, “Thou art Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my Church.” Find
Peter, then, and you have found the Church of

Christ. Can you find him? — Easily! Read
history! Go to the records! Get the facts!
Now that is a sensible process. If you

wanted to prove that Franklin D. Roosevelt

was the legitimate successor to George Wash-
ington, what would you do? Would you not
go to the records, read history and get the

facts? Do the same with regard to Peter and
you will find that Eugenio Pacelli, now known
as Pius XII, can trace his title back through

260 unbroken links to Peter, the son of John,

and hence, to Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

That is a stubborn fact. An argument as
immovable as Gibraltar, as invulnerable as

Achilles without his heel! There is only one.



Have You Met God? 31

Church now in existence that can claim to
have come from Christ; for the facts of his-

tory will substantiate the claim of only one

Church. Protestantism does not appear on

history’s pages until the Sixteenth Century,

and nowhere is there a record of Christ’s hav-

ing said, “Thou art Martin Luther, and upon

thee I will build my Church,” or “Thou art
Henry VIII, and upon thee I will build my
Church.” No! Nor is there any record about

“Thou art Robert Browne, Roger Williams,

John Wesley, William Penn, Mary Baker Eddy
or any one of the others. . .” The only his-

torical record reads, “Thou art PETER ... !”
And what does current history say? At

the present moment there are very many
bishops in the world; but there is only one

who claims the title of the Primacy of Peter.
The world knows that Bishop as the Pope of

Rome. Isn’t that significant? Christ said

that Peter was His rock; to Peter He gave
the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; and to
him He gave that triple command, “Feed my
•lambs. Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep.”
Obviously, then, we must find Peter in order
to find the Church; and you must find the

Church in order to meet God. History makes
it all so simple! It says that Pius XII is

Peter 261st.

I know that all manner of attempts have
been made to get a lever under this Rock and
shake the foundations of the one true Church.

I know that Protestants question the Primacy
of Peter. But I also know that they can do
it only by neglecting the facts of history and

especially the facts of the Bible. Here are

a few:

It was to Peter that Christ gave the keys
of His kingdom (Matt. 16:19)

;
and keys sig-

nify jurisdiction — authority.
It was to Peter that Christ said, “What

you shall bind or loose on earth, shall be

bound or loosed in Heaven” (Matt. 16:19);
and this before He made the other Apostles
partakers in this Divine power (John 20:23).



32 Have You Met God?

It was Peter whom Christ elected to “con-
firm thy brethren” once he himself had been

confirmed by Christ (Luke 22:32).

It was to Peter that Christ said, “Feed my
sheep,” obviously making him the head shep-

herd (John 21:15, 17).

Peter conducted the election at which Mat-

thias was given the place made vacant by
the death of Judas (Acts 1:15).

Peter first preached to the Jews in Jeru-

salem (Acts 2:14).

Peter first received the gentiles into the

Church (Acts 11).

Peter acts as judge in the case of Ananias

and Saphira (Acts 5).
Peter “rising up” said the word that caused

“all the multitude” to hold “their peace”

when there was much disputing in the coun-
cil of Jerusalem (Acts 15).

Peter performed the first miracle of the

Apostles (Acts 3).

To Peter, Paul went after his conversion,

“tarrying with him for 15 days” (Gal. 1:18).

To Peter the Angel sent a special message

announcing the Resurrection of Jesus (Mark

16:7).

To Peter, of all the Apostles, the Risen

Christ first appeared (Luke 24:34).

It was Peter who replied to the Sanhedrin
in the name of the Apostles (Acts 4).

Peter’s name heads the list of the Apostles
in all four Gospel accounts.

Peter’s boat was used by Jesus (Luke 5).
Peter was called to come over the waters

(Matt. 14:28).

Peter’s name appears 160 times in the New
Testament; while the next in order, John the

Beloved, appears only 35 times.

St. Matthew calls him “the first”; certainly

not because he was first chosen by Christ, be-

cause that honor belongs to his brother An-

drew; but because he was what every unbiased

reader of facts must admit that he was —
namely, the head of the Apostolic College, the

Primate divinely chosen, divinely commis-



Have You Met God? 33

sioned, divinely endowed. He is the Rock on
which Christ built His Church.

So you see why I say: Find Peter and You
can meet God. But if you are not as yet

persuaded, then let history, past and current,

show you Christ’s true Church as it shows

you the only Church with real UNITY.
Christ commissioned the Apostles to teach

“whatsoever He had commanded”; therefore,
find the Church which has the entirety of

Christ’s doctrine and teaches it entirely
;
find

the Church that has perfect unity of doctrine

and you have found the Church of Christ.

Now let us be brief, honest and exact.
Christ said that He was God; the Churches,
therefore, denying His Divinity cannot be of

Christ. Christ instituted seven Sacraments;

those Churches, therefore, not admitting seven

Sacraments cannot be of Christ. Christ in-

stituted the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; those

Churches, therefore, who have not this Sac-
rifice cannot be of Christ. Christ said that

marriage was a union binding until death

;

those Churches, therefore, who sanction di-
vorce are not and cannot be of Christ. Does

not that greatly limit the field for you?

Practically speaking, because of this one

test, Protestantism calls for no investigation.

For today she stands before the world dis-

cordant, wanting in discipline, lacking unity

of doctrine, repudiating most of the seven

Sacraments and tending to dissolve into still

greater subdivisions or into Rationalism and

Indifference. On the other hand stands the
Changeless Church of Rome one in Faith, one
in Sacraments, one in doctrine, and one in

obedience to a single head. In cathedral,

chapel, on land and at sea, in Europe, Asia,
Africa, Australia and the Americas, on every

island that dots the ocean — everywhere and
at all times — the SAME. As the “American
Agnostic,” John L. Stoddard, has said, “If
the testimony of 1900 years does not effective-

ly prove the Church of Rome to be the in-
stitution founded by our Savior on the Rock



34 Have You Met God?

of Peter, then the world has no Church of
Christ at all.” And Dr. Karl Robert von
Hartmann, the well-known freethinker and
philosopher, said, “If it is a Church that is

to bring me salvation . . . then I will look about
me for a firmly established, powerful Church,
and I prefer to cling to the Rock of Peter

than to any one of the numberless Protestant

sectarian Churches.” Why, it was only in
1937, at the Protestant World Conference in
Edinburgh, that a committee drafted this as

a final resolution: “We humbly acknowledge
our divisions are contrary to the will of Christ,

and we pray God for unity.”

That prayer will be answered if they have

the courage of their humility and allow Peter

to introduce them to the living God.

What is Your Antidote?

Here is a test from history, past and cur-

rent; one that you can apply. Admittedly

our world is morally cancerous. Irreligion,

irreverence, and infidelity are rampant. Youth

is rioting in indulgence. Middle age is revel-

ing in intemperance. And old age is rotting
in indifference. What antidote would you
offer?

Would you think of suggesting, “Methodism”
or “Presbyterianism” or “Angelicanism”?

Hardly ! The negligible influence these in-

stitutions exercise on individual consciences

make them utterly impracticable and practi-
cally impotent. What is wanted is an institu-
tion that teaches the traditional principles of

Christian morality constantly, fearlessly and

infallibly; and who at the same time proffers
effectual means to promote that morality.

What is wanted is an institution that can
speak with authority, bind the consciences of

men effectively and enforce the law of God;
an institution that can take man as he is,
with all his animal instincts, passions and im-

pulses, and transform him into an adopted

son of God and an aspirant to the heritage of



Have You Met God? 35

Heaven. There is only one such institution

on earth today, the institution that Christ

founded and which He made HOLY ; it is the
Roman Catholic Church.
Now, I do not want to say a single unkind

word or make one unjust statement. To do

either would be un-Christlike. But I must

state truth, and I must ask my many Pro-
testant friends to face facts. History says

that Martin Luther was the father and

founder of Protestantism, and history says

that Martin Luther was a man of remarkable
energy and great ability, but a man who used
those qualities not to reform and unify Christ’s

Church, but to assail, insult and rend it.

