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A Trappist asks:

WHAT

Are You

Doing to

• Jesus Christ?

/



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UNIVERSITY6f#REmtE

LIBRARIES

Yale University Archives



A Trappist asks:

What Are

You Doing

to

Jesus Christ



NIHIL OBSTAT:

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

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

Censores

IMPRIMI POTEST:

Hh Fredericus M. Dunne, O.C.S.O.

Abbas, B. M. de Gethsemani

IMPRIMATUR:

Joannes A. Floersh, D.D.

Archiepiscopus Ludovicopolitanus

July 2, 1941

1st printing 10,000

2nd printing 10,000

Deacfdlffed

COPYRIGHT 1941

by the

ABBEY OF GETHSEMANI, INC.



TO

MY VERY GOOD FRIEND

MR. JOHN DINEEN

PRAYING

THAT HE

MAY

LIVE

THE DOCTRINE

OF

THE MYSTICAL BODY

OF

CHRIST



4 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO
JESUS CHRIST?

I suppose your first impulse is to say,
“Nothing.”

But that is one answer that cannot be
given. As long as you live, move and have
being, you are doing something to Jesus
Christ. I am asking: What is it?

He died nineteen hundred years ago, I
know; but He rose again, and He lives again.
He lives today just as really, just as truly,
even more intimately than He lived when
Herod clothed Him as a fool, Pilate washed
his hands of Him, and high priests taunted

Him to come down from His cross. Yes, and
you are doing something to Him. What is it?

I care not how old or how young you are;
I care not what creed you were bom in or
brought up on; I care not what your class or
color; you, as long as you have life, are do-

ing something to Jesus Christ. What is it?

Perhaps you have never faced this question

before. Perhaps you have never even thought

of it; or thinking of it, refused to face it

fully and answer it honestly. Face it now.

Face it fully and answer it most honestly,

for it is important. Eternally important. On
it, and on it alone, depends your all.

We dodge many questions in life. Some-
times from policy, sometimes from fear,

sometimes from politeness. But we are fools
if we dodge this question, for on its answer
depends our agony or glory unending.

You can dodge it if you will. You can
close your eyes and block your ears and stifle

your conscience. You can refuse to look this
question in the face. But if you do, it will

loom with double tremendousness the moment
you close your eyes in death; for then the

tenses will be changed, and instead of “What

are you doing to Christ?” you will be asked,

“What have you done to Christ?” And then,



What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ? 5

just as now, the one answer that cannot be

given is, “Nothing.”

Can you answer me? Have I taken your
breath away with a mysterious question?
That should not be. Were I to ask you:
“What are you doing to humanity?” you could
answer me. The question would not strike
you as strange, far fetched, mysterious or

mystical, would it? You would feel that I
was asking you to deal with tangible factors
— yourself and your fellowman. You would
not accuse me of presenting you with a puz-
zling query or taking your breath away with
a conundrum. Were I to ask you: “What are
you doing to man?” you would be ready to
answer me. Then why not be equally ready
when I ask you “What are you doing to the
God-Man?” He is equally tangible. You are
doing something. What is it?

You see, when a Baby was born in a Beth-
lehem cave, nineteen hundred years ago, the

redeeming Head of the human race came into
being. Thirty-three years later, when that
Baby died, it was the Head of the human
race who died, giving you and me and all
subsequent humans the possibility of being
born again as children of God. Since then

every man who has drawn breath has done
something, or is doing something, to Jesus

Christ. It is unavoidable. If you are human,
you belong to Jesus Christ just as branches

belong to the vine or the hand to the human
body.

Yes, I am in the depths of the doctrine of
the Mystical Body of- Christ; but it is not
mysterious. It is as tangible as fact and
more thrilling than fiction. It is as intimate
as your heartbeat, and tremendously more
important. Much has been written on it that
is explanatory; not enough that is exhorta-

tory. Father Daniel A. Lord, S.J., has done

something. He grasped the fact that Christ
and the individual man are one, and he could
not keep the secret. He had to share his ex-



6 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

altation and exhilaration with others. He had
to thrill mankind with truth. He did so in
his truly thrilling book, Our Part in the
Mystical Body.

His title is apt. Throughout the work he
shows what Christ’s action has done to us.
He insists, and rightly so, on the fact that
the salvation of humanity lies in its realiza-

tion of its divinity. He proves conclusively
that the doctrine of the Mystical Body ele-
vates the littleness of man to heights im-
measurable and the nothingness of man to
the all-embracing splendor of the Infinite.

I reverse the picture now and, instead of
showing what God has done to you, I will
show what you are doing to God.

You acknowledge the historical Christ. You
have to. He is undeniable. He is not a ques-
tion of belief; He is a demonstrable and dem-
onstrated fact. You must also acknowledge
the Mystical Christ, for He is equally unde-
niable. He lives today just as really, just as
truly, even more intimately, than He did
nineteen hundred years ago. But instead of

a physical body, He has assumed a mystical
one. Not a mysterious one, mind you, but a
real, palpitating, passible one; one in which

He lives again the life He lived when Herod
was king and Rome the mistress of the world.
But He has come nearer. As long as He
walked Judean hills He was individual; when
He died on Calvary’s hill He became univer-
sal. Bethlehem’s birth gave us the Mystical

Body; Calvary’s death joined the body to the

Head. As a Jew of the First Century Christ,
in a sense, was outside us; as the Risen God
of the Twentieth Century, in a very true

sense, He is inside us; or better, we are in-
corporated in Him.

But I must not become technical. I will

be factual. History repeats itself, and what

Jew, Gentile, Greek and Roman did to the
Physical Christ nineteen hundred years ago,

modern man is doing to the Mystical Christ



What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ? 7

today. That is the actuality. So I ask you

pointedly:

What are you doing to Jesus Christ?

IS IT WHAT THE BETHLEHEMITES DID?

You know that story. It is the tragedy of
closed doors and crowded inns. Men and
women intent on self, greedy for comfort,
money and a good time, locked out a poor
carpenter from Nazareth and his humble

wife, who had in her virginal womb the God
of the universe.

I call it tragedy, not because Jesus had to
be bom between an ox and an ass; not be-
cause the pure Mother of God had to bring
forth her Child in a dirty, dingy cattle-shed;

not because the manger of beasts was God’s
first bed. No! None of those things are
tragedies. The tragedy is not on the Divine
side at all; it is entirely on the human side.
The awful tragedy is not for Christ but for

the Bethlehemites. Because of love for com-
fort many a home in that little town lost
immortality that night they lost the chance

of being the house in which God was born.
That is tragedy. Because of selfishness many
a man and woman missed a God-given op-
portunity that mysterious night: the oppor-

tunity to be the first inhabitants of earth to

bow before the God of Heaven. That is real
tragedy. Need I say that because of greed
for gold some innkeepers lost an everlasting
fortune? Hardly.

Have you ever wondered why this utter
tragedy? It is quite obvious. They had set
their hearts on the wrong things. They were
the Chosen People. Their history had been
one long story of constant miracles and God’s
intimate favors. Their forebears were the
patriarchs and prophets, God’s closest friends.

And they had sung in unceasing strain of
the coming of the King. Bethlehem was clear-
ly designated as the place, and the seventy-

two weeks of Daniel as the time. Should



8 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

such a people be on the watch for anything
but the birth of their Savior? Of course not.
But were they? Indeed no! The present,
Caesar Augustus and his enrollment, ab-
sorbed them. The crowds that were gather-
ing fascinated them. Their blood was up,
for they saw before them the promise of ex-
citement: eating, drinking and high glee.
Many of them rubbed their hands in joyous
anticipation; they saw a chance for quick
profits. Having set their hearts on such things
— look what happened to them! Lost in the
maze of the moment, gripped by the gather-
ing of the throngs, mastered by the move-
ments of the times, they locked out their God!

Why did they refuse Joseph? They said:
“No room.” They should have said: “Com-
fort, pleasure, ease.” They should have said:
“Selfishnes s.” They should have said:
“Money.”

Joseph was poor, and he looked it. Mary
was with child, and they knew it. And the
Bethlehemites were looking for profit and
pleasure and did not wish to be incommoded
by the pair. So, because of self, sensuality
and a few shekels, they committed that trag-
edy of all tragedies, they locked out their

God.

History repeats itself. The tragedy of
Bethlehem is being re-enacted in our own
sight. But with what greater culpability!

If when He was on the Cross He could
plead for those who had put Him there, say-
ing, “Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do,” He most certainly could plead
that same plea for poor blinded Bethlehem-

ites who refused Him a place at birth. But
He cannot pray that prayer for the Russia of
today, who not only says, “No room for
Joseph and Mary, no room for Jesus Christ,”

but who goes so far as to say, “No room for
God or even the name of God.” He cannot
plead that plea for a Mexico who allows Him
little more than straw, swaddling clothes and



What Are You Doing: to Jesus Christ? 9

a cattle-shed, when she limits the number of
His clergy. He cannot beg forgiveness for
the Spaniards, who only a few years ago
murdered religious with an abandon that

makes Nero seem kind and Diocletian merci-

ful. He cannot say that Bolshevik, Fascist or
Naziist “know not what they do.” They have
had nineteen hundred years of cribs and

crosses, nineteen hundred years of Christmas

carols, Good Friday services and Easter “Al-
leluias.”

