# Sermons from the Latins/Sermon 28

Third Sunday After Easter.
Socialism.
"Be ye subject to every human creature far God's sake." — I. Pet. ii. 13.
SYNOPSIS.
Ex. : I. Joseph and Jesus. II. Coming conflict III. Abomination of desolation.
I. Dangers : 1. Infidelity and credulity. 2. Golden mean. 3. Infidel, socialist.
II. Socialism: 1. Its speciousness. 2. Private property. 3. Labor leaders.
III. For poor: 1. Extreme necessity. 2. Eminent domain. 3. Occult compensation.
Per.: 1. Alms-giving. 2. Christian nobility. 3. Time and eternity.
SERMON.
Brethren, what a lesson for strikers and socialists is Jesus, the carpenter's apprentice! What a model for masters is the gentle Joseph! What a proof is each of the power of faith! What a commentary on the evils of infidelity! The abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, were the Pagan unbelievers, whose entry into the Jewish Temple was to be the signal for the destruction of Jerusalem and the overthrow of the Jewish nation. Brethren, he that heareth, let him understand. In our own nation, to-day, there is abroad a feeling of anxiety concerning the stability of popular government — the permanency of republican institutions. Men — leaders and followers alike — instinctively feel there is imminent a conflict between the two great forces of capital and labor, and discuss the abomination that is to precipitate ​this conflict and desolate the country. Some say it is ignorance, and advocate compulsory education; others say it is pauperism, and advocate restricted immigration; and others, still, say it is Romanism, and clamor for the expulsion of the Jesuits. But no! the abomination of desolation is the same to-day as ever — the spirit of irreligion itself.
Brethren, we have considered elsewhere a few of the many evil consequences that ensue from a lack of faith in the truths of our holy religion — that ensue from the spirit of infidelity. There are three kinds of infidels; those who deny all truth and all reality in things, those who admit only natural truths to the utter exclusion of the supernatural, and those who, while professing to believe, live as though they did not believe. All these systems of irreligion are equally repugnant to right reason and equally odious in the sight of God. Again, on the other hand, are to be considered the evils that may, and undoubtedly do, spring from a spirit of too much faith — a spirit of excessive credulity — which in the name of religion is ever ready to grasp every and all ridiculous beliefs and superstitious practices. Men thus lay themselves and their religion open to the ridicule of the unbelieving world. The infidel sins by turning religion away from his door; and the too fervent Catholic often sins by taking religion in and arraying her fair form in the habiliments of a clown. Hence, our Catholicity must be a reasonable Catholicity — not unbelieving, but ever ready to receive with childlike faith the truths that God and God's Church propose; ​and not too credulous, but determined in all other matters to make a judicious use of our reason. Still, of the two, the spirit of unbelief is much the more dangerous, and its effects on the world have been much more disastrous. For when a man has thoroughly succeeded in forgetting or disbelieving that there is a God in heaven, that he has a soul to save, and that there is on earth a religion and a Church to help him to save it, — (very soon the voice of conscience dies within him and from that moment that man is ripe for mischief, a dangerous member of society. And when he looks around the world and sees the poverty and misery of the masses, and the riches and happiness of the favored few — when he sees the incessant toil of the wage-earner, and the equally incessant leisure of the aristocrat; when he sees the power wielded by the ruling classes, and the abject submission of those that they rule — the natural man rises up in rebellion and with no supernatural restraint he clamors for reform. Of these, some clamor for the abolition of civil government, and others demand the destruction of the rich, and others, again, claim that private property is a crime and urge that all wealth be confiscated and equally distributed among all. These are the men whom we call variously Anarchists or Communists or Socialists.
