The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-26
GREETED APPELLATE
IMMENSE CONGREGATION WAS
PRESENT AT CHRISTMAS MASS
AT THE CATHEDRAL.
MGR. MARTINELLrs OFFICE
WAS THAT OF THE CELEBRANT OF
THE PONTIFICAL HIGH
MASS.
SHONE
DIGNITARIES
LESSER
In the Minor Offices of the Stellar
Service of the Church
Year.

|
mass celebrated at ST. Patricks ca
thedral yesterday forenoon. The
| knowledge that Mgr. Martinelli, the
apostolic delegate, would participate in
the celebration sufficed to crowd the
church. The edifice was thronged with
a preventative audience, including
| Catholics not only from all parts of the
city, but from Minneapolis as well.
The celebration was as beautiful as
| it was impressive. The regular quar-
! tette choir of the cathedral and the
DAM orchestra, under the personal di-
rection of Mr.. DAM, interpreted Niede-
meyers Mass, a sacred composition Of
pronounced merit. The quartette COM
| prfsed Mrs. S. V. Harris, Miss Mile
Pottgieser, A. r. Quesnel and j. F.
| Gehan. Mrs. F. L. Hoffman presided
at the organ.
The altar was a bank of evergreens,
flowers and light. The sanctuary con-
| tanned two thrones. Opposite that on
the left side, usually occupied by Arch
| bishop Ireland, was erected another
| throne and canopy. Mgr. Martinelli
assembled the throne at the left and
| Archbishop Ireland that at the right.
| The apostolic delegate wore magnifi-
| cent robe of ermine, and the arch
| bishop his purple vestment. Seated in
| the sanctuary beside Archbishop Ire
| land were Mgr Ravoux and Rev. DR..
Pace, from the Catholic university at
| Washington, D. G.
Mgr. Martinelli celebrated the mass,
;c.+
! ing priest. Rev. William Colbert and
Rev. J. H. Brannon officiated as the
| deacons of honor Other ministers of
the mass were chosen from the semi
| narians at st. Paul's.
Bishop Thomas OGorman, of Sioux
Falls, preached an eloquent sermon.
He said:
Christmas is feast that is kept not only
by this nation but by every Christian nation
in the world, by four hundred millions of
men the most cizlized, learned and advanced
of the human race. The fact commemorated
is the birth of a child, and for this reason
1T is considered to be the special feast of the
Christian fireside. Not only the infant step
ping from the cradle and unconsciously smil-
ing in the face of a stern world finds joy in
Christmas, the old man, too, stepping into
the grave and wistfully looking back to the
hard realities he has gone through, finds in
the feast gladness and consolation. What is
there in this Babe of Bethlehem, what is
there in His birth that so affects mankind?
Who is He that can draw to His cradle old
and young and can christen the spring and
winter of life?
Christmas Is the emphatic affirmation of
the supernatural, that is to say, of the direct
and personal Intervention of God in the series
of events, of causes and effects that make up
what we call the world. The entrance of
this babe into the world is unusual. He is
conceived of the Holy Ghost, is born of a
mother virgin before and after His BIRTH and
angels from heaven proclaim His coming
with song. The narrative of Christ's concep-
ton and birth is not allegory, the statement
of symbol myth, but sober history. The
things told us about this child and comment
GRATED on this day are facts. The character
of the records forbids any other view. But
more than the manner of His coming the
character and nature of the Babe of Bethlc-
hem are an affirmation of the supernatural
He is more than man. He is God. In and
through Him God has personally and directly
entered into the world He created and has
become part of its history. The epistle and
especially, the gospel Ihave just read to you
clearly indicate this. I'm the beginning was
the word, and the word was with God, and
the word was God. The same. was in the be-
ginning with God. All things were made by
Him; and without Him was made nothing
that was made. And the word was made
flesh and dwelt among u.s.
That almost nineteen hundred years ago
in Judea there was born, lived and died enc
who was known then and has been known
n
less we make a bonfire of history and assert
that there never was anything or anybody
in this word before we came into it. When
we take up the life of Jesus as recorded in
the gospels and read it attentively we must
come to the conclusion that, while being
man, he was more than human. The human
race furnishes no standard by which to meas
ure Him. Before Him there has been no one
like Him, and after Him no one has equaled
Him, though He has had numberless imi-
tators. When we would reach the beautiful
and the sublime we turn from the real and
look to the ideal. In Jesus the real is great
er than any ideal. Art has even despa:red
Of reproducing Him in marble or canvas in
poetry or melody, In history or eloquence.
Great men are of their time; indeed it is
being Of their time makes them great This
statement is true not only of the men of ac-
ton, but also OF the men of thought Through
their song or speech you detect the voice of
their age and nation. Homer is an incarnation
of Greece, Job of Arabia Isaas of Judea
Virgil of Rome, Dante of the middle ages'
Shakespeare of Anglo-Saxon civilization. The
personality of Christ has no limits of time
or place. He stands for no epoch, for no
nationality. All classes of men find in Him
their model as If he had come purposeIy for
each one. He has ar answer to the ques-
ton of every age, every nation, every child
of Adam; and as time goes on there are ever
yelling up to sight out Of the depth of His
words and actions things old and new The
more man rises on the accumulated tradi-
tons and inheritance Of preceding centuries
evergrowing figure of Christ. AS we fix our
glance on His mind and teaching we are
blinded, not by the absence, but by the
intensity Of the light that comes from Him
whittier we cannot follow; He descends to
depths over which the ages have leaned.
peerng intently and discovering continually
new treasures and truths, and they have
that confession have acknowledged that His
mind is more than human.
He had superhuman power, as His miracles
prove 1t is only to the unbelieyer and scep-
TIC that He held Up His miracles as evidences
Of his veracity and mission, to all others they
were evidences of love. Through physical
evil He saw moral evil and mental sorrow;
while healing the body He healed the soul and
soothed the heart 1t was not so much the
miracle as the manner of performing it, as
the love, the discretion, the tenderness that
accompanied the miracles; 1t was not so much
the miracle, l say, as the manner of it that
won Him the hearts Of men and drew after
Him, the crowds thirsting for physical and
spiritual relief. His fellow men came to I'M
derstand that He was not to be feared for
all His superhuman powers, that He should
be discussed contradicted reviled even be
done to death; they believed Him disarmed
by His own WILL and that love had bound
His might. His disciples saw Him thirst and
hunger yet they knew he could turn stones
into bread saw Him suffer and die, yet they
knew He could call legions to His protection
and that His life was in His own power. In
deed, He had predicted that He would be
most powerful when weakest, that the cross
was the lever with which He would move the
world. Love, not might, is the keynote of
His life.
Living in the midst of a world Of sin,
clothed with this human nature, which in
every child Of Adam is deeply tainted with
evil, Jesus is stainless and holy. His holiness
has one thing which is not human. I do not
find in Christ's holiness the sense of personal
sin. The summit of holiness is there the
foundation seems to be wanting. ST. John
declares that he who thinks he is without
sin is under the greatest illusion. Imagine
any man saying, l am without sin. He at
once ceases to be holy, humanity turns on
L.. III