Yes, history repeats itself; but always with

greater cruelty because of greater cognizance.

The more progress we claim to make, the
more civilized we claim to be, the more bar-
barous we prove ourselves. Closed doors and
crowded inns are all around us, because men
and women have set their hearts on the
wrong things. The tragedy of Bethlehem is
our everyday occurrence.

AND WHAT OF YOURSELF?

Are you sending Christ out to the ox and
the ass? No? That is fine. But tell me, on
what have you set your heart? Do not the
things of the day frequently make you for-
get your eternity? Are you not much more
concerned about building up your bank ac-
count than you are about minting heavenly
merits? Do you not give very much more
of your thought to your pay envelope than
you do to your prayer? Is not your boss
more often in your mind and on your mind
than your God? Do you look for and pray
for and plan for a good eternity as often as
you do for a good time? Do not Hitler and
Stalin and Roosevelt take much more of your
time and attention than Jesus Christ? Are
you not alarmed by the possible disasters
that war can bring to you and yours than
you are about the very real disaster it has
already brought to Jesus Christ and His
Church? Tell me honestly, are you not play-
ing the Bethlehemite? Is not your heart a



10 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

closed door and your mind a crowded inn?
Have you not sent Christ out to bleakness
and the beasts?

No? That is grand. But tell me, what are
you doing for Christ? Do you frequently
take Him into a heart that is warm with
love? He is bom every morning, you know,
and wrapped in the swaddling bands of
Bread. Do you bow down and adore Him?
Every day is Christmas Day and every altar
a cave of Bethlehem. What are you doing to
drown out the lowing of the ox and the bray-
ing of the ass? What are you doing to dis-
perse the chill and brighten the bleakness?
What are you doing to distract God from the
hurled defiance of men?

You do not possess gold, frankincense and
myrrh, I know. You are not a Wise Man or a
King. But you have neighbors. And good
example is golden, as fragrant as incense and
as pungent as myrrh. As you walk down
the street, do your neighbors look upon you
as just another citizen, or do they see a stal-

wart, sterling, militant Catholic, a soul walk-

ing its way to Heaven? Does your employer
look upon you as another cog in a machine,
just a name or a number, or have you so
radiated Christ that he is forced to look upon
you as an exile from another land, a pilgrim

on his way home to God, his Father? Do
your friends look upon you as a respectable
man, or have you made them recognize in
you a child of Eternity?

Strange questions, aren’t they? They have
a foreign ring to them and strike your ear
with an alien tone. That is not surprising.

They are unpagan questions. They are gen-
uinely Catholic and Christian queries and are

bound to sound strange to all who have been
somewhat paganized.

Do you see what had happened to the
Bethlehemites? Pagan aims and pagan ideals

had robbed them of their religious sensitivity.

They were thinking more of Caesar Augustus



What Are You Doing: to Jesus Christ? 11

than of their God. They realized that they
were the subjects of Rome and forgot that
they were the “Chosen People.” They were
all agog about the census a little man was
taking and forgetful of the coming of Christ.

Daniel’s seventy-two weeks had run their

course, but the Eethlehemites were uncon-

cerned. They were engrossed in the pres-
ent: pleasure was to be had, profit to be

made. The past was past, and the future had

not yet come; so they made their money and
had their pleasure — and turned out their
God to the ox and the ass in the hillside cave.

Do you not see what has happened to you?
Pagan aims and pagan ideals have absorbed

you. Pagan atmosphere has fully doped you.
Pagan life has robbed you of religious sen-
sitivity. So much so that when I ask you
the one question that should dominate your

being, it strikes you as strange.

Would any of the above queries have puz-
zled the early Christians? Would they have
been astonished and embarrassed into a gasp-
ing and a groping for words had they been
asked, “What are you doing to Christ?”
Hardly! When the pagans in open admiration
exclaim, “How these Christians love one an-
other!” we have our answer. What were the
early Christians doing to Christ? — That
which they were doing to one another. They
were loving Him, by loving one another.
They were living the truth of the Mystical
Body. They knew that by caring for the
leaves, the branches and the bark, they were
caring for the Vine; that by tending to the
fingers, the elbow and the hand, they were
tending to the Head; that by ministering to
man, they were serving God. And that is the
lesson that you must learn and the lesson you
must live.

NEARER THAN YOUR NEIGHBOR
NEXT DOOR

The Mystical Body is no mystery. It is a
simple teaching that God is near, nearer than



12 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

your neighbor; and that we can glorify the
Lord of the universe by aiding the man and
the woman next door.

That sounds like Humanitarianism and
sheer Philanthropy, doesn’t it? It is both,

but without the capitals and preceded by the
word “Catholic.” For there is no real brother-
hood of man without a vital recognition of
the Fatherhood of God. Before I acknowl-

edge my neighbor as my brother, I have to
know that God is our common Father; I have
to know that the blood of Jesus Christ gave
us not only a new name but a new nature; I
have to know that we have all been adopted
by Omnipotence. Once I know these things,
then I can become the true Catholic humani-
tarian, he who serves mankind but does not
worship it. Then I can become the true Cath-
olic philanthropist, he who performs the
works of mercy, not to alleviate misery, but

to build up the Mystical Body of Christ. For
let it be known that the Catholic humani-
tarian never ministers to humanity as hu-

manity, but to the divinity in humanity; let

it be fully recognized that the Catholic phi-

lanthropist is a philanthropist because he can

adore God by being merciful to men.

That is what this doctrine means. It means
that “whatsoever you do to these, the least

of my brethren, you do it unto me.” It means
that if you neglect your neighbor, you are a

Bethlehemite, you have closed your door and

crowded your inn. It means that if you do

not stand out in your neighborhood as a stal-

wart Catholic, a model for all men, a per-

son who knows what time is for and what
the earth is worth, an individual who knows
how to live, you have sent Mary out to the
ox and the ass and Jesus to the cattle-cave.

Now understand me. I am not asking you
to give food or money or clothing. I am
not asking you to take in an orphan or a

wayfarer. I am not asking you to go from
prison to prison, hospital to hospital, or to



What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ? 13

give your grave to the dead. No! Philan-

thropic pagans have done all these things and

have never yet performed a “work of mercy”!

I am not asking you to do any of these things,
for most of you have not the time, the talent

or the money. But I am asking all of you to
do the “works of mercy.” I am asking you
to feed Christ, clothe Christ, quench Christ’s

thirst; I am asking you to house the homeless
Christ, visit the sick and imprisoned Christ,

and bury the dead of Christ. You may not
be able to do any of these things materially,

but you most certainly can do all of them

mystically.

Good example is food and drink, clothing
and lodging, gold for the spirit. A striking
Catholicity shown to all your community does
more for Christ’s Mystical Body than the
building of an orphan asylum from sheer

philanthropy. Let your life be a sermon to
all who surround you, and you have visited
the very sick and the very deeply imprisoned.

If you radiate Christ, that is, if you exter-

nalize the fact that you “have not here a last-

ing city,” that you are a good citizen of the

land only because you belong to the Kingdom
of Heaven, that you dwell in a house here

below, but your home is a mansion above,
that you handle the things of time and the

happenings of the day as means to your eter-
nity — if you radiate such Catholicity, you
have not done to Christ what the Bethle-
hemites did. You have taken Him in and
allowed Him to grow. But do you so radiate
Christ?

CHANGE YOUR MIND

Once again I must ask you to understand
me. I am not asking you to change your
nature. I want you to have a “good time.”
I want you to have plenty of “good times,”
but never at the expense of your eternity. I
am not asking you to become “pious.” I de-
test “pious” people. I am merely begging
you to become practical. I am not asking



14 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

you to become a monk, a priest or a nun.
No! I am pleading with you to be a Catholic
man or a Catholic woman; individuals for
whom Christ was born and died; individuals
for whom and in whom Christ now lives.
You do not have to change your nature. You
do not have to change your manner of living
or your state in life; but you do have to
change your mind and your heart. You do
have to give Christ full birth in both and
allow Him full growth in both.

Perhaps you don’t believe me. Then answer
this one question honestly: Were I to walk
into your home this moment, would I be for-
cibly struck by its Christ-atmosphere? . .

.

Look around you. Would I find among the
paintings and the pictures on your walls a
Madonna, a Pieta or The Last Supper; and
that in the most conspicuous place? Would
the statues and statuettes of Venus and Diana,
Artemis and Aphrodite be dwarfed by a
beautiful bust of the Sacred Heart or a glori-

ous cast of the Immaculate Conception? How
many holy-water fonts would I find? As you
showed me your boudoir would I find above
the mirrors, the powders, paints, creams and

lotions, a gleaming Crucifix? Would every
room show me something of Christ? If not,
why not? Is it that you have been duped
as were the Bethlehemites and become more
pagan than Christian, more material than
spiritual, more taken up with the cares of the
body and the concerns of time than you are

with your soul and your Eternity? Do you
not need a change of mind?