Brethren, there is, at first sight, something certainly very specious and seductive about the arguments of a Socialist. For when we consider that the earth and the fulness thereof is the Lord's, created by God for man — not for this or that man but for all ​men; and then when we look around and see how unequal and how seemingly unjust is the distribution of this world's power and wealth among mankind, truly we feel a weakness for the doctrine of liberty and equality. We feel like preaching, ourselves, the brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God, and we wonder, not that Socialists are so many, but that they are so few. Again, when we go on further to consider that between the starving pauper and the millions of the rich man stand the Church and State — the State with fetters in one hand and a drawn sword in the other, and the Church pointing to the symbol of Redemption and warning him: "Thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not even covet thy neighbor's goods;" why, no wonder the poor man, thus seemingly abandoned by God and Church and State, gets desperate and rebels; no wonder the French Commune has bathed France in the blood of the rich; no wonder the Anarchists have slaughtered the officers of the law in the streets of Chicago. No wonder, indeed, for just as when Adam and Eve rebelled against God the lower order of creation rebelled against them, so when the rich forget their duties to God and their neighbor, the poor very soon learn to forget their duties to the rich. Now it is the Church, and the Church alone, that can ever hope to effectually take her stand midway between the rich and the poor and bring about a peaceful settlement of their difficulties. This she is doing to-day; from that consummate statesman — the Holy Father — down to the lowliest assistant in the land — they are ​all throwing the weight of their influence against Anarchy and Socialism on the one hand, and against high-handed oppression and monopoly on the other.
First, then she teaches that the distinction between rich and poor, between toil and leisure, between the governing and the governed, is inevitable — is a God-given dispensation. For, just as the potter fashions his clay into vessels — some for elegant purposes and others for humbler uses — just as the builder chooses some stones for the foundation and others for the higher parts of the building, so God creates men — some for a nobler, some for a less noble destiny. In building up the social structure He, in His wisdom, places some in a higher, and others in a more lowly position. Thus it is that the power of God, as the Bible says, reacheth from end to end mightily and ordereth all things sweetly. Hence, private possessions, if honestly acquired, far from being robbery and crime, are strictly in accordance with the general design of the Creator. I say, if honestly gained, for every man has a right to the fruits of his own honest industry. In the Gospel parable, he who traded with his five talents and gained five more, and he who traded his two talents and gained other two— both receive from their Lord this commendation: "Well done, good and faithful servant," while he who buried his talent, and so gained nothing, is styled a wicked and slothful servant. No man ever did or ever will get rich or powerful without an effort — which effort gives him a perfect right to enjoy in peace the fruits thereof. ​And because a man is poor it does not follow that he has been a sluggard or a spendthrift. True it is that in the majority of cases our poverty and lowliness are due to ourselves, but still, very often men are poor simply because they are unfortunate. Now, fortune is nothing more or less than the inscrutable providence of God assigning a place to every one, and every one to his own place. Hence, the true Christian's duty is, first, to better his condition if he can by honest industry, and if he fail, to turn to God and say: " Father, Thy will be done." Herein exactly is the mistake of Anarchists and Socialists. With no Christian principles for their guidance, they decry all wealth while madly trying to gain wealth; they covet a rich reward, but are unwilling to endure the preliminary labor. What a farce it is to see, as we often see, that the leaders of strikes and other violent social movements are irresponsible men with not a cent at stake — who have nothing to lose and everything to gain, and who do gain, if not by winning the strike, at least by preying on the pocket of the simple-minded workingman! Those fellows, whose only work is to preach the doctrine of murder and robbery, are not workingmen nor the friends of the workingmen — but criminals guilty of treason, and should be dealt with accordingly. If a nation were to listen to them and follow where they lead, it would soon find itself convulsed with internal dissensions; a slave to that worst of tyrannies, the tyranny of a mob, with no law and no order — with no leisure class with the abilities and the means to advance in the civilizing ​arts and sciences — with no man sure of his possessions, even for a day and, therefore, all grown careless in the industrial pursuits — with the very would-be reformers themselves turned into the most merciless oppressors of the poor — in a word, it would find itself surrounded by all the horrors and all the unspeakable miseries of the French Commune.