Martin Luther’s record, written by himself in

his various letters and pamphlets, and ac-

cepted by all real historians, shows him to be

a man of a grossly animal nature, much given
to eating and drinking; a man of immoral
conduct; a man who held that the individual
is wholly unable to resist sensual temptations;

a man who broke his vows to God; a man
whose violent and reckless style of writing

and preaching wrought havoc with human
life and property (as instanced by Germany’s

Thirty Years’ War)
;
a man who said, “We

must put the whole Decalogue entirely out

of sight and out of our hearts”; a man who
condoned bigamy in order to retain the Land-
grave of Hesse in Protestantism; a man of
a dangerous and heretofore unheard of doc-

trine of salvation without regard to a moral

life, saying, “Be a sinner and sin boldly, but
believe more boldly still. Sin shall not drag
us away from Him, even though we commit
fornication or murder thousands and thou-
sands of timee a day”; a man of domineering
arrogance in his treatment and translation
of the Bible, taking the text of Romans 3:28
“.

. . a man is justified by faith without the
deeds of the law” and rendering it “by faith
alone” — then saying, “I know very well that
the word ‘alone’ is not in the Latin and
Greek texts. ... It [‘alone’] shall remain in



36 Have You Met God?

my New Testament, and if all the Popish
donkeys were to get mad and beside themselves,
they will not get it out”; a man of an as-
tounding amount of vile and vituperative lan-
guage, of scurrilous abuse of priests, the Pope

and the Holy Mass; a man who called on all
Christians to “burn down Jewish schools and
synagogues . . . and if that did not help, to

hunt them from the country like mad dogs.”
Now, what is there in this man’s person-

ality, character or moral code to recommend

him or it to a world that is sick unto death

with sin? What antidote has he to offer? —
Is it his doctrine of no free will? — that chas-
tity is unnatural? — or that bigamy is to
be condoned and polygamy cannot be forbid-

den? You admit that the home is the basis

of the nation. What can Luther or Protes-
tantism offer to sanctify the home? What
does he or it do to safeguard the marriage

bond — the very hinge of civilization? —
History, past and current, says, “Nothing.”

Is not the truth of the matter that Protes-

tantism is a man-made religion and hence,

lacks divine authority? Are not these the

facts?... All true Christians admit that the

original Church was founded by Jesus Christ,

the Son of God. All admit that He promised
to be with it until the end of time, to endow

it with the Holy Ghost who would abide with

it permanently and defend it against the very

gates of hell. Now that original Church can
have been no other than the Catholic Church,

No one can deny that! Therefore, if in 1517,
it had become so utterly corrupt that it was

necessary to replace it by another, then Christ

had broken His promise, the Holy Spirit had

failed and the gates of hell had prevailed! Is

not that blasphemy? And yet, that is the
truth that history speaks about the Protestant

Revolution!

There were abuses in Christ’s one only

Church in Luther’s day. There were serious

abuses connected with indulgences; and they

called for the rigorous reform of the erring



Have You Met God? 37

individuals (the doctrine of the Church was
ever right!). But reformation has never

meant secession ! To cure your headaches you

do not cut off your head! In 1861 reforma-

tion was needed in the United States. States’

rights and slavery called for vigorous action.

But the secession of the South was treason to
the Union. The same must be said of the

secession of Martin Luther and his associates

from the one only Church of Christ — it was
TREASON.

Obviously, then, Protestantism is a man-

made religion; hence, it lacks that grip on
the consciences of men without which society
can never be purified and the moral cancer

of the world cured. To be technical, Protes-

tantism lacks what theologians call “sanctity.”

Its founders were not holy, its doctrine is not

holy, and it is not calculated to produce holy

men and women.

There is only one cure of the cancerous

condition of the w*orld; it is sanctity. But

that can be had only from a Church whose

Founder was sinless, whose doctrine is divine,
and whose sacraments enable men and women
to become saints. That is what the world of
today needs — saints ! But where are the
Protestant monasteries, Protestant convents,

Protestant Religious Orders — those nur-
series of saints? Some sects have essayed
to establish such, but their efforts have been

pitifully abortive or have led whole com-

munities to the feet of Peter who introduced
them to the Living God. The Benedictines
of Caldey are a case in point. They were

Anglicans living the life of Catholic Bene-

dictines without the Catholic Benedictines’

soul. For, you see, religious life is not some-

thing, it is Some One. It is Jesus Christ loved
and lived. Caldey Benedictines found this

out; and after hugging a shadow for almost

a quarter of a century, they grasped the Sub-

stance when they allowed Peter to introduce
them to the Living God.



38 Have You Met God?

Tell me, have you ever heard a Litany of

Protestant saints? I haven’t. And yet,
Christ instituted His Church just to produce

saints! Read the 17th chapter of St. John. Re-
member that these were Christ’s last words. If
the Protestant Church is the Church of Christ,

it should be able to show the world its sanc-
tified men and women; it should be able to
show the world its means of sanctification;
it should be able to show the world men and
women who have not only kept the Command-
ments but who have followed the way of the
Counsels; it should be able to show the world

a Benedict and a Bernard, an Ignatius and

a Francis of Assisi, a Xavier, and a Little

Flower; its boy saints like Stanislaus, Aloysius

and John Berchmans; its holy little children

like little Guy de Fontgalland and Little Nel-
lie of Holy God. It should be able to point

to its Discalced Carmelites and its Little Sis-

ters of the Poor. But it cannot! Sanctity

is wanting.

But if you do not as #et believe me, then

apply this acid test. Look for a Protestant

miracle. That is the acid test. To prove His

own divine mission Christ worked miracle
after miracle; and down the twenty centuries

that are gone, you find that He has performed
the miraculous to attest the sanctity of His

servants. From the day that Peter’s shadow
cured the sick unto this our own day when
Lourdes astounds the thinking world, the Cath-

olic Church has always had, and will always

have — miracles. Why? — Because it is God’s
Church! It is holy! It makes holy!

Now please understand me. I do not mean
to assert that there are no holy Protestants.

There are. I have met them. I know many
who put some Catholics to shame. But their

holiness does not come from the Protestant

Church. You cannot get blood from a stone.

Their holiness is proof that God’s grace is

not commensurate with the body of the Cath-

olic Church; that there is what theologians

call the soul of the Church — namely, those



Have You Met God? 39

sincere people who, through no fault of their

own, are not in Christ’s one and only Church,

but are of it, because their hearts are right

with the great Heart of God.

One last test. It will not take more than

a few seconds. Christ said, “teach ye all

nations whatsoever I have commanded you.”
Now note that that command contains the
ivhat and the where . To be fulfilled the one

same doctrine must be taught all over the *

world. You must find unity with universality
and universality with unity.

Of course, Protestantism cannot fulfill this

command. It cannot stand this test; for it

does not maintain unity within the confines

of a single city or small town, let alone the

whole world. But a Catholic can traverse the

whole world and always be at home. He can
everywhere and always meet God; for every-

where and always he meets people who know
Peter and profess One Lord, One Faith, One
Baptism; everywhere and always he can find

Catholic priests offering the one Sacrifice, ad-

ministering the same Sacraments and teach-
ing the same doctrine; everywhere and al-
ways he sees God in the light! — in the
light of Faith and in the Light of the world;

for there is no country on any of the con-
tinents where he cannot receive the Physical

Body of Jesus Christ sacramentally and live

with Him in His Mystical Body actually.
There is only one Church that has universal
unity and a united universality, and current
history calls that Church the Holy Roman
Catholic Church!

If you believe that Jesus Christ is God,

your longing to meet God can be satisfied —
let Peter introduce you! If you believe that

Jesus Christ is God, your search for the house

with four distinct marks on its door and its
treasure within — a treasure to make you
happy for everlasting life — is over. — Let
Peter, the Key-bearer, unlock the door for

you! If you believe Jesus Christ is God, your

yearning to hear Him talk is ended — listen



40 Have You Met God?

to Peter! For Christ said, “He that heareth
you, heareth Me.”

The search is not difficult! If you think
four marks too many, then take any one of
these two — look for the Church of the poor
or the Church of the persecuted. For He said,
“The poor you have always with you,” and
“They have persecuted Me, they will also per-

secute you.” Stand outside the average Pro-

testant Church on a Sunday morning and count
the poor that go in. Do the same outside a
Catholic Church. Then tell yourself which
answers the description of Christ. Or read
the papers and see what Church Russia,
Mexico, Hitler, the Reds of Spain, etc., etc.,

have persecuted and persecute today; and then

read history. For twenty centuries someone,

somewhere, sometime has persecuted the

Church of Rome!
And now I yield to a temptation as I say

Let Queen Candace’s Eunuch

Show the Way

Earnest Protestants have two favorite texts

which have always presented me with a temp-
tation. With all the good will in the world

and not a shred of sarcasm or a drop of bitter-

ness, I am going to yield to that temptation
today and ask my earnest Protestant friends
to be earnest. They always ask, “Did not

Christ say,
4

Search the Scriptures/ ” and “Did

not Paul praise the Bereans because they

‘searched the Scriptures daily’?” My answer
is: Yes! Christ said that, and Paul did that;

and .now I yield to my temptation as I ask
all my Protestant friends to be like the Bereans
and do what Christ said — search the Scrip-
tures and make some real discoveries.