No? Then tell me this. . . . Were I to sit
down in your parlor or your den and chat
with you, talking about the love for God and
how to manifest it, would I be speaking a
foreign language and treating a subject un-

known? Were I to take every political, social

and economic question of the day and discuss

them only from the Christ-viewpoint, weigh-

ing their worth in the balance formed by the

beams of His cross, and pricing them accord-



What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ? 15

ing to their practicality for eternity; were I

to take all world questions and thrash them
out in their relation to the Son of the Living

God; were I to take every moment that stirs
mankind and bring it to the Touchstone of
Truth, Him who is a “stumbling-block to the
Jews,” “foolishness to the Gentiles,” but the

“head of the corner” to the wise; would you

then look upon me in amazement, call me
either a mystic or a madman, and be totally
unable to uphold your end of the conversa-

tion? If so, then again I must ask you, have

you not done what the Bethlehemites did?
have you not a closed door and a crowded

inn? should you not change your mind?

Do you begin to see how intimate is God
and how large is Christ? He dominates every-
thing and permeates everyone. So much so
that you can glorify God while playing golf
and smile into the eyes of the God-Man when
looking on a beggar, if you become conscious

of your incorporation in Christ and do all

things for the glory of the Father.

Do you begin to realize that you are doing
something to Jesus Christ every minute? That

is what the doctrine of the Mystical Body
means. It is not only exhilarating, it is posi-

tively paralyzing, when we realize how near
is God. Thrilling, yes; but also quite sad-

dening for Bethlehem’s callousness is our

everyday occurrence.

When you have entered your soul and an-
swered this first question, then face the sec-

ond.

ARE YOU DOING WHAT HEROD DID?

I mean Herod the Great, that Idumean
monster who ordered the slaughter of the in-
nocents and drove Christ into exile. You
know why he did it. He wanted to hold his
position and his power.

I need not tell you that the Mystical Christ

is equally exiled in this our day, and that a
more cruel slaughter of the innocents goes on.



16 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

No. For you know something of Russian tac-
tics regarding marriage, education and the
home; you know something of Communistic
Mexico and Nazi Germany and their exile of
Christ from the school; you know a great
deal about their regimentation of youth, not

to teach them that they are members of the
Mystical Body — the truth that elevates, dig-
nifies and deifies; but to tyrannize, terrorize
and trip-hammer home the lie that they are
pawns of the State — the falsehood that de-
grades, desecrates and demoralizes. Why do
they do it? Is it not from the same motive
that moved Herod to command that “all the
men children, from two years old and under,
be killed”? Can Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini or
any other totalitarian hold his power or his
position except by the slaughter of the inno-
cents?

In our own land Herod’s work goes on,
too. Children are taught every ‘ology’ except

theology; the one subject that is fundamental.

We root out illiteracy, but not immorality;
because we teach “reading, ’riting and ’rith-
metic” but not RELIGION!

I hear that New York is looking for the
scabbard to sheathe Herod’s sword by allot-
ting one hour a week for religious training.
That is not the scabbard! That will never

sheathe the sword! That will only promote

the slaughter! For what can youth think?

It sees its legislators put chemistry, biology

and modern languages before God; the alpha-

bet and the multiplication tables before the

Ten Commandments; Caesar’s Gallic Wars
before the Gospel. What can youth think ex-
cept that morality is the last and the very

least consideration.

No, New York has not found the scabbard.
But there are millions who have found the
sword. And there are millions who wield it
ruthlessly. Herod is dead. But not his army.

At a very conservative estimate Herod has

2,100,000 swordsmen in America. 2,100,000



What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ? 17

murderers. 2,100,000 slaughterers of the in-

nocents. And oh! the meanness of the murder!
Worse than when Rachel was witness to bru-
tality unspeakable. For when Rama reech-
oed with mournings and lamentation it was
only for ‘‘the men children from two years
old and under”; but today, from border to

border and sea to sea there rises in our land

a wail that reaches to Heaven; it is the wail

of the world unborn, the male and the female

children who have been slaughtered by the
2,100,000 refined, cultured and callous mur-
derers of Twentieth Century America — the
abortionists!

Figures do not lie. The above are taken
from the Congressional Record, which states

that between seven and eight hundred thou-

sand abortions are reported annually. Now,
omitting those that are not reported, we have
to face the awful fact that in every abortion

thus reported there are at least three people

guilty of murder. There is the surgeon who
does the actual slaughtering; then the indi-

vidual who allows her womb to be made into
a tomb; and finally the male whose child is
murdered.

I know that there will be some who will
challenge those figures on the ground that

each abortion does not mean a separate sur-
geon. They are right. Thank God we have
not between seven and eight hundred thou-
sand medical murderers in our land. BUT
— it must be remembered that there is usual-
ly a nurse present; she is an accessory. And
furthermore, it must never be forgotten that
not all, nor anywhere near all, the cases are
reported. Being mindful of these facts, you
will see that the figures given above are

wrong; they are below the actuality.

Isn’t a female Herod a blood-chilling con-
cept? Think of it! One whom God has so
marvelously fashioned that she can be the

sacred sanctuary of a new life, a living tab-
ernacle for a new image of God, becoming
like the Idumean monster and ordering the



18 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

slaughter of her own innocent! Think of it!
A woman, whom God has so delicately and
so sensitively formed that she stirs all that
is gallant and good in man, transforming her-
self into something more hideous, hateful and
foul than that man of blood whom History
calls Herod. Does it not seem impossible?
Yet there are over 700,000 such transforma-

tions annually! How can they do it? How
can they deliberately make a fleshy sepulcher
out of that organ of theirs which Divinity
has fashioned to chalice His breath and to
nourish a new member of His Mystical Body?

But there is a subtler slaughter of innocents
going on; one that is more diabolical and
destructive than that commanded by Herod,
or the one carried on by the abortionists. In

this awful slaughter the principals cannot be

technically charged with murder, for they do

not directly take life. But they DO slaughter.
They slaughter their own souls, and they
slaughter the human race!

I know that the guilty parties will not be-
lieve me, and I am afraid that even you may
think that I exaggerate; so I let poor France,

the nation that collapsed, speak for me.

General Petain spoke like a soldier: pointed-

ly, bluntly, truthfully. In naming the causes

for France’s sad collapse, he gave as reason

number one — BIRTH-PREVENTION.
I call it “birth-prevention” because I have

respect for words and for facts. They call

it “birth-control”; but they have no regard

for language, life or truth. “Control” has

never been a synonym for “prevent”! and con-

traception means the prevention of concep-

tion. As London’s eminent gynecologist, Fred-

erick John McCann, M.D., has defined it,

“Contraception means the prevention of con-

ception, the prevention of the meeting of the

male fertilizing element, the spermatozoon,

with the ovum or egg of the female; in other
words, the prevention of the generation or



What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ? 19

propagation of the species, the prevention of

new life.”

So France knows that there is a finer edge
to Herod’s sword than when his strongarmed
soldiers wielded it two thousand years ago;

and America is learning that there are female

Herods more subtle, more cultured and re-
fined, and yet more barbarous, destructive
and deadly than the Idumean. American his-

tory tells of one male traitor: and he was a
failure even as a traitor. His name was Bene-
dict Arnold. But American history must tell

of many female traitors who are most suc-
cessful in their betrayal. And the name of
these female traitors is “Legion,” for they are

the minions of Satan; but we know them as
“Birth-Controllers.”

Is America being betrayed? Well, Father

Daniel A. Lord, S.J., in his latest book, Our
Lady in the Modern World, writes that Col-
lier’s, in late 1939, investigated and found

that out of one hundred American marriages,
sixty are childless; and of the remaining

forty, only ten have more than two children!
Let us bow to the patriotic “Birth-Preven-
tioners”! They are fast filling our land with
emptiness! If this keeps up, I wonder over
what (not whom) the Stars and Stripes will
float one hundred years from now. And yet,
these people claim to be civilized, cultured,

refined and patriotic! They are criminals!
They sin against the race, the country, the
individual and God!

I have called these “Birth-Preventioners”

minions of Satan. I must tell you why. When
Lucifer was created by God, he was made
Prince of this world. When he was cast into
Hell, he lost all love, but he did not lose his

power over this world. So, ever since, his
one work has been a work of hate. His one
aim is to destroy all that has come from Love
and is lovely. For two thousand years he has

concentrated on the destruction of the Mysti-

cal Body of Christ. Through his proud emis-



20 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

saries on this earth, he has concocted heresy
after heresy, as with all the skill of a very
clever surgeon he has endeavored to sever
member from member and thus bring death
to the Mystical Christ. As the years rolled
on the heresiarchs died; so, too, did their
heresies. And Satan was quite baffled. Then
from the depths of Hell, in all his angelic
cleverness, he brought the heresy that pre-

cludes the necessity of all other heresies; from
the deepest depths of Hell he has brought —
birth-prevention! It is depopulating the earth,

decimating the Church, desecrating the sanc-

tuary of marriage; and its practitioners are
hell-bound, so long as they follow the lead

of Satan.

