The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-03-21
FAyEER PnRDoV's SERMON.
RcaSon Has Much to- Do in the MAJ
ter of ReIi,.iau


ter of Religion
large and distinguished assembIage
listened to the fourth of the series Of
Lenten sermons which are being deliver
ed by Rev. William OBJ. Pardow. S j..
each Sunday, at st. Augustus Church.
during the II o'clock mass
Father Pardow began by announcing
that next Sundays sermon would be the
last Of the course and would be en-
titled, The Infanible Pope Before the
Tribunal of Reason" He recalled some
of the points already touched on and
said, in part:
Reason has very much to do in the
matter of religion and belief. Catholic
belief is not a jump in the dark Reason
is invited. nay. is urged, to subject the
credentials of faith to the severest scrut-
my. There must be no flaw in these
credentials. What reason denounces is
that after no flaw has been detected in
the credentials of the divine teacher, eX-
ception should be taken to some of the
things He teaches. If His credentials
are authentic, he is God and. therefore.
cannot teach error What He says may
be u hard saying, but it must be true
This was the sin of the men who pro
tested against His giving them His flesh
TO eat They did not protest against his
credentials. They walked no more with
the Saviour. And notice how He. who
had come to save mankind. allowed these
disciples to go away Here is evident
proof of the Catholic doctrine. of the
al y,r
rament of the altar. If Christ was only
going to give them bread and wine
which they would take in memory of
Him, that would not be hard saying
There would be no difficulty in believing
that lie allowed these disciples to leave
him because it was better to allow even
a thousand men to leave Him than that
the principle He was maintaining should
suffer. The principle was that after you
admitted His credentials YOU were nor
1T liberty 10 reject some of His teachings
and admit only such as you might like.
such as did not seem hard to believe
Is 1t not strange that in this age of scien-
tlilc investigation people should reject
articles of faith only because they are
hard to believe. while "a the same time
they are admitting matters of science
which are very hard to believe?
Why is it. for example that scientists
can analyZe flower seed. can deter
mine exactly its ingredients. and yet can
never make a flower seed which vii!
grow? If they know exactly what con-
stitutes flower seed, why can they not
put the constituents together and make
one? They cannot This is a hard saw
ing but it is true.
Our separated Protestant brethren
maintain that the Catholic Church has
added doctrines to the teaching of Christ
and that therefore it cannot be the
true church. They quote. for instance,
the date of the council that decreed the
real presence of Christ under the APP
peaTance of bread and wine. they quote
the date of the council that decreed the
immaculate conception and the infaIli-
bllity of the pope. OF course for peo-
pie who do not think, who are not critf-
cal and who have not the time to in
yestgate the facts. these dates. especial
~ II given with Latin foot-note. seems
TO settle the matter. once for all But
we I'VE In critical age, and we emphat-
icaliy call for proof. Even a Latin foot
note does not settle everything.
The definition Of an article of faith Is
not the creating of the belief: it is only
the tabulating, the formulating the
codifying of it. How often does a
similar thing happen in regard to the
Constitution of the United States? Mat
tiers will have been decided for years
4
tuition understood in a certain way
day comes when some man calls in cues
ton the received interpretation The
case Is referred to the Supreme Court.
and after careful study the decision
comes; This is the meaning of the
Constitution. VIII any serious man say
the Supreme Court created this article
Of the Constitution? 1t is strange. in
deed, that men who write books appar-
emily with the view Of instructing others.
should not take the pains to learn the
meaning Of words All students of
church history know that 1t was only
at the council of Nicaea. A. D. 80. that
the church declared the divinity of
Christ to be an article Of faith. WIN any
one say that the church began to be-
lieve in the divinity of her founder only
in the fourth century? How then do ser
ious men argue. because a decree was
formulated in the twelfth century con-
corning the real presence Of Christ in
the sacrament or transsubstantiation
that then only the church began to be-
lieVe ii? The same is to be said about
the immaculate conception and the in
fallibility of the pope. Codifying is not
creating. The tribunal of reason saws
emphatically that there should be only
one church Of Christ, because truth is
one. one faith, one baptism one Lord.
says the Bible. How is it, then. that we
have so many conflicting sects? All
seem to desire unity. but there can
be no unity unless we accent in full
Christs charter of the church. giving it
power to teach. the same as he taught
until the end of time"