Let us search from Genesis to the Apoca-

lypse to see if we can find a verse or a por-

tion of a verse that says that the Bible, and

the Bible alone, is the Rule of Faith; or that

the individual is the individual interpreter.

Our search will discover that St. Peter states



Have You Met God? 41

the opposite. Speaking of St. Paul's Epistles,

he says that they contain “certain things hard

to be understood, which the unlearned and the

unstable wrest, as they do also the other

scriptures, to their own destruction" (2 Pet.

3:16). And on reflection we see that the
same causes are still producing the same ef-

fects. Ignorance and instability are still dis-

torting Scriptural texts and bringing about

the spiritual ruin of many an individual.

Really searching the Scriptures we find that
these words of Christ, “Search the Scriptures,"

instead of a substantiation of the Protestant

claim are its destruction. For when we read
the text in its context, we see that Christ was
speaking to His enemies, not to His friends;

that He was talking about the Old Testament,
not about the new; that He was reproving
the Pharisees for dullness of intellect, and

not establishing a Rule of Faith. In the light

of common sense how can anyone torture these
words of Christ into a command for you and
me and all the rest of the world to search the
Scriptures of the New Testament to find His
doctrine when not a syllable of the New Testa-
ment had been written at the time He spoke?
Let us at least reverence the intelligence of

Jesus!

Now let us be like the Bereans and merit
the praise of St. Paul. The Bereans searched
the Scriptures to verify the religion preached

by St. Paul, not to fashion a religion of their

own; they searched the Old Testament to

see if Jesus was the promised Messiah as Paul
claimed, and hence, the Church He founded,
the one true Church; they searched the Scrip-

tures so that they might meet God through
His appointed messenger, and not to fashion

a morality, a worship and a Church of their
own; they searched the Scriptures as a font
of revelation and not as a rule of Faith. Let

me tell you that the Bereans would search
for a long time before they would ever find a
line about the Baptism that Paul was preach-
ing! So you see, verification of texts in the



42 Have You Met God?

Bible is praiseworthy; the fabrication of a

Rule of Faith from the Bible not so.
If we are like the Bereans and really

search the Scriptures, then face the facts of

current history, we shall find:

1. That, though the Bible says that Christ

is God — more and more Protestants are
denying His Divinity.

2. That, though the Bible says that Christ

founded a living, teaching, visible and infal-

lible Church — all Protestants contest it.
3. That, although the Bible in 14 different

places says that Christ’s Body and Blood are

really and truly present under the appear-

ances of bread and wine — Protestantism, with
the exception of a few ritualists, deny it.

4. That, although the Bible states clearly

that Christ’s ambassadors have the power to

forgive sins — Protestants refuse to believe it.
5. That, although the Bible gives the words

of Christ, “Whosover shall put away his wife
and marry another, committeth adultery

against her” — most Protestant sects allow
divorced people to remarry.

6. That, although the Bible again and again

says that there is a Hell of everlasting fire

awaiting those who willfully disobey the Law
of God — this doctrine is noticeably absent
from Protestant pulpits.

Do not these clashes give you pause? How
“Biblical are the present Protestants? Be-

fore they can sustain their claims that the

Bible is the sole Rule of Faith, they will have

to find texts that show: (a) that Christ made

it such; (b) that the Bible contains all revela-

tion; (c) that it is easily understood; (d) that

when taken alone it can never lead to differ-
ences or contradictions .

Now what are the facts? When we “search
the Scriptures” we find:

(a) that Christ never wrote a line of them;

that He never commissioned His Apostles to
write a line of them; that He did command



Have You Met God? 43

them to teach and preach and make disciples .

Christ never said, “He who reads the Bible

shall be saved”; but He did say, “He that

heareth you, heareth Me, and he that despiseth

you, despiseth Me.”

b) that St. John, in the closing verse of

his Gospel, intimates that not all is contained

in the written record.

c) that parts of the Bible, are, as St. Peter

said, “hard to be understood”; and that with

St. Augustine we must confess that “there is

much more that we do not understand in the

Bible, than what we do.”

(d) and one glance around any small town

in the United States will show you that private

interpretation leads not only to differences,

but to clear-cut contradictions.

These few facts alone are sufficient to con-

vince the thinking man that the Bible, and
the Bible alone, cannot be the sole Rule of

Faith. The following few will show that it

could not be. Did you ever reflect that RE-
FORE A SINGLE LINE OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT WAS WRITTEN —

1. Christ had established His Church;

2. Peter had converted 3000 Jews;

3. The Council of Jerusalem had been held;

4. The Jewish ceremonial law had been

abrogated.

Did you. further realize that BEFORE THE
LAST LINE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
WAS WRITTEN —

1. The one only Church of Jesus Christ

had celebrated her golden jubilee;

2. His doctrine had been “spoken in the

whole world” (Rom. 1:8);

3. Eleven of the twelve Apostles were dead

!

That is enough. I have yielded to my
temptation. I have said to my many Protes-
tant friends: “Search the Scriptures!” I

hope that they will be like the Bereans and
verify the texts!



44 Have You Met God?

You know this process shows two things:
First that we must have Tradition; second,
that, although they vehemently deny it, the

Protestants accept quite a few of their beliefs

and some of their practice on TRADITION!
Actually. Look! With the exception of the
Seventh Day Adventists and their like, Protes-
tants observe Sunday and not Saturday. That

is not from Scripture. That is only from

Tradition. Many of them baptize their babies.
Scripture is silent on this matter; though

Tradition is loud. They accept the Bible as

the Bible; as their one Rule of Faith; as

the inspired word of God; — but whence?
Not from Scripture ! It can only be from

TRADITION!
Now let me appeal to my many Protestant

friends on the grounds of practicality. When
you want exact information about your teeth,

you see a dentist; when you want to know
the truth about your body, you see a doctor;

when you want an authoritative interpreta-
tion of the law, you consult a lawyer; when
you want a wooden fence erected, you hire a

carpenter; if it be a stone wall, it will be a

mason; when you want your plumbing done
correctly, you employ a plumber; and so on

with everything else you consider worth while.

You seek specialists, authorities in their own
lines. But when it comes to the one thing
that really counts; when it comes to a matter
that is of eternal importance to you person-

ally; when it comes to the word of God, and
your religion; you seek advice, direction and

information from your own uninformed self.
Is it prudent, practical or even highly ra-

tional?

Search the Scriptures until you come to

that passage in the Acts where Philip asks

Queen Candace’s eunuch, “Thinkest thou that

thou underdstandest what thou readest?” Then

let the eunuch show you the way! He said,
“And how can I, unless some man show me?”
Philip showed him because Philip had been

divinely commissioned to do so. There are



Have You Met God? 45

other Philips living today; men divinely com-
missioned to explain the Scriptures. You will

find them in the Catholic Church!

Books are valuable things. But the tens

of millions of dollars that we spend annually

on our educational system proclaim loudly

that books alone will not do! They need the

living voice of an authoritative interpreter.

Nine black-robed Judges sit on the bench of

the Supreme Court of the nation. You know
why! They are nine black-robed, animated,

irrefutable arguments that the written word

needs the living authoritative voice to inter-

pret it. And the seven hundred sects of
Protestantism say to the most unheeding that

the Bible, and the Bible alone, will not lead

to God! It needs the authoritative, infallible

voice of a living interpreter.

I am most anxious to show you how to
meet God intimately; but I find that before
I take you any closer I must first —

Lay a Few Ghosts

I shall be brief. You must help me to be
effective. You have heard it said that the
Catholic Church was an enemy to the Bible;
that she has kept it from the people; that
she chained it; and that she opposes its trans-

lation into the common tongue. These are
ghosts! There is no substance to them! For
history says:

1. It was the Catholic Church who gave
the Bible to the world! She made it! It was
her Bishops who, in 397 at the Council of
Carthage, determined the 73 books that were
inspired; and those 73 are found today in
the authentic Bible.

2. It was from the Catholic Church that
Luther took the Bible

;
and he mutilated it.

3. It was the Catholic Church who told the
world that the Bible contained the word of
God. Nobody else did. Nobody else could

!