Horrible picture, is it not? Yet true! And
the heart-crushing part of it all is that these

people are succeeding where Herod failed!
Yes, for when Herod slaughtered, Heaven
gained, and Christ was not touched; but in
today’s slaughter, earth loses, Heaven loses,
and only Hell and Limbo gain. More! Christ
is injured! For humanity ceased to be just

humanity when Mary said, “Fiat” and God
took flesh. That is why every outrage against
humanity is a crime against, divinity, the di-

vinity in us, and a mutilation of Jesus Christ.

Every user of a contraceptive directly injures

the God-Man. Abortionists and “Birth-Pre-

ventioners” are persecutors of Jesus Christ.

Contraceptionists are criminals. They have

sinned against life, love and humanity. The

cornerstone on which rests the human race
is conjugal society. Contraceptionists have

disturbed that stone and are shaking the very

structure of the world. And oh! the sin they
have committed against themselves! Let this

disorder enter and they lose all respect for

self, for society and for mankind. Let this

disorder enter and they have debased their

whole character. Their soul no longer has

the courage, the heart or the hope to live.

Their will is sick, stricken with a wound
more hideous than the pus that flows there-



What Are You Doing: to Jesus Christ? 21

from. The core of their very being is canker-
ous. And when they enter the silent recesses
of their own mind, they are filled with such
an unutterable loathing for self and for all

humankind that life is hideous.

The rarity of births horrifies the thinkers
of the nation. The ruin of health terrifies
the medical men of the land. The debase-
ment and the disintegration of the individual
character fills the soul of every sound psy-

chologist and man of morals with shudders.
But all these, terrible as they are, are nothing

compared to the injury and the outrage done

to Jesus Christ.

I cannot blight the bloom and prevent the

fruit without affecting the vine. I cannot

destroy acorns without damaging the genus,

oak. I cannot imprison the arm and prevent
its growth without crippling the body. No, of

course not. Nor can I use a contraceptive
without outraging Christ. As God He made
the body with all its organs and all their
functions; as God-Man He incorporated all
humans in Himself, so that He is the Head
and we are the myriad members. Hence the
awful actuality — every injury done a mem-
ber is an injury done the Head; every per-

version of a faculty or prevention of a func-

tion is a disfigurement to the Head; every

frustration of nature is an injustice to hu-

manity, an injury to the God who made hu-
manity great, and an outrage to Christ who
made it greater.

I have called it Herod’s sword. It is. But it
is more efficient than when it was wielded by
that worm-eaten wretch; for when he used
it, he did not touch Christ, though he meant
to; but when moderns strike with it, their
thrust is true; every time it goes home, reach-
ing, with infallible certainty, the Christ.

Just as truly as Roman soldiers smashed
nails into His hands and feet, and drove
thorns into His head; just as truly as Longi-

nus sent the spear-point crashing through His



22 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

side, and on up and into His very Heart; so
directly and truly do contraceptionists strike
Jesus Christ.

You have read of Herod’s death, have you
not? It was monstrous beyond words. Cor-
ruption set in while he was yet alive. Have
you ever pictured his judgment? What could
he say to God? Most certainly, he could not
plead ignorance. For God would say, “You
had my Chosen People. You knew their his-
tory, the promise of the patriarchs and the
prophets. And more! I sent you Wise Men
—a revelation of what had happened in Beth-
lehem. From the chief priests and Scribes of
the people you learned that Christ was bom.
Your return for such intimate favors was the
butchering of the babies.”

Can you picture the judgment of a con-
traceptionist? Can such a one plead ignor-
ance? Hardly! And God can say, “You
out-Heroded Herod. You slaughtered the in-
nocents. You wounded My Christ.”

What would justice demand?

Before judgment comes to you or to me,

it behooves us to realize and always remem-
ber that the Sixth Commandment can be
stated positively; that it actually means:

“Respect humanity.” And since “the Word
became flesh” that glorious Commandment
means: “Respect the divinity in yourself and

others.”

Yes, it is true. God made humanity great;
the God-Man made it greater. Hence, by
reverencing, respecting, holding every facul-

ty and function of your body as sacred, you

are worshiping God. Oh, Christ is near. Near-

er than your heartbeat. Look deeply into

the eyes of any man or maid and you will see
Jesus Christ. Is it not thrilling to know that
not only the souls but the very bodies of all

humans are sacred? Remember that. And
remember that every instrument to prevent

conception is nothing but a sword taken from



What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ? 23

the hand of Herod, seeking the very Body of

Jesus Christ.

IS IT WHAT THE NAZARENES DID?

Jesus had begun His public life. Miracles

had been worked in Cana and Caphamaum,
and all Galilee was astir with the reports of

the wonders worked by this Man from little
Nazareth. Then one Sabbath He went into
their synagogue and spoke to His fellow

townsmen. He held them spellbound. By
their silence and eager attention they paid

Him their tribute of admiration. But then
some of them began to rationalize. Into their
narrow, carping minds crept the reflection

that, after all, Jesus was only a villager like
themselves, a young, untaught, inexperienced

one at that. Soon the question was whispered
from mouth to mouth, “Is not this the son of
Joseph?”

Petty prejudices were closing their minds

and blinding their visions; so, despite the

testimony of their ears, despite the countless

witnesses of Cana and Capharnaum, despite
the words they had just heard from lips that
were more than human and the reports of the
works that were obviously divine, these
dwellers in a back-water, these dwarfed in-

tellects and stunted understandings were
determined on seeing Jesus only the son of

the carpenter and not the Son of God.

When He told them the truth about them-
selves, they rose up as one man, drove Him
from their synagogue, hounded Him through
their streets, pushed and pulled Him to and
fro, and hurried Him to the edge of the cliff
whence they would have hurled Him to
death. But Jesus spared them this crowning
sin. They should not be guilty of His murder.

Nazarenes still live. The whole school of
the so-called “Higher Critics” is nothing but

a school of narrow-minded, short-sighted

blear-visioned Nazarenes. Adolf Harnack
and his like are as blind as were the fellow-



24 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

citizens of Jesus Christ. They pay their
tribute to the genuineness of the Gospels, but

then squint at Jesus and say that, after all,
He is only like themselves — a mere man!
Like the Nazarenes, despite the sublimity of

His doctrine and the supernaturalness of His

works, despite a life that was flawless and
a death that was divine, despite thirty-three
years of a wondrous Physical life and twenty

centuries of a still more wondrous Mystical
life, these thin minds ask, “Is not this the

son of Joseph?”

That question has come down the ages.
Minds as small as those of tiny Nazareth still
manifest their intellectual blindness by ask-
ing, “Is not this the son of Joseph?” From
provincials with their ignorances and their

prejudiced modes of thought we expect and
pardon certain stupidities; but when individ-
uals who pose as enlightened, learned, open-
minded, will assume professors’ chairs and

doctors’ degrees and yet prove themselves as

ignorant, arrogant, stolid and stupid as the

provincials of little Nazareth, we grieve for
modem progress and the effects of higher (?)
education.

Is it not sad to learn that lecturers in many
of our state universities are mere echoes of

Nazareth’s dolts and dullards? Is it not pain-

ful to be assured that prejudice can be so

impervious to acid that two thousand years

of persistent applications have not eaten

through the one generated by a handful of
knownothings who resented a fellow-towns-
man’s ability? Is it not heartbreaking to

realize that the people of America are sub-

sidizing halls of higher learning in which is

daily taught that which stamped the Naza-

renes of A. D. 30 as utterly unintelligent and

completely lacking in perception? From the
State University of Maine to that of Southern

California and from that of Washington to

that of Florida modern Nazarenes, with more
flippancy than their ancestors, ask, “Is not

this, the son of Joseph?”



What Are You Doing: to Jesus Christ? 25

Were you to tell these learned doctors that,
not only is Jesus God, but that He elevated
all men to the possibility of becoming sons of
God; were you to tell them that every one

who sits in at their lectures can be an actual
member of the Mystical Body of the Son of
God; were you to tell them that humanity,

because of the “son of Joseph” has been div-

inized, they would put on their deepest doc-

toral frown, look their heaviest professorial

look, and say what the learned fools of Ath-

ens said to Paul, “We will hear thee again
concerning this matter.” Which of course, is
a polite dismissal of a subject that is beyond

their grasp.

Oh, the modern Nazarenes are purblind.
They not only look on the Son of God as only
the son of Joseph, but they tell and assidu-

ously teach the adopted sons of God that
they are nothing but evolutions from the ape!

Oh, it is maddening, this learned ignorance of

the modern Nazarenes.

Yes, they are rightly called Nazarenes; for

they would hurry Christ out of the school,
hound Him from the churches, pluck Him
from the hearts and minds of men and hurl
Him to death from the towering precipice of
their “Higher Criticism” and their mountain-

ous intellectual pride. They are worse than
the Nazarenes of old; for the fellow towns-

men of Christ failed to kill Him, but not so
the modern Nazarenes. They have actually
killed Christ in the minds of many a man and
many a woman by the books they have writ-
ten, the lectures they have given and the lives
they have led.

