Thursday, October 25, 2007

The Saved and the Lost

Today I received a little prayer book to supplement my Prayer-Book for Religious by Fr. F.X.Lasance.

This book, My Prayer-Book, Happiness in Goodness, Reflections, Counsels, Prayers, and Devotions, is also by Fr. Lasance.

In anticipation of next Wednesday's Gospel, I have posted an excerpt of my newest used prayer-book for those who might be interested:
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The Saved and the Lost

A certain man said to our blessed Saviour, as we read in the Gospel of St Luke (xiii, 23): Lord, are they few that are saved?" Jesus simply replied: "Strive to enter by the narrow gate."

"It is a question," says Father Walsh, S.J., in his admirable and consoling study, "The Comparative Number of the Saved and Lost," "about which there is no authoritative decision of the Church, nor unanimous opinion of her Fathers or theologians.

"Many, notably Suarez, hold - as Father Faber does - that the great majority of adult Catholics will be saved. Some, amongst whom we are glad to count the illustrious Dominican, Father Lacordaire, hold or incline to the opinion that the majority of mankind, in­cluding heathens and heretics, will be saved.

"Pere Monsabre, O.P., Father Castelein, S.J., and Rev. Joseph Rickaby, S.J., advocate this mildest opinion. Father Rickaby says in his Conference, 'The Extension of Salvation': 'As to what proportion of men die in sanctifying grace, and what propor­tion in mortal sin, nothing is revealed, nothing is of faith, and nothing is really known to theologians. If ever you find a theologian confidently consigning the mass of human souls to eternal flames, be sure he is venturing beyond the bounds of Christian faith and of theological science. You are quite free to disbelieve his word. I do not believe it myself.

"'The rigor of the older theologians culminated in Jansenism. To the Jansenist the elect were the few grapes left upon the vine after a careful vintage (Is. xxiv. 13)' Since the extirpation of Jansenism, the pendulum of theological speculation has swung the other way, and theologians generally hope more of the mercy of God, or, at least, speak with less assurance of the range of His rigorous justice.'

"The reasons," continues Father Walsh, "which have induced me to think the mildest opinion, namely, that the majority - and I scarcely fear to add, the great majority - of mankind will be saved, are: First, because the study of God's character urges, if not forces, me to do so. Second, because this opinion appears to make most for His greater honor and glory, and for the merits of Christ. Third, because the belief in it is better calculated to make us love God, and to serve Him the more from love.

"Cardinal Bellarmine, in one of his expositions of the Psalms, writes: 'David records God's providence in regard of the beasts and the birds in order to let man see that he will never be forsaken by God in His providence. God, who so bounteously feeds beasts and ravens, will never desert those who are made to His own image and likeness.' Is not such Our Lord's reasoning and conclu­sions as we have them in His Sermon on the Mount: 'Behold the birds of the air; for they neither sow nor do they reap, nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are you not of much more value than they?'

"The most learned theologians lay down and prove the following proposition: That God really and sincerely wishes the salvation of all men, because He is the Creator of all men. In the words of St Ambrose: 'God wishes all whom He creates to be saved, would to God, O men, that you would not fly and hide yourselves from Him; but even if you do He seeks you, and does not wish you to perish.' It is more probable that though many can and will fight God to the end and be lost, they will be fewer far than those whom He will tenderly, and in His own way, bring home to Him­self.

"God is not only the Creator but the Father of all men without any exception. He hsa commanded us to address Him by this title: 'Our Father, who an
in heaven.' All Christians do so; and a preacher, in his opening instructions, would teach and exhort the untutored savage to believe in and speak to Him as such.

"God is the Father of all men and eminently a per­fect Father. We could not imagine such a father cast­ing out, expelling from his home forever a child, until he had tried the proper means to keep him with himself­ until the child deserts him, or, by wilful, obstinate, persistent disobedience to his father's will, necessitates his own expulsion. Such a father will do all he well can for the welfare of his children - do everything short of violence to enable his children to succeed in all that is for his own and their good. The dominant desire - wish - will- of such a father must be to make his children happy; his dominant dread and horror, that one of them should be unhappy.

"Our Lord tells us how easy and swift true repentance can be in the case of the publican - the notorious and typical sinner - who by making an act of sorrow for his sins, in seven words, went home to his house justi­fied. God is far more ready and generous in forgiving the worst than men - even good men - are in forgiving each other, and bad would it be for the best of us if He were not.

"By way of showing the effect which can be produced by the very thought of God Our Father, and belief in Him as such, I may give a fact told to me by the person concerned - now dead for some years. He fell into a state akin to despair about his salvation. A confessor, to whom he opened his mind, told him to go, take his Bible, and write out all the texts in which God calls Himself his Father. He did so, and was blessed with calm and peace before he had written twenty." - Fr. Nicholas Walsh, S.J.

"Say to them: As I live, saith the Lord God: I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live" (Ezech. xxxiii. 11).

"The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke xix. 10).

"Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be the sons of God" (1 John iii, 1).

"But I say to you: Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you; that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh the sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and unjust. . . Be you perfect as also your heavenly Father is perfect." - Words of our blessed Saviour; Matt. v. 44, 45, 48.

"Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee" (Jer. xxxi. 3).

"The Lord is gracious and merciful; patient and plenteous in mercy."

"The Lord is sweet to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works."

"Every day will I bless Thee, and I will praise Thy Name forever" (Ps. cxliv. 8, 9, 2).

Let us give the good God, our Father in heaven, a service of Love, in the spirit of St. Francis Xavier, who said: "O God! I love Thee, not for the sake of winning heaven, or of escaping hell, not for the hope of gaining aught, but solely because Thou art my God."

"Not with the hope of gaining aught,
Not seeking a reward;
But as Thyself hast loved me,
O ever-loving Lord.
E'en so I love Thee, and will live,
And in Thy praise will sing;
Solely because Thou art my God
And my eternal King."
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From My Prayer-Book, Happiness in Goodness
by Fr. F.X. Lasance (©1944)

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