It has been demonstrated in our previous reflections that the Maker of all things imposed His will on them. In the firmament and in the elements of earth this will is expressed in what we call nature's laws. They are inflexible. In animals it is instinct which governs invariably. But what rules man? Conscience. This is God's will conveyed to man, telling him to do right and to avoid wrong.
As an example of how conscience acts, take a child who tells his first lie. When for the first time he says what he knows is not so, a blush comes to his countenance. This blush is the external sign of the shock within as nature cries out against falsehood. A confirmed liar shows no external disturbance because he has silenced conscience. Some nations and some individuals have more delicate consciences than others, but there are certain fundamental things which every people and every person feel to be obligatory.
Conscience is the bond between the Creator and the creature. And just as an individual may by carelessness or selfishness or licentiousness distort or destroy conscience, so may nations. We have an instance of this in the degraded and unblushing immorality of ancient Rome, even at the very height of her civilization. But the Creator has nevertheless asserted Himself. Nation after nation that has turned from righteousness has come to a sad end.
And so it is with the individual. He who sows the wind reaps the whirlwind. Often, however, the wicked prosper and the just suffer, but this is because God, if He always rewarded the good and punished the wicked here below, would be a mere employer, not the Lord and Creator. God could stop all the evil in the world instantly if He wished to, but He would then be interfering with the free will He has bestowed on man. For if He punished transgressions of His law on the spot, man would be morally forced to keep it and could give no external manifestation of his submission and loyalty.
So God permits evil in order to leave man free to choose between good and evil. For if there were no evil in the world, man would have no exercise of his liberty, which consists in absolute freedom of choice. If a man could only do right, he would be bound, not free.
Now with liberty goes responsibility. Man must answer for the use he makes of his wondrous gift. This brings him in direct relation with his Maker. The greatest transgressions may be those unseen by one's fellow-man. God alone knows all and sees all. Hence the necessity of a guiding code of morals by which man will be judged. This code is written on the heart of man. It was also given on Mt. Sinai in the Ten Commandments. Even apart from Mt. Sinai's promulgation, is there any one of the Ten Commandments that any decent man would wish to see revoked? Would you respect God if He permitted lying, or stealing, or dishonor to parents, or the lust that would rob you of your wife's affection or your daughter of her virtue? Would you respect God if He did not demand your reverence and obedience?
If God is entitled to our obedience, He is hound to make known to us His law. He might do this in various ways. It is not for us to say how He shall do it. He could command us directly and personally, He could do it by the ministry of angels, He could write His law in the firmament so that all might read it. But He has not chosen to do so. Instead He has made a covenant with mankind, employing human agencies to make known His dispensations. This is a statetnont. It requires proof, which we shall proceed to give shortly.
The covenant between God and man is called religion. Religion comes from the two Latin words re and ligo, which mean to bind back. It signifies the bond by which man is brought back into right relations with God. We, like sheep, had gone astray; individuals and nations had departed from right. God would bring back His erring children, and the ordinary means is by religion. This bond between the Creator and His creature we shall now consider.
I ask you to take up the matter in a fair way, as far as possible without prejudice. Prejudice kills right judgment. In a law suit, see how each party misjudges the other. That is why they must appear before a judge, who hears both sides. In our Civil War see how the North viewed the South and the South the North.
A person who is not a Christian, with difficulty views the Church rightly. Among Christians, behold how one sect regards another, and, above all, see how the sects regard the Catholic Church. Persons who have joined the Catholic Church from other denominations marvel at the way in which they had misunderstood her. Their first and strongest feeling after conversion is how they could have so mistaken and misrepresented her. As a rule, they burn with zeal to have others see her truth and beauty once they have beheld her as she is.
Christ said, speaking of His Church: "As the world has hated me, so will it hate you." In connection with this saying, I have an occurrence to relate. It is given by the late Father Gallwey, the noted Jesuit. Three English gentlemen, who were very literary, had the custom of meeting at one another's homes in turn and discussing literary topics. They read, each time they met, portions of the great masters, - Homer, Virgil, Horace, Dante, Shakespeare, etc. They always concluded by reading a passage from the Bible, the King James version.
It happened that one day they touched on that part wherein Christ uses the words I referred to: "As the world has hated me, so will it hate you." One of the gentlemen remarked on hearing the phrase that it had a meaning for him which it had never had before. Christ, he said, was here giving a characteristic of His Church, - it was to be hated and persecuted by the world. "Now, my friends," he continued, "which of the Christian churches does the world today hate and persecute?"
They went into the matter and concluded that there was but one church in the world with which the world was in opposition, and always had been, the Catholic Church. All the other churches had made friends with the world, were living on good terms with the world. From the Apostles down to the present day, the Catholic Church stood out against the spirit of the world, and the world stood against it.
After these reflections, the three agreed that it was worth while looking into the claims of such a church. They did so, and found to their astonishment that all their lives they were opposed to a church that they did not know. They had taken for granted the statements of her opponents and had arrayed themselves against her. On investigating for themselves, they saw things differently, and were convinced that she was the true Church of Christ. They had the strength of their convictions, for they sought out a priest and applied for admission into the Church. Father Gallwey was the priest and he it is who gives us these particulars.
We shall now, with unprejudiced mind, I trust, consider the matter of religion and its relation to ourselves personally. Please leave others out of the question and reflect on the points which follow as a personal matter between you and your Maker. God and Myself.
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Adapted from God and Myself, An Inquiry into the True Religion (©1917)
by Martin J Scott, S.J.
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