Then there is another set of modern Naz-
arenes who are positively farcical, but also
tremendously sad. I refer to those Protestant

divines who claim to be Christian clergymen
and yet deny the divinity of Christ. Shake-
speare would most certainly have asked of
them, “What’s in a name?” — “Divines” who
deny divinity; “Christians” who deny Christ!
Is it not farcical? Oh, they admit that He



26 What Are You Doing: to Jesus Christ?

was the paragon of mankind, the holiest man
who ever lived, the sublimest teacher of pur-
est morality, but only a man. Are not such
antics the perfect aping of those narrow-
browed, squinting Nazarenes who after lis-
tening to God asked, “Is not this the son of
Joseph?”

Yes, it is farcical, but it is also tremendous-
ly sad; for these men have succeeded where
the Nazarenes failed. They have hurled Christ
from the cliff! That is why Protestantism,
as a religion, is only a corpse.

And what of yourself? When you fail to
puzzle out the why of things; when you can-
not solve the problem of evil; when the mys-
teries of our Faith remain mysteries; do you
not ask, “Is not this the son of Joseph?”

You know the Nazarenes wanted the won-
ders of Caphamaum worked in their own
sight. “Seeing is believing” was their cry.
But seeing is not believing; it is knowing.
And the ninth beatitude, spoken to the doubt-
ing Thomas, is not for the seers but for the

believers. Christ did not accede to their

wishes. He told them that “no prophet is ac-
cepted in his own country,” meaning, “even
if you saw, you would not believe.” He knew
their minds and their hearts. He saw how
fixed was the one idea, the carping, critical
idea; “this is the son of the carpenter.” He
knew how all words and works would be
wasted; for a prejudiced mind is a Gibraltar,
impregnable to all truth. He knew that the
most irrational being in all the world is the

narrow mind that prides itself on being ra-

tional. He told them the truth about them-
selves, and they resented it.

Are you not very similar? Do you not often
want the wonders of Christ’s Physical life?

Do you not often try to rationalize the utter-
ly irrationable and the completely mysteri-

ous? Do you not try to materialize the ab-
solutely spiritual? Do you not sometimes
resent the ways of God in your regard? When



What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ? 27

your petitions are not granted, do you not rebel?

Are you not a Nazarene as far as the Mys-
tical Body of Christ is concerned? What do
you see in your neighbor? — The “son of a
carpenter”? Do you ever see more than hu-
manity in the figure of a woman or the stat-
ure of a man? Do you look for and find the
image of God in every son of Adam and in
every daughter of Eve? Do you recognize at
least a potential member of Christ in every
person you pass? If not, you are a Nazarene.

Your mind is narrow, your vision short, your
soul prejudiced.

Again I say God is near. Jesus was the
son of Mary and the foster-son of Nazareth’s
carpenter; but He is also the Son of God. If
the Nazarenes had opened their eyes, they

would have seen it. As you look at your
neighbor, open your eyes. You will see the
son of a carpenter and the daughter of a ma-
son, but you will also see the Mystical Christ.

On the brow of the hill whence the Naza-
renes of old would have hurled Jesus to
death, there stands today the “Chapel of Mary
Weeping.” In it the Son of the Carpenter is
adored and His Mother Mary honored. We
can only pray that on the brow of every in-
tellectual hill, whence modern Nazarenes
would hurl Jesus to death, there will soon
arise a place of worship for the “Son of Joseph”

and a place of honor for Nazareth’s Maid.

If you have been a Nazarene to the Mysti-

cal Christ, seeing in man only humanity,
build into your being this day a chapel where
you can worship the Divinity in humanity

and console the Mystical Mother of our Mys-
tical Christ who weeps over the narrow
minds of modern Nazarenes.

IS IT WHAT THE SCRIBES AND
PHARISEES DID?

The Physical Jesus had one implacable
enemy as long as He lived. It was that set
of religiously righteous individuals known to



28 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

history as the Scribes and the Pharisees. The
Scribes were the Doctors of the Law; the
Pharisees, the Puritans of the Law. Nearly
all the Scribes were Pharisees, and many of
the Pharisees were Scribes. They were the
educated class, those learned in the Law, the
recognized teachers and interpreters of Mosa-
ism. Steeped in self-conceit, proud, arrogant,

domineeering, disdainful of the lower classes,

they lived their lives of ritual and literal rec-
titude, and allowed their hearts to petrify,
their souls to solidify, and their consciences
to atrophy.

Jesus was not the Man they longed for.
They wanted a Messias, it is true; but they
wanted Him to be another David, Samson or
Judas Machabeus. They wanted someone who
would shake off the hated Homan domination
and roll it into the sea. They wanted a Man
who would be like themselves, a stickler for
the minutiae of the Law, a formalist, a real
rigorist for the thousand and one prescrip-

tions of Leviticus. When Jesus did not meas-
ure up to their standards, when He did not
do all that they wanted Him to do, when He
scouted their religious righteousness and

pierced their sham, they hounded Him to
death.

Jesus is not the Man for many a modern!
They like not His thorn-crowned head, His
pierced hands and feet, the infamy and shame

of His Cross. They want a Redeemer, yes;

but they do not like Him to be the Man of
Sorrows. They want to be saved; but they

like not the price of salvation. They thrill

to the Resurrection; but they shy at the way
to it. They like not the Blood on Gethsemani’s

grass, the spittle of the dungeon, the crim-

son-splashed pillar in the atrium; they like

not that staggering, stumbling route to the

Hill of Skulls; they like not one second of

Good Friday’s three long hours. They want

some other way to Easter’s glory than
through the gloom of Golgotha. And because
there is no other way, the Mystical Christ



What Are You Doing: to Jesus Christ? 29

has and will ever have one implacable enemy.

The Physical Jesus recognized His enemies
and, from beginning to end, did all in His
power to make them see; but they would not.
No, they would not! When the Child was
bom at Bethlehem, they knew; but they
would not ... it might have compromised
them with Herod. When He stood by the
Jordan and called to them, they would not
... it might have lowered them in the eyes
of the people. When He came to them in the
Temple at Jerusalem, they would not . .

.

malice had set in. When they came to Him
in Galilee, they would not . . . miracles meant
nothing to them.

From the very beginning they set them-
selves in determined opposition. In Judea

they challenged His claim to set Himself up
as teacher; in Jerusalem and Galilee they

blamed Him because He broke the Sabbath
law; in Capharnaum they were shocked to
hear Him forgive sins, associate with publi-
cans and sinners and even with a woman of
the streets; finally they became incensed be-
cause His disciples did not wash before they
ate. They were there at His triumphal entry
to chide Him for what His followers were
saying; they were there to the very end

taunting Him and defying Him to come down
from His Cross. Jesus could do nothing to

satisfy them. In no way did He measure up
to their idea of what a Messias should be.

Pharisees did not all die with the destruc-

tion of Jerusalem. No. They live today! And
they are doing to the Mystical Christ what

their forerunners did to the Physical Christ,

they are hounding Him to death. The Mys-
tical Christ is not to their liking. Many of
His members are like the Apostles and the
early disciples — plain, untutored, simple
souls who neither know nor observe all the
niceties. The Mystical Jesus, made up of all
peoples of all climes and classes, shocks them.

He is too learned and too ignorant; too cul-
tured and too crude; too refined and too bar-



30 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

barous. But apart from all paradoxes, what
especially outrages their sensitivities is the

fact that the Mystical Jesus is too poor and
too plebeian!

Oh, God has done all in His power to make
these people see. But they will not! No.
They will not. Despite the chastity and the
charity that is the marvel of all mankind, a
chastity and a charity that could only be in-
spired by Almighty God and maintained by
His grace, they will not. . . . The chastity they
attribute to misanthropy, and the charity to
sheer philanthropy. Despite the heroic love

and voluntary self-annihilation generated by
the Crib and the Cross, they will not. . .

.

The Crib and its consequence of generous
love, they assign to mythology; the heroic

suffering undergone for the sake of the Cross,

they attribute to melancholy. Despite the

tens of thousands of nuns who incarnate pur-
ity, humility and meekness, they will not.

Despite the thirty thousand priests who strive
to be the embodiment of godly generosity,
all-embracing solicitude and utter self-forget-

fulness, they will not. Despite the four hun-

dred millions who are the Mystical Christ,
they will not Moral miracles mean noth-
ing to them. Superhuman daring and doing
cannot displace the malice that is in their

minds. They simply will not.

Ah, but these are not the worst enemies of

the Mystical Christ. No. It is the Scribes

and Pharisees in His own Body who do the
greatest damage. The Catholic Pharisees who
keep the letter but not the Law; who go to
church on Sunday and appear very pious, but

who are pagan the rest of the week; who
have the name of Christian, but none of the
Christian’s nature; whose religious life is

completely and absolutely divorced from their

business, social and domestic lives; who wor-
ship God in the Mass but never in the masses;
who see Christ in the tabernacle but never
in their neighbor next door; who know the



What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ? 31

Ten Commandments but nothing of the Coun-
sels, the Beatitudes or the Works of Mercy.