46 Have You Met God?

4. It was the Catholic Church who com-
missioned St. Jerome to translate the Bible

into Latin.

5. It was the Catholic Church who spilled
her blood rather than give the Bible to Dio-

cletian to be desecrated.

6. It was the Catholic Church who defended
the Bible from the pillage of the barbarian

hordes.

7. It was the Catholic Church who, long
before the art of printing was known, had
magnificently illuminated copies of the Bible

made; some of them in letters of gold.

8. It was the Catholic Church who had the
Bible translated into the vernacular so that

the laity who did not understand Latin might
become acquainted with the word of God.

Venerable Bede made the first Anglo-Saxon
translation in 735.

9. The first book ever printed (1456) was

the Catholic Bible.

10. Before the first Protestant version ap-

peared, there were 626 editions of the Bible,

and 198 of these were in the languages of

the laity. And let me say in passing that
30 of these were in the German tongue.

Those ten facts of history ought to lay some

of those ghosts of fiction forever. In the face of

these facts can you imagine any educated per-

son saying that Martin Luther “discovered

the Bible in 1503” or that Martin Luther gave

the “open Bible to the world” in 1534? It has

been said. But poor Martin was just about

1500 years too late to be the first!

History says that the Catholic Church

chained the Bible. That is an actual fact.

But she did it for the same reason that we
now chain our telephone directories in public
booths and our City Directories to open desks
— to keep them for the people, not from
them

!

Current history says that the only Church

today who really respects and reverences the



Have You Met God? 47

Bible is the Catholic Church. She has her

Biblical Commission, composed of a few Car-

dinals and a very large corps of eminent bib-

lical scholars of various nationalities; she has

her Biblical Institute at Rome, in charge of

the Jesuits, and her Biblical Institute of Jeru-

salem, conducted by the Dominicans; her

priests are under strict obligation to read the

Scriptures for about one hour every day

;

her people have some part of the Gospel read

to them in their own tongue every Sunday of

the year. The truth of the matter is that

the Church of Rome loves the Bible, because
she knows it to be the word of God; hence,

she will permit no mutilation or false inter-

pretation and she will guard her people from

faulty translations. Have words so lost their

meanings that she who loves, protects, rever-

ences and cherishes the Bible can be called

its enemy? Lay that ghost forever!

The Ghost of Infallibility

John L. Stoddard has well said, “If the

essence of Protestantism is the right of indi-

vidual private judgment, its quintessence is

rejection of the papacy.” I think that he is

right. I also think that if Protestants knew
just what infallibility means, their every ob-
jection would vanish. Let me be most brief,
for when the ghosts are laid we can meet
God intimately.
Do you know what infallibility means? It

does NOT mean that the Pope is inspired or
immune from sin. It means only that he is
Divinely protected from contradicting, deny-

ing or changing the revelation of Christ.

Does not that lay quite a few ghosts? You
see, Infallibility is the work of God rather
than that of the Pope. It is God protecting
His own revelations. It is God standing guard
lest His representative misrepresent.

Infallibility does NOT mean that the Pope
receives new revelations. Of course not! It
means only that the Pope holds the revelation
already made inviolate.



48 Have You Met God?

It does NOT mean that the Pope can invent
new doctrines. Never! It means only that
he cannot admit any change in the doctrines

already revealed.

Above all, it does NOT mean that the Pope
cannot err in matters economical, political,

scientific or historical. It means only that he
cannot err when he speaks as Chief Pastor, to
all the world, to determine or define a doctrine

pertaining to Faith or Morals.

I think a whole galaxy of ghosts will be

laid if I insist that the infallibility of the Pope

simply means this — that whatever be his
private views, he will always be preserved by

a special Providence from teaching error

when exercising his functions as head of the
Universal Church.

Look at that description closely. See what

it says. “The Pope will be preserved by a

special Providence. . . .” You see, then, that
Infallibility is the work of God, not of man!
It is the “Invigilantia Sancti Spiritus” — as
the theologians say; it is the ever wakeful

watchfulness of the Holy Ghost guarding the

revelation that God has made to man
;
it is the

ever present sentinel who will prevent a Pope
from misinterpreting the word of God when

he speaks as head of God’s Church, for all

God’s people, in matters of Faith and Morals.

Ah! But do you see what that means to

man? It means CERTAINTY! It means
that man can have absolute surety and can
grasp religious truth. What a relief that' is
to thinking men and women! It seems to me
that reflective Protestants instead of denying

Infallibility, ought to pray for it. They ought

to conclude that an infallible Bible without

an infallible interpreter is not only dangerous

;

it is positively destructive. If any man ever
doubted the necessity for an infallible inter-

preter one look around the tiniest town with

its six or seven churches, all differing in

fundamentals
,
would be enough to dispel that

doubt.



Have You Met God? 49

Let us be reasonable. Would God be God

if His Church were not infallible? We say
that He is all-wise. But would He be so if
He left His revelation entirely alone in the
hands of every fallible and often badly mud-

dled man? We laud the wisdom of Washing-
ton and our American forefathers for setting

up the Supreme Court as interpreter of the

Constitution. The Court is not infallible; be-

cause Washington and the rest could not

endow it with that quality. But it is author-

itative; and for all practical purposes, because

of its absoluteness, its decisions are tanta-

mount to infallible. We are right to laud
these men for this move. It is indicative
of great wisdom. But tell me, is God less

wise? Has He founded a Church without an
authoritative and absolute voice; one that all

can hear? Has He who could grant infal-
libility, refused it? Do we mean to say that
Washington and our forefathers were wiser

than God?

Again, we say that God is all-good. Would
He be so if He commanded us to assent to
doctrines about which we have not sufficient
motive for assent? — to bow to authority that
lacks authority? — to accept without doubt
things that cause great doubt? That is what
He would command if His Church were not
infallible. For if she is not infallible, I can

always doubt her teachings
;

but doubt de-

stroys Faith; yet, if we have not Faith, we
shall be damned! Therefore, a denial of in-
fallibility is blasphemy. It makes God cruel,
unkind and most unwise! It makes Him a
despot who commands the impossible.
Once again let us be like the Bereans and

verify the texts. Christ said, “I shall be

with you all days.” He is infallible! He
said, "I will ask the Father, and He shall
give you another Paraclete, that He may abide
with you forever.” “The Spirit of Truth . .

.

He shall abide with you.” Now these words
were all addressed to His teaching body, not
to you and me and all private individuals!



50 Have You Met God?

Therefore, if we believe the Bible, we must
admit infallibility. To deny it is to say that

Christ has broken His promises and that the

Spirit of Truth does not abide. Since we ad-
mit that Christ is infallible, we must admit
that the Church is the same; for He said, “He
that heareth you, heareth ME !”

I know that there are those who claim that
this submission to infallible authority is

slavery of the intellect. They are right. It

is slavery. For just as the heart is enslaved

by love, so is the intellect enslaved by truth!

Hence, when an infallible authority speaks,
the intellect is completely captivated! Obe-

dience to law is the greatest liberty; hence,

the intellect is free only when it follows its
own law for grasping TRUTH ! Does a sailor
abandon his intelligence when he submits to
the guidance of his compass? Does an ex-

plorer enslave his intellect when he follows
the markings on his maps? Does a driver

desert reason when he accepts the directions
of the highway signposts? Perhaps Dr. Fred-

erick J. Kinsman, formerly Episcopalian

Bishop of Delaware and one of the greatest

scholars of his Church, has summed up the
situation best. He says: “My attitude toward
the Church is one of entire submission, ‘Cru-

cifixion of the intellect/ some object. I should

rather call it ‘Resurrection
;
but as long as I

experience the fact, I shall not quarrel about

the word. My chief consciousness as a Cath-
olic is a new freedom !”

Dr. Kinsman had laid the ghost of Papal

Infallibility. He had searched the Scriptures
and seen that Christ had made Peter His
Rock, His Key-bearer, and head Pastor; had

heard Christ say that He had prayed for
Peter that he “confirm his brethren”

;
had

listened to Christ as He commissioned Peter
to “feed His lambs and His sheep.” Dr. Kins-

man, as all seriously minded men must, had
seen, not only the reasonableness of Infalli-

bility but its absolute necessity; and he had

recognized the Pope as Peter’s legitimate sue-



Have You Met God? 51

cessor, enjoying this necessary prerogative.

I feel sure that my serious Protestant
friends will admit the logic of John L. Stoid-

dard’s conclusion: “Belief in the infallibility

of the Church is a belief that Christ has kept

His word.” And I am sure that all earnest
Protestants believe that Christ is true to His

promises.

