The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1901-12-28

cause it has accomplished .nobler ends
because it has done more to aid hui
manity, to reach, to touch, to draw, to
| civilize and ChriStianize the human
heart, than aught else which God or
man has ever wrought On earth; it is,
in word, more noble, more sublime,
| because it is more simple, for SIM
plicity is the essence of true nobility
and sublimity, and the simplicity of
soul which comes from Bethlehem
claims kindred with that sublimity of
spirit which hover almost unbalanced
around the mountain tops of God.
Wherein does this sublimity consist
do you ask? l invite you, brethren,
Ito come and see." You are familiar
enough with the circumstances sur
rounding this days mystery of mys-
teries, without any,repeating them here
in detail The Gospel, after describing
the journey of Mary and Joseph from
Nazareth to Bethlehem, their wander
ing round the city in search of accom-
modations, its failure and their subse-
quent discovery of an old stable hewn
in the rock. into which they retired for
shelter, goes on to say: And it came
to pass that when they were there,
Mary's days were accomplished, that
she should be delivered. And she
brought forth her first born son, and
wrapped Him up in swaddling clothes,
and laid Him in a manger. Behold
the palace in which the King of kings
is born-a stable; these were the royal
purple garments and brilliant f1nery in
which the new born King was wrapt-
swaddling clothes, the few tattered
garments which the poverty of Mary
could procure this was the cradle that
mo nc of
straw; the retinue that surrounded Him
were only Mary and Joseph, and two
dumb brutes whose breath served to
keep the warmth in His shiverfng
limbs OH incomprehensible mystery!
that the Eternal Son of God should thus
be born in the flesh as the outcast of
mankind, rejected by His own chosen
people, who will not afford Him a shell
ter under their roof-"they have no
room for Him. He came unto His
own and His own received Him not
And why did He choose to be born in
this lowly condition? All! brethren,
look at that poor beggar at your door;
see his emaciated face; see those rags
that scarcely cover his trembling limbs
and then ask your conscience, Why?
See those myriads of countless poor
that invest our towns and cities; look
upOll llOoC loCCo, polC anu w ciIiJ VI lllS
orphan waits in your streets, bereft,
disowned, Abandoned; look at that wi
dow weeping by the grave into which
her partner, her hope, has fallen, and
then ask your conscience, Why? Why,
indeed, but that He might open our
hearts to the misery that surrounds us
that He might confound the pride, the
haughtiness and the greed of wealth
and worldly pomp: THE foolish things
of this world hath God chosen that He
might confound the wise, and the weak
things of this world hath God chosen
that He might confound the strong"
Why, indeed, but that as the Savior of
mankind, He might be within the reach
of all-that He might bring hope and
salvation to ALTO the poor and lowly
as well as to the rich and exalted-to
the shepherd in the hills as well as to
the wise kings of the east. Why, in
deed, but that He might teach us by
His example thus at the very outset of
His mortal career, those three enobling
virtues-humility, poverty of spirit and
fraternal, charity-virtues as necessary
to the Christian practice as they are
inseparable from it's belief. Take away
from this days mystery its humility
and poverty, and you destroy all that
is grand and noble in Christianity-yo
destroy the hope and consolation of the
poor, just as, by taking away from the
life of Christ its suffering and perse-
cutions, you destroy the hope and con-
ISOLATION of the afflicted and distressed.
Jesus, who was rich, for our sakes be-
came poor to enrich our poverty. He
has sanctified poverty forever, and pow
erty embraced voluntarily or bourne
with patience leads to Christ and His
eternal kingdom.
Christ has sanctified poverty by His
example through life from Bethlehem
to Calvary. He never taught what He
did not Himself practice; nay, He first
practised what He would afterward
inculcate by words. He gave us an ex-
ample that we might initiate it, and
no one ever better recognized the truth
of the adage: Example is better than
actions speak more forcihlv