It was the Scribes and Pharisees who put
the Physical Jesus to death. It is the Cath-

olic Scribes and Pharisees who are putting
the Mystical Jesus to death. Yes, putting

Him to death; for let me tell you that there
is one irrefutable argument against which an
apostle is powerless. It is the argument of
“the Catholics I have known.” People will
acknowledge the logic of the Catholic claim,

they will listen attentively to an explanation
of her dogma and be ready to accept her
Creed, when they will remember some “Cath-
olic that I have known.” Logically, of course,
such people are wrong. But psychologically

they are most right! Practice should follow

principle as the night the setting of the sun.

Those who are Catholic on Sunday should be
Catholic on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
and the rest of the week. Those who bow be-
fore Christ in the Eucharist should radiate

Christ in the office, the home, the shop or the

store. Those who parade themselves as mem-
bers of Christ to the parish, should not show
themselves as pagans to the rest of the world.

Ninety-nine out of every hundred people are

influenced more by the “Catholics they have
known” than they are by the Physical Christ,
and that is why the Mystical Christ is dying.

Priest, nun and Brother can expound, ex-
plain and endeavor to inculcate the purity

that is Christ in all who come on the campus;
but the Mystical Body of Christ suffers, and
in some members dies, when the Catholic
young men and women go off the campus and
are not pure in thought, word and action.
That is the work of the Scribe and Pharisee!

We teach Temperance. It is a cardinal
virtue. But when a Catholic man or woman
indulges to excess, the world that was blind
to them before suddenly opens its eyes, sees
them and recognizes them as Catholic college
students — and the work of the Scribes and
Pharisees is done.



32 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

A pagan may mulct a city and create very
little stir, but let a Catholic policeman take

the smallest bribe, and we have a sacrilege,
a sensation and a scandal.

That is the way the world wags. You know
it better than I. Actually, it is a tribute to
Catholicity, for it is a recognition of the Mys-
tical Christ. But it should sober and startle
many of you, for it shows you your divine
responsibility. God has entrusted you with
the marvelous mission of making Him known,
and loved, and served. God has given you
the apostolate of building up His Mystical
Body. Omnipotence has placed in your little
hands — Himself!
You are your Brother’s keeper, whether

you like it or not. You were made such by
your Baptism. You are the keeper of your
Elder Brother, Jesus Christ. Your life’s work
is to take care of Him in every man, woman
and child that crosses your path. Your duty
is to see that He grows. Life has no other
meaning. You must see that He grows in
yourself, first, then in all others. You must
feed Him, clothe Him, house Him, teach Him,

admonish Him, instruct Him; you must visit
Him in hospital and prison, and pray for Him
living and dead. You have a twenty-four-
hour-a-day employment with no time off.

You have the glorious work of making men
like unto God! You have the immediate task
of saving every other apostle the embarrass-

ment of listening to that irrefutable argument

contained in the words, “the Catholics that I

have known.”

Again we are back at the power of example
and the necessity for the works of mercy.

Again we tell you an astounding truth and a
frightful corollary. You, who are to bring
Christ to birth in every one you know, can

instead do the work of Scribe and Pharisee
and lead Him to death if you do not live
your Catholicity.

Nominal Catholicity will never save your



What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ? 33

soul. You must be a practical and a prac-
ticing Catholic. That means Christ-conscious-
ness seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a
year, until death. You must be a totalitarian
Christian, else you fall under the eight dread-
ful “woes” that Jesus pronounced against
Scribe and Pharisee.

“Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees!
Hypocrites

!”

And were they not? They obeyed the
minutiae of the law, but not the Law. They
paid the tithe of mint and anise and cummin,

but had no faith, justice or mercy. They
washed the outside of the cup well. They
washed their hands again and again. But
never did they wash their souls. It is so
much easier to wash a cup or a body than
it is to wash your soul. For the first, a little
water and a towel; for the second, tears of

repentant love and the fire of real resolve.

The modern Pharisees know much more
than their predecessors about washing the

body and much less about washing the soul.
The moderns will use dainty dentifrice, per-
fumed mouthwash, and antiseptic throat
spray, then from this scrupulously cleaned
organ, pour forth — filth! They will bathe
and shower daily, using scented soaps and
aromatic bathsalts, fragrant lotion and sweet-

smelling powders, but will leave the mind a
sink of loathsome thoughts and the heart a

sewer of noisome desires. The outside of
their cup is cleaned, immaculately cleaned.

But it is only the outside!

When will the modern Pharisee wake up?
When will he realize that the cult of the
body does not make a man or woman clean
in soul? Never! It is not soap and water
that is needed; it is Confession and Commun-
ion! When will he realize that antiseptics
and prophylactics will never keep a person

spiritually clean? No, never! Only the Blood
of Christ will do that. Remember, it is the
mind unsullied and the heart undefiled that



34 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

make a man a man, and a woman the majes-
tic person she should be. It is Christ-con-

sciousness, and Christ-consciousness alone,
that awareness of Incarnate Purity in our-

selves and in others, that will keep us from
becoming a “brood of vipers” and “whited
sepulchers,” worthy of the “woes” that the

gentlest of men had to thunder against those
who were fair without but foul within — the
Scribes and the Pharisees.

Religion has many external forms, it is
true; for man is partly animal. But external
forms are not religion. “The kingdom of
God is within you.” And this neither the
ancient nor the modern Pharisees admit. That
is why the Physical Christ died. That is
why the Mystical Christ is not growing. The
mind must be steeped in Christ, the heart
immersed in His Sacred Heart, and the whole

being plunged into His immensity; then when
we are permeated with His spirit, shot
through and through with His characteristics,

we will look out on life and all things in life
with His eyes, and love them with His love.

St. Paul's command, “Put ye on Christ,”
was not spoken to religious alone; those
whom most people look upon as the only pro-
fessional, totalitarian Christians. No. Paul

was talking to you! He was talking to every-
one who lives, but especially to all who have
been baptized. And let me tell you that Christ
cannot be assumed from without. He must be
put on from within. He grows in the soul.

The ancient Scribes and Pharisees refused

Him place in their minds, hearts and souls.
Are you doing the same? Does Catholicity

for you consist rather in taking than in giv-

ing? in the letter of justice than in its spirit?

in the Law and not in the Love of Christ?

To answer any of these questions honestly,

answer this: What think you of the Mystical
Christ, your neighbor?



What Are You 'Doing to Jesus Christ? 35

ARE YOU DOING WHAT THE
CROWDS DID?

My heart breaks when I think of what the
crowds did to the Physical Jesus.

Crowds are always fickle. In them there is
no depth of thought, no soundness of reason,

no balance of judgment. They are weather-
vanes twisted and turned by every wind that
blows; bats blinded by every rising sun;

moths lured by every flame that leaps. And
yet they wound deeply by their very shal-
lowness.

Jesus had worked especially hard for the
crowd at Capharnaum. Miracles were literal-

ly multiplied in their midst. It was here that
the son of the ruler was miraculously cured;
the mother-in-law of Peter given back her

health; and the woman with the bloody flux
saved by the touch of the hem of His gar-
ment. It was here that demoniac after de-
moniac was delivered of his possession. It
was here that the Centurion’s servant was
healed after the Centurion’s grand act of

faith. No crowd in all the land saw so much
as did the crowd of Capharnaum. They were
there when He multiplied the loaves and the
fishes. They called Him “prophet” and wanted
to make Him king. But when He put their
faith to the test, they failed Him. When
He promised them the Eucharist, they turned
their backs on Him and walked away!

“This is a hard saying,” they said, “and
who shall hear it?” Yes, it was a hard say-
ing; but what of the hard seeing? Had they
not seen wonder piled on wonder? Had they
not seen works such as no man had done and
no man could do? Had they not seen five
barley loaves after His blessing and breaking

feed five thousand men, not counting the

women and the children? Had they not seen
devils obey His word and diseases yield to
His touch? Had not blindness and deafness
and dumbness fled before His power? Had
He not raised Jairus’s daughter from the



36 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

dead? What more could they ask? They
had seen lepers given back the ruddy flush
of health and paralytics the use of their
limbs. They had seen every imaginable
wonder and wonders that were unimaginable;
and yet they failed Him.

Undoubtedly it was a hard saying, but after
all this hard seeing failure seemed impossi-
ble. But fail they did! They would eat the
barley loaves that came into being at the
touch of His hand, but when He said, “I am
the Bread of Life,” they faltered. When He
went on and said, “And the bread that I will
give is my flesh for the life of the world,”
they walked away.

My heart breaks for the Physical Christ.
Crowds failed Him. My heart breaks wider
for the Mystical Christ; for crowds find His

saying hard and will not hear it. Despite

twenty centuries of hard seeing; despite two

thousand years of life coming back from

death, health from sickness, sight from blind-

ness, sound from silence and music from

muteness; despite physical miracles unnum-
bered and moral miracles uncounted, they

still shrug their shoulders, shake their heads

and walk away.

