The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-02-18
Womdn's U)or|d

husbands, Let our Catholic family lie
give the lie to this.
s.
| Inc entrance of a beloved child into
me religious life is looked upon by
many Protestants as an unnatural act,
ana the Church which permits it as an
: lnsupportable tyrant. But ask the true
| Cathollc father or mother who has d
/ son or daughter in religion what they
tllnk OF the matter-they will reply
! mat though the sacrifice was. indeed,
hard one, yet they are proud and
! nappy and look upon it as great priv
| ilege and source of many blessings TO
nave given child to God ASK them
whether that child has ceased to love
them and they will smile at the Ques-
tlon. Yet the accusation, as old as
christianity, is still repeated
3
Of the tenderness of The family af-
lectlon among the Christians of the
llrst ages we have ample proof in the
epltaphS found in early Christian ceme-
leIles, and particularly in the Roman
c2tacombs. Many of these are most
touchlng, expressive of no mere formal
sentiment in regard to the departed,
put OF a true. tender, human love. Thus
a surviving husband or wife writes of
VINO never caused me grief but by
dying, "on whose account never had
Srlet out by her death, not bitter to
me. Very often the desire not to sur
VlVe well loved child or husband is
referred to in the inscriptions on tombs.
mus of departed wife and mother we
read: As she desired, she finished her
lie while her husband and children
were still living"
s.:
A husband records the sad history of
his married life. Through the necessity
OF travelling, he says, he has only spent
SIX months with his young wife now
dead. My most sweet wife, my
most sweet husband" are inscriptions
frequently met with; and many inscrip-
tons express the regret of the surviy-
or at not being able through poverty,
TO erect a nobler monument In re-
gard to innocent children who have
died the Christian inscriptions are full
OF tenderness and even of veneration.
Thus the little "Dominus'' or Dom
ina. given to saints, is otter applied
10 children who have gone to God in
their unstained baptismal robes. Thus
we read, Domino meo filio," ''Domi-
mae filiae." Little ones departed in
Christ are described as "a dove without
guile, "a lamb without blemish," "a
niue ldllD OI GOu. Olle most Dedu1l-
full inscription says of a dead child,
Rosa Stimuli Floruit ct Statim Periit-
The rose no sooner blossomed than it
faded" Children's toys, the source of
a short-lived' pleasure to the innocent
lambs of Christ's flock, have been
found buried with them.
s.
While, then. the Christian of old like
the true Christian of today. was pre-
pared to give up father and mother,
wife or husband and children if they
stood in the way of the service of God
and the faith of Jesus Christ. he was
not forbidden, but commanded by his
religion to love them. The fact that he
loved god more, so that, in the single
instance Of a choice to be made be-
tween God and kindred he was bound
to give God the preference. is no proof
that Christianity demanded the unnat-
ural breaking of the sacred ties of kim
ship.
The same is true of those today who
forsake home and friends for God when
He gives them a special call; and, as
Newman says, the repetition of the old
accusation against the Catholic church. !
and against her alone of all commune |
ties who claim the Christian name, is |
one of the great mass of cumulative |
proofs that the Catholic church of to- |
day is identical with the Christian re- |
ligion of the first ages.