When rightly understood, infallibility is
seen as a boon, not a barrier. Because of it,

we can certainly meet God!

The Ghost of Indulgences

Because of Martin Luther, because of false

histories, because of energetic, enthusiastic

but slightly erring John Tetzel, this ghost has

walked for centuries. Let us see if we can
lay him forever as far as you and I are con-

cerned.

First, we openly admit that there were
abuses connected with the practice of indul-

gences in the Middle Ages. We even grant
that Luther was right in fighting against these
abuses. But we point out that the holiest
men of the Church fought them just as vio-
lently and much more successfully. These lat-
ter helped reform the Church; Luther suc-

ceeded only in deforming it.

Secondly, we emphatically state that an in-
dulgence is NOT, in any sense whatsoever, a
remission of sin — past, present or to come!
It has nothing to do with the forgiveness of

sin; and above all, it does NOT mean a per-
mission to commit sin with impunity for any
specific period of time.

Thirdly, we ask all who have heard of or
seen this ghost to go to the Bible and learn
that, although Moses repented his sins and
was. pardoned by God, nevertheless, he was
punished even after the pardon, by being de-
nied entrance into the Promised Land. Learn
also that, although David was forgiven his
adultery and murder, yet Nathan said, . .
for this thing, the child that is born to thee,



52 Have You Met God?

shall surely die” — and the child died! From
these two examples, it is evident that, besides

the eternal punishment due to sin, there is

also a temporal punishment. God forgave the

eternal punishment due to the sins of Moses

and David, but He did not take away the
temporal.

Hence it is that the Church believes that

for all sins committed — even though they
have been forgiven by God — a certain amount
of punishment is due either here in this life,

or hereafter in Purgatory, or in both. This

is where the doctrine of indulgence applies.

An indulgence is a remission of the temporal
punishment due to sin, after the sin itself

has been forgiven .

States often parole prisoners, don’t they?

Months and sometimes even years are taken

off their sentences because of their good be-

havior. Yet who says that in doing this the
States grants the prisoners pardon for their

past crimes, or grants them license to commit

future crimes? No one. All recognize it as
an abbreviation of a just sentence obtained

by real merit. And the doctrine of indul-
gences is perfectly parallel. It is an abbre-

viation of the sinner’s temporal sentence ob-

tained by real merit.

That parity helps to bring out the requisites

for an indulgence — the applicant must be
in the state of grace; that is, he must have

confessed his sins with genuine contrition and

received absolution; then, he must merit his

indulgence by good behavior; that is, by the

performance of certain works commanded by
the Church, such as prayers, fasts or alms-

giving.

That the Church has the power to grant

indulgences is proved from the Scriptures

;

for Christ said: “Whatsoever you shall bind

upon earth, shall be bound in Heaven; and

whatsoever ye shall loose upon earth, shall be

loosed in Heaven.” The Scriptures tell us

that the Church used this power; for we read
how St. Paul granted an indulgence to the



Have You Met God? 53

sinful member of the Church of Corinth when

he shortened his punishment and readmitted

him to communion (2 Cor. 2:10). And his-
tory tells us how the Christian martyrs used

to write from prison begging that, in view

of their constancy, the time of penance in-

flicted on their less heroic brethren be short-

ened. So you see that reason, revelation and

sound historical fact are all in our favor. Now
let us glimpse the beauty of the doctrine.

Protestants all admit that Christ’s merits

were superabundant. Reflective Protestants

will also admit that saintly souls do much more
than is required for the remission of the

temporal punishment due to their trifling

transgressions. And the Catholic Church be-
lieves that all such superabundant merits,

those of Jesus and those of the saints, are

gathered up into a fund of mercy, love and

grace, which Christ can apply to struggling,

suffering souls either in this world or in

Purgatory. It is called the Spiritual Treasury

of the Church. It establishes a bond of sym-

pathy between the Church Triumphant, the

Church Suffering and the Church Militant.

It makes of us a Triune Church, united in the

bonds of affective and effective love. Is that

not a beautiful doctrine? Is it not a most

comforting one? We can help those who are
helpless. We can help those whom we love!
This is the doctrine that keeps that cry of the

Bible, “Have mercy, on me! Have mercv on
me ! At least you, my friends ! For the hand
of the Lord hath touched me!” from being
answered only by echoes!

Now for Luther, Tetzel and the abuses. —
People say that indulgences may be bought.
It is utterly untrue ! An indulgence can
NEVER be bought. That calumny arises
from the fact that almsgiving can be and has

been substituted for canonical penances (of

course, after due repentance and confession).

Abuses crept in. You can read of them in
literature and in history. They are admitted
by all well-informed. But they were ABUSES!



54 Have You Met God?

Never forget that. And if you are going to
accept the pictures given in “Piers Plowman,”

the satire of Chaucer in his “Canterbury

Tales,” and the prejudices of Coulton in his

“Medieval Studies” — why not be American
enough to take, along with these, the pro-

nouncements of the Council of Trent? To say

the least, they are every bit as authentic as

any of the above! And note that the abuses
were not only condemned, they were corrected

!

John Tetzel, a Dominican monk, was the
special target of Luther’s attack. And Luther
was right! For this man was preaching an
erroneous dostrine about indulgences for the

dead. He claimed that nothing but an alms-
deed was required to gain the Indulgence
granted by Leo X for the dead; and that it
could be applied to any definite soul with un-

failing effect. Neither point was ever the

doctrine of the Church. A few minor theo-
logians did hold the second point for a time;

but it had been rejected and condemned by

the vast majority of Catholic Schoolmen long

before Luther wrote a single line.

Tetzel was carried away by enthusiasm.
He had been commissioned by the Pope to
preach a special Indulgence and to collect

funds for the then unfinished Basilica of St.

Peter’s. He erred. But that is only proof
that the Church has human members, not a
proof that she is not divine. Because Bene-

dict Arnold was a traitor, should the whole

American nation be accused of treason? If

a tooth aches, do you condemn the whole body

as diseased?

Let me go a step further. Let me. admit
that there were abuses in connection with the

preaching of indulgences in other lands. What
follows? Because a thing is abused are we

to forego its use? Because of that absurd line

of reasoning, we tried the “Noble Experi-

ment” and made ourselves look and act and

be very foolish! Food is abused by some; are

we, therefore, to do away with its use? The

patience and mercy of Almighty God are ter-



Have You Met God? 55

ribly abused. Therefore, what? — Therefore,
let us all earn indulgences!

The fact of primary importance with re-

gard to Indulgences is that peither in the 16th

nor in any other century has the Church ever

countenanced any abuse; she has visited them

with severe and complete condemnations. So

let us accept the use and forget the past

abuse.

A Parallel
Because I must be very brief, I give you a

perfect parallel. If your life or death hinged

on your accurate knowledge of what a Trap-

pist is, what he does, what he lives for, what
he aims to become, how he dresses, eats, sleeps,
sings and works, where would you seek your

information? Would you take it from people
who dislike the Trappists, or from people who
have never even seen a Trappist? Would not
your safest source be a Trappist? Of course!

Then if you want the truth about the Cath-
olic Church, go to the Catholic Church! Ask
a well informed Catholic. Consult a priest.

For your life or death ETERNAL does de-
pend on your knowledge of what she is, what
she does, and what she teaches.

The Ghost of Mariolatry

You have heard that she adores Mary. It
is utterly untrue! She adores God, and God
alone. She reverences, respects, honors and

is especially devoted to Mary; and she has
a hundred and one, or a thousand and one,

reasons for doing so; but they all come down
to one — Mary is the Mother of God and our
Mother.

Father Joseph McSorley, of the Paulists,

has a very winning way of settling this whole
matter. He smilingly asks, “Now tell me
how did Jesus Christ, both as Boy and Man,
act toward Mary — like a Catholic or like
a Protestant?” Is not that the solution? We
must become like Christ; therefore we must
have a special love, honor, respect, reverence



56 Have You Met God?

and devotion to Mary. Let me tell you that
once you come to know her, this duty becomes
a delight.

It was the same Father McSorley who made
a remark that is worth pondering. He said:
“The Protestants are afraid that we might
give too much honor to Mary; might raise
her up to the level or even above her Son.