Christ says, “No divorce.” They walk

away. Christ says, “No birth-prevention.”

They walk away. Christ says, “Be pure, be

just, be merciful.” They walk away. Christ

says, “Keep the Ten Commandments, the Six

Precepts.” They walk away. They do it to-

day, and they have done it down the cen-
turies. Germany, with its Luther, walked

away; as did England with its Henry VIII.

France again and again has found His saying

hard, and walked away. But the sorriest of

all sorry sights is to see the masses of the

world today walking away.

Why did the crowd at Capharnaum walk
away? — Lack of faith! The grandest offer
of love that even He, the God-Man, could

devise was rejected because puny little man



What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ? 37

with his tiny little intellect could not fully

understand. The reason is the same today.
No faith! Puny little man with his very thin
little intellect, cannot fully understand, so he

walks away.

The saying was hard then; it is hard today.
But the work of man then is the work of
man today; namely, to discover beneath hu-
man flesh — God! The crowd of old looked
at the Physical Jesus and saw only man; the
crowd today looks at the Mystical Jesus and

sees only flesh!

When your pastor or his assistant speaks to
you officially, do you hear only a man? When
your Bishop gives out an ordinance, do you
accept it as from only a man? When the
Pope writes an encyclical, do you read a
letter from only a man?

Have you ever once tried to look deeper
than the skin, not only of hierarchy and reli-

gious, not only of the actual members of
Christ’s true Church, but the skin of infidel,

pagan and atheist, and find in each the mirac-

ulous chrysalis of a potential Christ? Have
you ever tried to discern the Carpenter’s Son
and the Son of God in every day-laborer,
street-pedlar and ordinary beggar? Have you
ever honestly endeavored to acquire the pen-

etrating vision that can see through appear-

ances and reach reality? Have you found the
divinity in every one who has human flesh?

You must! else you are doing what the
crowd at Capharnaum did. You are walking
away.

I know that the saying is hard. But look
who says it. Infinite Truth. He who can-
not deceive has said, “As long as you did it

to these, the least of my brethren, you did it
unto me.”

Monsignor Fulton Sheen, who, by the way,
has written an excellent book on The Mys-
tical Body, on one occasion said, “The next

time a beggar asks for bread and you re-

spond with a bitter word and a closed door,



38 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

enter your heart and ask, ‘What if that man
be the Christ?’ ” I know what the Monsignor
meant; and I am sure that he will know what
I mean, and I hope that by this time you will
understand me when I say, it is no longer a
question of possibility, it is a fact. That man
is the Christ! For that man, either actually or
potentially, is a member of the Mystical
Body; and of that Body Christ is the Head.

Remember that as long as an individual
breathes, God is in Him, for God is life. Re-
member that as long as a heart beats, God is
behind it, for He alone can give the heart its
rhythm. Remember that as long as you see
light in human eyes, you see God, for He
is the Light. Yes, it is all true! As long
as blood courses through veins, it is the crim-

son Blood of the Mystical Christ either actual

or potential. Hence, when you have no rev-
erence for man, you have no reverence for

God; when you slight a human being, you
are slighting Divinity; when you walk away
from a fellow-creature, you are walking

away from Christ.

The doctrine is not mine; nor St. Paul’s,
nor St. John’s. The doctrine is Jesus Christ’s.
He spoke it plainly and with mighty empha-
sis. He used repetition after repetition to drive
home the oneness of the Christ, the Chris-
tian and God the Father. With fierce solem-
nity He said, “He that receiveth you, receiv-
eth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth

him that sent me. He that heareth you, hear-
eth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth

me. And he that despiseth me, despiseth him
that sent me.”

The words were addressed to His disciples,
it is true, just before they set out on a mis-

sion; but every Christian is a disciple of

Christ; every man living has a mission; every
human soul is another savior; for every one
who is baptized is a son of God. That is God’s
wondrous intimacy and your terrific respon-

sibility. You cannot give an insulting answer



What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ? 39

to a tramp without insulting the Man who
tramped Judean hills; you cannot refuse a
beggar without refusing the Divine Beggar

who was born for us; you do injury to no
man without doing injury to the God-Man
who died for us.

Yes, it is a hard saying, but woe to the ones
who will not hear it! “And the bread that
I will give is my flesh for the life of the
world.” -— For the life of the world! — Do
you see why we are surrounded by the dy-
ing and the dead? They have found His
saying hard. They have walked away. They
will not take His flesh. And that is why the
world is dying!

Now, Christ spoke those words directly of
the Eucharist. He was promising His real
presence beneath a wafer of wheat. But who
will say that He was not also speaking of
His Mystical Presence? who will say that
He did not also mean His presence beneath
the folds of flesh? Is not that, too, the life

of the world? If Japan could see in China

another self, another member of the one same
Body; if Germany could see in France and
England branches of the one same Vine; if
Capital could see in Labor the Image of God,

and the proletariat recognize in the bourgeoi-

sie Jesus Christ, would we not be living in-
stead of dying, enjoying love in place of hate,

be at peace instead of at murderous war? Is

not this His flesh for the life of the world?

Of course it is. And if we would live, we
must listen, and no longer walk away.

You know that the Physical Jesus all but
bribed the crowd at Capharnaum to accept
His word. He dazzled them with wonders,
almost blinded them with miracles, and when
He had clearly shown that He was more than
man, He fired their imaginations with breath-
taking promises. “He that cometh to me,”
He said, “shall not hunger. He that believeth
in me shall never thirst. He that eateth my
flesh and drinketh my blood hath life ever-



40 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

lasting.” What more could He offer? What
else would entice? — Everlasting life with-
out hunger or thirst! — Was it not enough
to give them the will to believe? But they
would not.

He makes the same promises today. To
those who believe and live the doctrine of
the Mystical Body, everlasting life is assured.

To those who serve Christ in the person of
their fellow-man, to those who work the
works of mercy, Heaven is guaranteed. Is it
not enough to give one the will to believe? In

His description of the Last Judgment when
the elect asked why they were saved and
when had they done anything to Him,
Christ made answer, “As long as you did
it to these, the least of my brethren, you did
it unto me.”

That is the text that thrills and terrifies.

It makes Heaven so easily accessible and Hell
so very near. What we do to our neighbor
we do to Christ! Do you see now why I ask:
What are you doing to Jesus Christ?

This doctrine of the Mystical Body spells
our exaltation or our ruination. If we ac-
cept it and live it, we shall hear: “Come, ye
blessed of my Father ” But if we do what
the crowd at Capharnaum did, we can expect
only what He promised them:

“And thou, Capharnaum, which art exalted
unto heaven, thou shalt be thrust down to
hell.” He gave His reason by saying, “For
if the mighty works had been done in Sodom,

that have been done in thee, perhaps it would

have remained until this day. But I say

unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for
the land of Sodom, in the day of Judgment,

than for thee.”

Are you doing to Christ what the crowds
did? Are you turning your back on Him and
walking away?



What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ? 41

CAN IT BE THIS?

I must stop. I become affrighted. I had
planned to ask you many more pertinent,
personal, parallel questions, the answers to

which I already know too heart-sickeningly
well. I had planned to trip-hammer home
the realization of what you are doing to our
poor, abandoned, outraged Christ as you find

Him in the flesh of humanity. But my spirit
fails as my vision clears.
Why ask you if you are doing what the

ten lepers did when I know full well that
not one in ten people ever thank God for life
and love and health and happiness, for friend-

ship in the eyes of man, worship in the eyes

of woman and heaven in the eyes of child?
Why ask you if you are doing what the lepers
did, the ungrateful lepers, they who forgot
who made them clean, when I know that not
ten percent of healthy men ever thank God
for the power to stand, that not ten percent
of living women ever thank Him for the
steady heartbeat that is their own or for the
rhythmic pulse that is their child’s? Why
ask you if you are treating Christ as did the
lepers, when I know that not one-half of one
percent know how to say “Thank You” to
God for God! for Christ! for Mary! for the
Sacraments! for the Mystical Body! Why
parallel you with the lepers when a more
fearful parallel looms?

I was going to ask you if you were a mod-
ern Gerasene, one of those people who ask
Christ to depart from their coasts, who pre-
fer swine to the Lamb of God, who are seized
with a great fear when profit in pork goes
headlong into the sea, and equivalently tell
Christ that they would rather have men pos-
sessed with devils and pigs grazing along

their shores than to have the Master of men,

the Conqueror of Satan and the God of the
universe in their midst. But why ask you
that when our whole world is filled with
modern Gerasenes? Why ask you if you are



42 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

asking Christ to depart from your coasts
when something more awful appears?