Now, while the Church thus exhorts the poor to bear their miseries with Christian patience and fortitude, she does not forget to remind the rich of their duties in relieving those miseries. First, she teaches that there may arise circumstances under which one may take and use the property of another without breaking the seventh commandment. Suppose one of those unfortunates whom we call tramps — but who, poor fellows, very often deserve a better name — suppose one of them should find himself an outcast, friendless and alone, dying of hunger with no hope of relief. If that man can only drag himself to the nearest bakeshop, he is allowed to take as much as will relieve his present necessity, and if the owner objects he commits a sin. Oh, but, you say, the vagrant steals what he takes! No, for theft is the taking of what belongs to another against his knowledge and reasonable consent. Now, I say, it is unreasonable to deny a man dying of hunger the morsel he craves, and so if the outcast takes it he commits no theft, but the baker, if he prevents him, is guilty of sin. Again, suppose the city or the whole country to be visited by a famine, and imagine that a dozen men or so have plenty of provisions stored up for a ​long time to come; if they refuse to share with the starving hundreds around them, the government, general or local, as the case may be, has a perfect right to seize on their property and distribute it around among the suffering poor. Here again there is no sin nor theft, for material goods are not to be compared to human lives, and if these rich men refuse to save human lives with their goods, their refusal is wicked, unreasonable, and not to be respected. But remember it is only in cases of extreme necessity that the words mine and thine cease to exist — that what is yours becomes mine and mine yours; and then only to the extent of relieving that necessity here and now. Again, suppose I agreed to do a certain amount of work for a man for so much a day, and suppose that by and by my employer doubled my work without increasing my pay. I protest and demand either less work or more pay, but he refuses both, and in all the world I cannot see where I am to get another job. What am I to do? I must consult my confessor about it and if he agrees that the circumstances really are as I state them, then I can, unknown to my employer, take from him as much money or goods as will compensate me for the increased work I do. Oh, but I steal! No, for my employer's dissent is so palpably unreasonable and unjust that I am not bound to respect it, and besides I do him no wrong, for, according to himself at our first agreement, my work is worth the money.
These are a few cases allowed by the Church to save the poor and needy from absolute oppression. ​But besides this she exhorts the rich to almsgiving for sweet mercy's sake. She commands them in the name of Christ, and she threatens them in the words of Holy Writ, saying: " Go to, now, ye rich — weep and howl in your miseries. Your riches are corrupted, your garments moth-eaten; your gold and silver cankered, the rust whereof shall be for a testimony against you and eat your flesh like fire; you have stored up wrath for the last day; for the alms you gave not cry out against you and their cry hath entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." The Church presents herself to the rich as the divinely appointed channel through which their superfluous wealth may flow down into the hands of the deserving poor. Lastly, the Church holds up to rich and poor alike the doctrine of the life here and of the life hereafter. Pointing to the life here she asks, After all, where are we to look for real happiness and contentment? Among the ungodly rich? No, but among the Christian poor. Why, even Christ Himself sought and found happiness in a lowly cabin, and His miseries began only when His mission forced Him thence into the homes of the rich and the palaces of kings. Where do we find the true heroes and heroines of our age? Among the great ones of the earth? No, but among the humblest of the humble. The Christian's King was a carpenter's apprentice, and His lowly followers are the true Christian nobility. O God bless the poor and the lowly for their cheerful dispositions, their tender sympathy for each other's ills and their ready willingness to share the ​little they have! Thank God, Christ has promised that the poor we shall have always with us, for, to me, they seem as angels pointing out the way to heaven! And God bless this fair land where each brawny youth is a king and each lowly maiden is a queen, even though their palaces may be a workshop or a hovel! And God bless the Church, whose gentle, motherly influence represses alike the rash uprisings of her poorer children and the greed and tyranny of her richer and more powerful subjects! It is she and she alone, that can ever settle this vexed question by leading men to look at the matter from a Christian standpoint and in the light of Christian principles. " Time," she says to the poor man, " time is but a moment compared to eternity; and what matters it if you are poor and wretched as Lazarus here, if you have it in your power to be rich and happy forever hereafter." "Time," she says to the rich man, " time is but a moment compared to eternity; and it availeth you nothing if you gain the whole world here, if you suffer the loss of your immortal soul hereafter." It is the Church and the Church alone that can preserve the equilibrium of society — reducing the richest to the level of the poorest by preaching " Blessed are the poor in spirit," and exalting the very poorest infinitely above the very richest by promising or securing them possession of the kingdom of heaven.