Of course this thought never occurs to a Cath-

olic, for a Catholic knows that He is Infinite,
while she is only finite. Therefore, no mat-

ter how high he may put Mary, there is al-
ways a distance between Mother and Son that

is infinite. But I wonder if Protestants, in

this protest, do not sort of ‘give themselves

away/ I wonder if they do not, by this fear,
show us how low 1 they have the Son.” It is
a remark worth pondering.

I could give you a multiplicity of reasons

for loving Mary, and showing her a full-souled

devotion. There is a whole branch of theology

called “Mariology.” It enraptures one. But

I sum it all up and give you the basic reason
when I say: Love your Mother! From His
dying Cross Christ bequeathed her to yon!

Lay These Ghosts Quickly

You have heard that the Catholic Church
teaches that —
The Pope has temporal rights in the United

States

;

The Pope can do no wrong;

The Pope can claim political allegiance;

The Pope can nullify laws, oaths, or con-

tracts.

— It is all falsehood and the purest fiction!
You have heard that the Catholic Church

teaches that —
Protestant husbands and wives are living in

sin;

Protestant marriages are invalid

;

Protestant children are illegitimate;



Have You Met God? 57

Protestants will be damned;

Protestants may be hated or persecuted.
-—It is all a lie!

You have heard that the Catholic Church

teaches that —
Images may be worshiped;
The Blessed Virgin adored;

Relics will work miracles;

Indulgences to commit sin may be bought;
and freedom from Purgatory purchased.

— It is all slanderously untrue!

To return to my parallel. You have heard
that —
A Trappist digs a foot of his own grave

every day;

A Trappist never speaks a word to anyone;
A Trappist eats next to nothing, sleeps

hardly at all, works and weeps and thinks of

death all day.

— 1 am laughing!

There is a priest here who has been a Trap-
pist for fifty-four years. Suppose he dug a

foot of his grave every month
,
how deep a

hole would Jie have now? If he dug a foot
every day

y
I think he’d be somewhere in

China by this time! Do you see how absurd
reports can be? The only way to get truth
is to go to sources. From a Trappist you
can learn what a Trappist is and what he
does; from the Catholic Church you can learn

what she really teaches. I say this because
Dean Stanley, a Protestant historian, in his
“Life and Letters” saw fit to write, “I am
convinced that Protestantism in general treats

Catholics with shameful ignorance and un-
fairness.” And Dr. Schaff, another Protestant
historian, in his “Political and Ecclesiastical

Conditions in the U. S.” says, “The Roman
Catholic Church is bemired from day to day
with all possible calumny.” So ask yourself

what you know about the Catholic Church and



58 Have You Met God?

what have been your sources of information.

Perhaps they are as reliable as the ones who
tell of the grave-digging Trappists! But re-

member that it IS a matter of life and death
for you. Did you know that in the Catholic
Church you can

Meet God Daily in His

Physical Body?

That is an astounding statement, I know;

but one that is absolutely true. To appreciate

the why of it, let me pick up a few threads
that I have dropped here and there through-

out this little pamphlet.

I said that the world needs SANCTITY.
Coming from a Trappist monk that statement
may be taken with a shrug of the shoulders
and a, “Humph! that is a fine solution to of-
fer to our topsy-turvy, war-torn world.

,,

I

admit that I know next to nothing of the
political, very little of the economic, and little

or nothing of the social conditions of the

world at the moment. But I do know human
nature. I do know something of individuals,
and I am learning more and more and more
about God. Hence, I KNOW the one sure
cure for the moral cancer that „is gnawing

away at the very vitals of modern man — it
IS Sanctity . The reflective know that I am
right. To the unreflective I say: Just

imagine. ...

Just imagine if Hitler, Stalin and Musso-

lini were saints — Just imagine if all Presi-
dents, members of Congress and of every par-

liament were holy men — Just imagine if
every politician who asks for a vote, and every
big employer who hires a man were absorbed
in God — Just imagine if all mankind were
working solely for the greater honor and glory

of God — Just imagine if every law that is
made, every judgment that is formed, every

decision that is handed down, were done so

by men who did all things only after prayer
and with their eyes focused on Eternity —



Have You Met God? 59

Do you gasp? Of course I am only dream-
ing; that is why I asked you to “Just
imagine. . . But do you see how practical
my cure is? Do you not see that the one
thing the world needs is SANCTITY? You
may say that I am conjuring up a Utopia. I
admit it. And yet, I insist that in a most
definite sense — SANCTITY is the end and
aim of all life and living. I say that, because

St. Paul, inspired by the Holy Ghost, an-

nounced to all the world that “This is the will

of God... YOUR SANCTIFICATION.”

But come out of the clouds. When I say
“the world,” I mean you and me. The world
is made up of individuals. Hence, if there

is to be sanctity in the world, the individuals

must be saints! Let us face facts. We are
in life for one only purpose . . . to become like

unto God. Ontologically, life is “being”;

but theologically, life is a “becoming” — be-
coming ever more and more like unto Him
who made us. He is substantial Sanctity; we
must become saints. Do not shy at it. Do
not say, “I am too lowly, too weak, too un-
worthy.” For that is not humility. That is

cowardice, laziness and rot. That is giving

the lie to God. Read that citation from St.
Paul again. Face the fact — you were born
to be a saint. Life has no other meaning.

Are you going to die with your life’s work
undone?

You will, unless you meet God. And that
throws me back to my opening paragraph on
“contacts.” If you want a tan, you come in
contact with the sun. If you want water from
your faucet, it must be in contact with the
reservoir. If you want heat in your room,
your radiator must in in contact with your fur-
nace. So too, if you want holiness, you must
come in contact with God. He is the one
source; for He IS Holiness. In short, if you
want to make a success of life you must die
a saint; but vou will never do that unless you

meet God intimately.



60 Have You Met God?

There are those who say it is enough to
worship God “in spirit and in truth.” It is,
But the truth of the matter is that we are
not spirit alone! The truth of the matter is
that if you and I are to become divine, we
must be perfectly human. We are not mind
alone, we have a body. We are not pure
spirits, we are composites of clay. We have
not only intellects, we have senses. The truth
of the whole matter is that we are men. God
made us such. But if we become perfect men,
we are Godlike. Jesus Christ was human as
well as divine; and if we are to worship Him
in “spirit and in truth,” we must use the
visible and the invisible, matter and mind,

senses and intellect, body and soul; in other

words, we must be men. That is why I gave
you a watch, the radio and rain; that is why
I gave you history, reason and revelation.

That is why the Triune God gave us Jesus
Christ. That is why Jesus Christ gave us
His visible Church. And that is why His
visible Church administers seven Sacraments.

We are clay, we need the tangible; we are
animals, we need to see and feel and taste
and touch; we are men, therefore, we must
have the Holy Eucharist.

I have made much of the words of Christ,
“I am with you all days.” From them I
showed you how Peter could introduce you to
the Living God. From them I showed you
how Martin Luther, Henry VIII, John Wesley
and the rest could not. From them I now
show you more than infallibility or indefecti-

bility; from them I now show you Emmanuel
— God with us. Indeed He is with us, Body
and Blood, soul and divinity, whole and en-

tire, the Jesus Christ who was Bethlehem’s
Babe, Nazareth’s Boy and Calvary’s Cruci-

fied Man: the Jesus Christ who said, “I am
the way, the truth and the life”; who said,
“I am come that they may have life and have
it more abundantly”; the Jesus Christ who
said, “I am the Bread of life. . . This is the
bread that cometh down from heaven; that



Have You Met God? 61

if any man eat of it he may not die. I am
the living bread which came down from heav-

en. If any man eat of this bread, he shall
live forever; and the bread that I will give

is my flesh, for the life of the world. —
Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat

the flesh of the Son of man and drink his
blood, you shall not have life in you. He that

eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath
life everlasting: and I will raise him up in

the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood, abideth in
me and I in him.”

There it is! Easily the most astounding

passage in Scripture. See how Jesus insisted
on the fact! He almost tortures language
to make clear that His body was meat and
His blood drink; and also to make it unmis-

takable that if you and I are to have life
,

we must receive Him.

How we love life! How we cling to it and
crave more and more of it! And yet, how
little we really know about it! There is only
one life — it is the life of the soul. All else
is for it, or else is mere animal existence.

You see, Jesus has no changed things that
human life, to be human, must be superhuman

;

and man, to be man, must be divine. He has
so turned things upside down that life is
only found by losing it, and self is only rea-

lized by self-renunciation. But those are the

truths that very few grasp; and hence, most
men go groping for life in what can only bring
death. Life can come only from the living.
Every philosopher and biologist will tell you
that; but what many a philosopher and many
a biologist will not tell you is the source of
life; for they do not know HIM! They do
not know Jesus who said, “I am the LIFE!”