I was going to ask and develop these ques-
tions, but it was here exactly that my breath
grew shorter and my pulse beat faster as
realization after realization beat in on me.
I realized that Christ acceded to the wish of

the Gerasenes and left their coasts. I realized
that Christ practically cursed the Caphar-

naum that walked away. I realized that Co-
rozain and Bethsaida, because of their in-

credulity, heard woes pronounced against
them that make even strong men blanch. I
realized that after their refusals to accept

Him little Nazareth was left utterly and ab-
solutely alone. With an awful ache in my
heart I realized that He never went back to
the town of the crowded inns and closed
doors. And with a catch in my breath I real-
ized that the Jerusalem that rejected Him
was razed to the ground and the Chosen
People made the world’s wanderers.

So I stop. Why ask any more questions
when this tremendous one is written large:
Can it be that we, His Chosen People of the
Twentieth Century, are going to do what
His Chosen Ones of the First Century did?

Can it be that St. John’s heartbreaking line
is to be lived again? Can it be that of the
Mystical Christ, as well as of the Physical

Christ, some evangelist must write: “He came

unto His own, and His own received him
not”?

No wonder I become affrighted. Christ is
before Pilate again. And as of old, a few
hating high priests, a handful of snarling

Scribes and Pharisees are herding the people

into deicide. I can hear the murmur and al-
most the cries. The Mystical Christ is placed

beside a Barabbas. Christ stands close to

Communism. The Savior of men and man’s
murderer are put up for choice, and from

Europe, Asia, Africa and the land “down

under” I hear the cry, “Give unto us Barab-



What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ? 43

bas!” Every wind that blows carries the
blood-freezing echoes, “Give unto us Barab-

bas!” Will it again be written, “And their
voices prevailed”?

Do you see the frightful parallel? It was
a weak man in a powerful office who deliver-
ed Christ to be crucified. Pilate pronounced

the sentence, but it was the howling mob who
forced him. And who was behind that mob?
— Caiphas and a few associates. . . . The mob
is howling again today. A bloodthirsty, hat-
ing, howling mob of atheistic communists
(and when I say communists, I include black
shirts, red shirts and brown shirts; I include
every shade and every color of those who
madly shout, “We have no king but Caesar!”
— the totalitarian state!) — this mob is
shouting and it will sway any weak-kneed
man in a powerful office. But the thing for
the thinker and the man of vision to learn is,
who is behind the mob? Who is the modern
Caiphas? Can it be Satan? Can it be the
Antichrist has risen in the person of atheistic

communism? Our late Holy Father, Pius XI,
thought so.

Can it be that modern man, despite the
Roman Catholic Church, that miracle of the
Twentieth Century, and of twenty centuries,

is digging the hole on Calvary’s hill for the

Cross of the Mystical Christ? Can it be that
Jesus is to be abandoned and Barabbas em-
braced?

Yes, there is only one question. It is not:

Communism or Christ? for there is no choice!
It is: Are you with Christ or against Him?
That is the one question alone that classifies

men. What they think of art or science or
literature matters little; it does not reveal

men. The searching test of the mind and the
heart, the one infallible acid test, is the simple
question: What think ye of Christ? And
lest that sound like a mere speculative query,
I have put it in the practical by asking,

What are you doing to Jesus Christ?



44 What Are You Doing: to Jesus Christ?

To answer it honestly, look at the Ten
Commandments, the Six Precepts and the
Three Counsels; look at the confessional, the
Mass and the altar rail; look at the Seven
Capital Sins, the Seven Corporal Works of
Mercy and the Seven Spiritual ones; but most
especially, look at your neighbor. If you be-
lieve in Jesus Christ, if with Peter you say,
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God,” then you must believe that every man
you meet is a breath of God, every woman
you see is an expression of Divinity, every
baptized child is a temple of the Holy Ghost.
If you believe in Jesus Christ, then you must
believe that white man, red man, black man,
yellow man, brown man, every man is your
brother, is a being for whom your Elder
Brother lived and died, is a member of your
own body, actually or potentially. If you be-
lieve in Jesus Christ, then you must believe
that Heaven is to be gained by radiating
Christ at all times, in all places, with all

peoples; and it is said of Him that “He went
about doing good.” If you believe in Jesus

Christ, then a walk in a crowded city street
becomes a pilgrimage of adoration; for in

every passer-by you recognize the Almighty.

Every meeting with a fellow-human is a

rendezvous with your Lover. If you really

believe in Jesus Christ, then your life must

be what Emile Mersch, S.J., equivalently says
life should be — one continual act of loving
adoration, one uninterrupted caring for the

Body of Christ. In his truly masterful book,
Morality and the Mystical Body, Fr. Mersch

proves that life is one “indestructible rela-

tion to God.” That is why St. Paul can say,
“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or

whatsoever else you do, do all for the glory

of God.” That is why I can say, as long as
you live, move and have being, you are do-
ing something to Jesus Christ — what is it?
Remember, those who rejected Him were

rejected.



What Are You Doing: to Jesus Christ? 45

I started this little work because my heart
was aching for Jesus Christ. I . stop it be-

cause my heart is breaking for you. Equiva-
lently I am saying the same thing. But there
is this one tremendous difference — branches
can be cut off and burned; branches can be

broken and wither away; branches can be

torn off and left to die, while the vine still

goes on. Christ said, “I am the Vine, you the
branches.” Are you firmly attached to Jesus

Christ? If not, how do you expect to live?

BE WISE

My parting word is: Be wise. “Whether
you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do,

do ALL for the glory of God.”
You know the man who wrote that line is

the man who so forcefully preached the
solidarity of mankind, the incorporation of

men in Christ Jesus; he is the man from
whom we have received the proof incontro-
vertible of the identity of Jesus with His

Christians, for it was Saul, the fiery perse-
cutor of the Christians, who heard a voice
saying, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me?” And when Saul asked, “Who art thou,
Lord?” the answer came back, “I am Jesus
Christ whom thou persecutest.” Saul was per-
secuting the Christians.

If that is not strikingly clear, then let me
parallel the two questions of Christ: the one
to the soldier who smashed a brutal fist into
His face at that travesty of a trail before

Annas, and the question He put to Saul. Of
the soldier He asked, “Why strikest thou
me?” Of Saul, “Why persecutest thou me?”
The soldier struck the Physical Body; Saul,
the Mystical Body. They both struck Jesus
Christ.

Hence, to answer my opening query, “What
are you doing to Jesus Christ?” enter your
soul and see what you are doing to your fel-
low-man; for “whatsoever you do to these,
the least of my brethren, you do it unto me.”



46 What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ?

Be wise. Remember that, while the Physi-
cal Jesus lived He had a few friends, a few
followers, a few homes He could visit. The
Mystical Christ has the same. Are you a
friend and a very close follower? Is your

home one that He can visit? If not, what
are you doing to Jesus Christ?

Do be very wise and allow me to point your
wisdom by closing this booklet with two
quotations from Hilaire Belloc. They are
quotations I want you to ponder.

1. “Religion is at the root of all political

movements.
,, Communism, Fascism, Nazi-

ism are religions. Anti-Christian religions.

They are hounding the Mystical Christ xo
death.

2. “Cultures spring from religions.” Ours

is a pagan culture, because it has sprung

from those who walked away from Christ.
And the modern men and women of culture
are walking still farther away.

Be very, very wise. Life is a wind, and
when the silence of death comes, you shall
hear:

What did you do to Jesus Christ?

Love Him. Love Him NOW. Tomorrow
may be too late. Love Him, for He is the
only one worthy of all your love. Love Him
in the men, women and children all around
you; for them He lived and died; in them He
lives again. Love Jesus Christ in His Mysti-
cal Body, and I promise you Heaven. Could

you ask for more?

And to be hard-headedly practical, let me
say that love demands an embrace, it yearns
for intimate union, it craves close presence.

Hence, if your love for the Mystical Christ

would be real love, you must take advantage

of the Real Presence of the Physical Christ,

you must effect the most intimate of unions

by Holy Communion, you must enjoy the

closest embrace that love can find, that of



What Are You Doing to Jesus Christ? 47

body with Body and soul with Soul. You
must live St. Ignatius’ prayer:

Soul of Christ, be my sanctification.

Body of Christ, be my salvation.
Blood of Christ, fill all my veins.

Water from Christ’s side, wash out my

stains.

Passion of Christ, my comfort be.
O Good Jesus, listen to me.

Within Thy wounds I fain would hide,

Ne’er to be parted from Thy side;

Guard me should the foe assail me,

Call me when my life shall fail me;
Bid me come to Thee above,

With Thy saints to sing Thy love,

World without end. Amen.

Somewhere in this booklet I quoted what
I consider the saddest line in all literature.

It is taken from St. John. It runs, “He came
unto His own, and His own received Him
not.” Let me put an end to this little work
with what I claim is the most encouraging
line in all literature. It comes from the
same pen. He wrote, “But as many as re-
ceived Him, He gave them the power to be
made the sons of God.” That is the only
power worth our striving. That is the only
position worth gaining and maintaining. So,

receive Him. Receive Him Eucharistically.
Receive Him Mystically. Then life will be
what it should be — a preparation for death;
and death will be what it is meant to be —
a gateway to glory.

MISSION PRESS, S.V.D., TECHNY, ILL.

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