I write that you may avoid the awful trag-
edy of dying without ever having lived. That

is the only reason for this booklet. I want you
to enjoy life. I want you to be full of life,
and I want your life to be full. In short, I



62 Have You Met God?

want you to come in contact with the Life of
all living — I want you to meet God physi-
cally! And that means Holy Communion. In-
troductions are good. Introductions are

necessary. But unless they lead to intimate

friendships they are not fully effective. You
know what useful contacts are. You have
been using them all your life. Well, I show

you the NECESSARY contact when I show
you Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. The

idea is not mine. It is His, the omniscient

God’s. His words were: “Amen, amen I say
unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son

of Man and drink His blood, you shall not
have life in you.” Do you want real LIFE?

I pick up another thread as I remind you

that a few pages back I said that the world

needs an institution that grips the conscience,

teaches morality and proffers the means neces-

sary to promote it. Here are the means!

Man cannot be the man he was made to be
unless he has intimate contact with God. Re-

call the quotation on the opening page —
“Without me, you can do NOTHING.” That
is how necessary contact is, and contact is
established through the Sacraments. There

are seven divinely instituted channels of grace;

seven God-given fountains of life. Through

them man comes into direct contact with God;
but the most intimate contact is the one that

is had in the Holy Eucharist. That contact

works wonders!

The thinking world marvels at the hundreds

of thousands who freely choose and voluntarily
vow perpetual poverty, chastity and obedience.
It sees youth — fresh, vibrant, vigorous youth
— gaily say good-by to what it calls life
and its wonders. It sees girls, just flowering

into beautiful and gracious womanhood, smile,

turn their backs on the alluring loves of the

world to embrace with an open-armed, gen-

erous embrace a life of singleness, selflessness

and sacrifice. It is greatly puzzled, for it

does not know that these go to meet God in-
timately. It is deeply perplexed, because it



Have You Met God? 63

has never caught the truth in the words, “He

that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood,
abideth in me and I in him.” It is complete-
ly at a loss to understand all this, for it has

never known the Wine that makes virgins

and the Bread that makes strong. It cannot

account for the love-light in the eyes of tens

of thousands of nuns and the perpetual youth

of the Catholic priesthood. It knows not the

source of this vigorous vitality, for it knows

not the “Bread of Life.” The Eucharist is

the secret! These men and women become in-
timate friends of God Almighty through His

Sacrament of Love; and you know that
friendship always finds people like, or makes

them so!
Look! In our modern world it is not easy

to keep the Ten Commandments of God or to
observe the Six Precepts of His Church.

Honesty, purity, loyalty, fidelity, uprightness,

are virtues hard for man to acquire and im-
possible to increase unless. . . . What am I
talking about? It is absolutely impossible for

a man to overcome a single serious tempta-
tion without the grace of God. But grace

comes through the Sacraments; and the source

of all grace is the Jesus of the Blessed Sac-

rament. So when you see the great mass of
four hundred millions of Catholics leading a

life more than human, when you see the vast
majority of them truly virtuous, when you
see the cream of their manhood and the flower
of their womanhood heroicallv so, know that
it is all from meeting God daily in His Physi-
cal Body, the Eucharist.

How I pray for the Protestants, and how
I beg the Protestants to pray for themselves!

They sing “.Abide With Me.” It is a beauti-
ful prayer. It can be realized if thev do what
those who first spoke those words did; it can
be realized if “they know Him in the break-
ing of the Bread.” He promised to abide with
those who receive Him! They sing “Lead,
Kindlv Lierht.” I pray it for them. I pray
that the Kindly Light of the World will lead



64 Have You Met God?

them as He led the author of that hymn,
Cardinal John Henry Newman, from “the en-
circling gloom” to the little light that dances

its life away to show people where Light and
Life and Love dwell; to show them where

God really lives swaddled in the bands of

Bread; to show them His Tabernacle Home.

Yes, you can meet God daily in His Physical

Body once you do as He commanded. Above
I have given you the words of the promise;

you well know the words of the fulfillment.
He spoke them Holy Thursday night when
He “took bread and blessed and broke and
gave to His disciples and said : Take you and

eat
,
This is my Body. And taking the chalice

He gave thanks: and gave to them, saying:
Drink ye all of this for this is My Blood”
The only thing my Protestant friends are
missing is the fulfillment of the command .He
gave that same night, about the same bread

and wine, at the same supper, about the same

Body and Blood. They are missing a priest-

hood that fulfills that divine injunction: “Do

this in commemoration of Me”
You crave life — You can have it! You

crave light. — You can have it! You crave
love. — It is yours! -— He says, “Come unto
Me. . . .” It is the Christ of the Eucharist

speaking to YOU. It is the Christ of the
Sermon on the Mount, the Christ of the

Cenacle and the Christ of Calvary. You can
meet Him Physically every day in the Cath-
olic Church; and once you meet Him there,
you will learn that you can

Meet God Hourly in His

Mystical Body

I have just touched on the doctrine of the

Real Presence of God in the Holy Eucharist.

It is a hard doctrine, I know. But look who
gave it! It was Jesus Christ Himself, He
who is TRUTH! It is a beautiful doctrine,
and it makes life livable as it brings a little

bit of Heaven to earth. I am now going to



Have You Met God? 65

touch on another Real Presence. It is a doc-

trine that some find hard to grasp; but it is

a doctrine given by the same Jesus Christ;

He who is Truth! It is the doctrine of the
Real Presense of God in men! Technically it

is known as the Doctrine of the Mystical

Body. It is a doctrine that makes life lov-

able
;
and it actually begins on earth our

Heaven.

In January of 1935 I happened to be on

the Pacific Coast. Perhaps it was nostalgia

that made me tune in on New York; at any
rate, there came out of the ether that day a

sentence that has haunted me ever since. It
was the closing sentence of Msgr. Fulton

Sheen’s address on the Mystical Body. He
said, “If we miss God, it will not be because
He is too far away , but because He is too
near.” “Too near!” “Too near!” has echoed

and reechoed in my mind ever since; so for
some six years I have read everything that I

could lay my hands on that treated of the
Mystical Body; and I now stand convinced
that if mankind is to be saved, it will only

be by learning and living that doctrine! It

is a doctrine that says that you and I can

meet God hourly once we really know man!
There is our difficulty ! It is not that we

do not know God. It is that we do not fully
know ourselves! In their effort to clothe us
with greatness, modern writers and thinkers

have stripped us naked. In their endeavor

to enrich, they have stolen. And professing
to tell us the whole truth and reveal us to
ourselves, they have lied! You know as well
as I that they have made a religion out of
humanity. But perhaps you do not know that
they had to! Yes, they had to; because they
have never known the humanity in religion!
They have never grasped that tremendous
truth “And the Word was made FLESH and
dwelt amongst us.”

The cruelest lie that can be told a man is
the one told by these modern thinkers. They
say that man is only man. That is a LIE

!



66 Have You Met God?

You and I and all the billions of humans who
pack this little planet of ours are more than

that; we are much more than merely human;
we are partly divine

;

we are divine-human
beings! Our origin was a divine-human ori-

gin; our history is a divine-human history;

our real vocation is a divine-human vocation,

just as our only destiny is a divine-human

destiny. And that is why Jesus Christ who
is THE Human-Divine, means so much to
you, to me and to all mankind.
Look into yourself. Whence are you? —

To say, ‘‘From Adam,” is to tell only a part-
truth. You are from God and Adam. To
say that Adam is your father is to give only
part of your ancestry. It was the Triune

God who said, “Let us make man.” They
made him; and made him to their own “image
and likeness.” You are from Adam. Yes;
your physiognomy proclaims that to every-

one; but you have other lineaments that tell

me that you are not only from Adam; you
are also from God. The truth is that you

are a divine-human being. Never forget that

!

Look at your history. Betrayed by your

human parents, sold unto sin, you were re-
deemed by your divine parent. Decapitated,

if I may so speak, by Adam; you were re-
capitated by Jesus Christ. Adam, your first
head, led you to death; Christ, your present

Head, brings you to life. Incorporated in

Adam as a member of the human race, you
are reincorporated in Jesus Christ as a mem-
ber of the divine-human race. And never for-
get that!

What is your vocation? It is to be a Chris-
tian; that is, another Christ . But He was
Human and Divine. Therefore, you must be
the same, “through Him, with Him, and in

Him.” That is the vocation of all mankind!

Some pages back I said our life was not so

much “being” as “becoming.” There I said
“becoming saints.” I do not change it now,

but I do clarify and specify as I say: Your

vocation, my vocation and the vocation of all



Have You Met God? 67

mankind is to become the Mystical Body of
Jesus Christ . Mankind is a unit. It can ex-

press its real individuality only when all be-

come members under the One Head.

I am purposely brief. I mean to be sketchy;
for I want to whet your appetite as mine was

whetted. I want the truth that “if you miss

God, it will not be because He is too far away
but because He is too near,” to haunt you,
to send you seeking the Truth! I want your

craving for real life to drive you into a quest

for Life! I want you to know especially that
the common saying: “God helps those who
help themselves,” is but a very free transla-

tion of a deep theological axiom. Theologians

say, “Facienti quod in se est, Deus non dene-

gat gratiam.” That means: Seek! and God

will help you to find — God. But do not look
for Him in the distance. Look for Him in
yourself and in your fellow man.

“The Kingdom of God is within you” —
Yes! And within your neighbor, too! That
is the only sound reason for loving him. To

be good to a man because he is a man; to
help a neighbor because he is a member of
our one human race, is profitless philanthropy.
But to love, help, serve, reverence, respect

and do good to every man because he is a
member, either actual or potential, of the

Mystical Body of Christ is to worship God in
the way He wants to be worshiped, to live
life to the hilt, and to win Heaven!

Remember that Christ said, “I am the Vine,
you are the branches.” Do not be dead wood

!

Cling close to Christ, and He will make you
full of life and make your life fruitful. Re-
member that it was Christ Himself who pro-
claimed this doctrine of the divine solidarity

of the human race; of the actual oneness of
the members of His Church and Himself,
when He sundered the heavens and asked,
“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” Saul
was persecuting the Christians. And when
Saul asked the Voice, “Who art thou, Lord?”
the Word of God replied, “I am Jesus whom



68 Have You Met God?

thou persecutest.” Therefore, if you want

to touch God, reach out and touch your Chris-

tian neighbor; and never forget that every-

one is a Christian, at least potentially. Then

repeat to yourself often those words of Christ,

“Whatsoever you do to these, the least of my
brethren, you do it unto me.” It will remind

you that the thrilling doctrine of the Mys-

tical Body is not mine, not St. PauPs, not St.

John’s, not the Catholic Church’s; it is the

doctrine of Jesus Christ.

See how simple it is to meet God intimate-
ly? He is really present in man! So you
can meet Him every hour of the day and every
day of the year if you meet man correctly.
See how simple this makes the supernatural?
I know that there are many who would never
do a dishonest or a mean thing because such
things are unbecoming a gentleman. That is

only a natural reason. Refrain from the same

things BECAUSE they are unbecoming a
member of Christ’s Mystical Body and you have
performed a supernatural work! Some there
are who would never wrong a man or soil a
woman because to do either would be to de-
grade his own and their human dignity. That
is a merely natural motive. Be pure and

upright with all BECAUSE you are incor-
porated in the spotless Christ, and you have

acted from a supernatural motive, and if in

sanctifying grace, performed a supernatural

work and gained merit. Some will never be
intemperate in food, drink, word or work, be-

cause intemperance is unbecoming a rational

being. Let them be temperate in all things

and in all ways BECAUSE of the Christ who
is in them and in whom they are; and they
have lived up to their supernatural dignity.

Which allows me to say that we become
deeply spiritual by a right use of the material

;

we grasp the supernatural by gripping the
natural; we become divine by being perfectly
human. Yes, we meet God by finding the
Man — Christ Jesus. Do you see the mis-
take of most of us? We are not deeply super-



Have You Met God? 69

natural; because we stress that suffix alto-

gether too much and neglect the substantive!
We are not natural enough in our supernat-
uralities! We look for God in the Heavens
when we can find Him next door! Much of
our prayer, love and service of God is tainted

with the unnatural, because we neglect to
love,, serve and pray for man, and do these

things as men! We are flesh! That we know
full well. But what we too often forget is
that “God was made flesh.” That is the fact

that enables one to say that the Christian

religion is the perfect religion of humanity,

and that “supernaturalizing the natural” is

modern man’s one great work.

If you want to meet God immediately, look

on your neighbor as another Christ! Jesus

Christ died 1900 years ago. He arose and
ascended into Heaven. He is there today
Physically, sitting at the right hand of His

Father. But never forget that He still walks
our earth! You can meet Him this moment.
The Catholic Church is His actual Mystical

Body; while all mankind is It potentially.

In very truth “if you miss God, it will be be-

cause He is too near!”

Do meet Him, and meet Him intimately.
For you know, your one purpose of being is

to know Him, love Him and serve Him, and
see Him “face to face” Your one work in
life is to see to it that death be a meeting,

not with an Unknown God, but with an in-
timate and long-loved Friend; your one work
in life is to see to it that the darkness of

death be but a clearer vision of the Light of

the World. Most people go through life fear-
ing death; it is because they have never met

God. Real Christians go through life pre-

paring for death; and at any moment can
say with Father Abram Ryan:

Come, Death ! but I am fearless

;

I shrink not from your frown.
The eyes you close are tearless;

Haste; strife this frail form down.



70 Have You Met God?

Strike quick! Why dost thou tarry?
Of time, why such a loss?

Dost fear the sign I carry?

’Tis but a simple Cross.

Thou wilt not strike? — Then hear me:
Come! Strike in any hour.

My heart shall never fear thee;
Nor flinch before thy power.

Pll meet thee, Time’s dread lictor,

And my wasted Tips will sing:
“Dread Death! I am the victor!

Strong Death, where is thy sting?”

Why such fearlessness? — Because life is
a trysting with God

;
Death, a rendezvous

with Divinity; and God, our God, is EM-
MANUEL — God with us!
Meet Him today and every day in His

Church, His Physical Body and His Mystical

Body; then you can look forward longingly

to a meeting with Him forever “FACE TO
FACE.”

I have been most sketchy. Space demanded

it. But if you want to know more of God and
the ways to meet Him, look over some of these

works

:

THE FAITH OF MILLIONS — John A.
O’Brien, Our Sunday Visitor Press, Hunt-

ington, Ind.

A very friendly and fully sympathetic ex-
pose of Truth.

THROUGH HUNDRED GATES — Severin
and Stephen Lamping, The Bruce Pub. Co.,

Milwaukee, Mis.

41 fascinating accounts of men and women
from 28 different countries who met God.

REBUILDING A LOST FAITH — John L.
Stoddard, P. J. Kenedy Co., New York.
An American Agnostil tells the story of his
searchings and findings. A masterpiece.

CAMPAIGNING FOR CHRIST; CAM-
PAIGNER FOR* CHRIST HANDBOOK;



Have You Met God? 71

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A CAMPAIGN-
ER FOR CHRIST — David Goldstein,
Catholic Campaigner for Christ, Astor P.O.,
Boston, Mass.

Three works that are filled with good na-
ture and a very direct reply to questions of
all sorts on the Catholic religion.

THE GOOD PAGAN'S FAILURE—Rosalind
Murray, The Catholic Book Club, 111 Char-
ing Cross Road, London W. C. 2.
A thoughtful and very objective study, con-
trasting Humanism and Christianity.

THE CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY— Martin J. Scott, S.J., P. J. Kenedy, New
York, N. Y.

An exceptionally clear statement of Chris-
tianity's case.

THE CATHOLIC'S READY ANSWER —
M. J. Hill, S.J., Benziger Bros., New York.
A scholarly, yet popular reply to myriad
questions.

THE QUESTION BOX — Bertrand L. Con-
way, Catholic Book Exchange, 120 W. 60th
St., New York, N. Y.
Answers that banish Agnostics' doubts, do
away with Protestant ‘prejudice and
strengthen Catholics' Faith.

FIVE GREAT HERESIES — Hilaire Belloc,
The Catholic Book Club, London.
An historian reviews and previews Religion.

OUR PART IN THE MYSTICAL BODY —
Daniel A. Lord, S.J., The Queen's Work,
St. Louis, Mo.

THE WHOLE CHRIST—Emile Mersch, S.J.,
translated by John R. Kelley, S.J., Bruce
Pub. Co., Milwaukee, Wis.

MORALITY AND THE MYSTICAL BODY— Emile Mersch, S.J., translated by Dan.
F. Ryan, S.J., Kenedy, New York.



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