The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-04-18
cHRlST'S RESURRECTION THE
ONE HOPE OF THE FUTURE.

The Lord is risen indeed, and hath
appeared to Simon. "-(Luke, Chap.
xiv, v. 34).
To thoughtless people, it may seem
harmless that fashionable idlers in
clubs or frivolous loungers in drawing
rooms should sneer at the idea of the
existence of God; it may seem par
donable for scientists in lecture halls
or tipplers in bar rooms to declare that
pleasure is lifes only aim; it may
seem if not eXcusable, at least inevita-
BILE that almost every newspaper, novel
or magazine, almost every platform,
debating society, or parliament,
should, at the electric touch of crafty
demagogues or deluded dreamers,
clang with the thousand echoes of
blasphemous, Socialistic or immoral
theories But the peoples logic will
not rest satisfied with a dream. It
rudely and ruthlessly shoves the
theory into practice. If you teach the
mob that they have no master, they
will tolerate no law, says Rev. Robert
Kane, S. j., in an Easter sermon de-
livered in the Jesuit Church, Farm
Street, London, England.
If you teach them that they have
no soul, they will live like the brute.
IF you SOW the wind, you shall reap
the whirlwind." We already behold
the first surging of the storm. In all
political, social, or financial differences
right is openly, almost detiantly ig-
nored, and only force, or perhaps as
a cloak of force, diplomacy appealed
to. Interest, in the nation or in the
party or in the person, is the stand
ard and measure of action. Even
amusement has been poisoned by the
diseased breath of the age so that
the ripping streams of fresh, pure
merriment have been changed into
the thick, dark, rancid floods or cor
rupted pools of foul jest or cynic jeer.
The race course is only an excuse for
mad gambling. The theater or music
hall is only show of naked immoral
ity or of cloaked crime. Places of
amusement are, almost all of them,
trapdoors of hell. Business, trade,
enterprise, is becoming more and
more a refined cheating Of the ignor-
ant or a brutal bribing of the crafty;
or a conspiracy of financial vultures
in order to prey upon the fostering
misery of the masses, or conspiracy
of socialist rats in order to batten
upon the plethoric plenty of the mas
tiers. The close, intimate, and despotic
organization of labor, with force as
it's means, and booty as it's aim, with
out any barrier of moral principle to
curb it's violence or direct it's flood
must burst forth into devastating de-
luge The horizon of the social world
is fraught with menace of approach
ing doom. Within the Church OF
Christ there is a power of moral resur'
rection. While sects that have once
split off from the parent stem are des-
tined to decay so that the disease
which comes is never cured, there is
within Christ's mystic body, which is
His Church, vigorous vitality which
filings off poisonous germ or malig
nant growth, and perennial power Of
restoring what was weak or sick tt
hardy healthfulness, and of absorb
ing into fresh life-currents and ruddy
robustness whatever it finds in human
nature of good and sound. The physi
cal Resurrection of Christ's real Body
was type and prophecy of the mora
resurrection of His mystic Spouse;
and as Christ now dieth no more,
so does the actual influence of His
own deathless existence renew Itself
ever and always in the lifting of His
Church above the grave where age
after age the world has entombed the
unhallowed remains of dead religions
The Resurrection of Christ is per
petual fact within His Church. In the
Catholic Church alone, the Resurrec
ton is an actual fact. For othel
Christians it was once fact. For u:
it is actual now To them Christ i:
dead; to us He is living. To them Hi!
presence is an abstraction; His onl!
influence, in His teaching; His onl!
power, moral. He enters into oul
daily lives as one we intimately know
We adore Him as our living God. W.
love Him as living man. We pra,
to Him in human word. We think o
Him with human thought. We leal
on Him with human trust His life
His death, His actual glory, belong t.
us. The sweet, sad memories of hov
He loved and what He left us, ar
fresh and fragrant in our dali
thought. We venerate those sacre
wounds We cannot forget the thorns
the nails, the Cross. Nay, we hav
made of that sad wood on which H
died the emblem of honor to tn
brave, the ornament of pure woman
hood, the token of royalty upon tn
crown, the symbol of faith above tn
Church.
The Sign of Hope Above the Grave
We treasure up each tear He shet
We dearly love His keepsake
His blood, His heart, His mothe
We feel too we'll how dear Brothe
He has been, and is, not to turn wit
reverent affection to the peerless vi
gin whom He, her Son, loves most
Heaven. Thus, with the actual Ii
ing Christ living within our dali
thought, beating within each hear
beat of our life, we live again in H
Resurrection, and 1--WE glory in tn
hope of the glory of the Sons OF God
Our future is assured. Before us tn
--L;ob 1,,o hod in the EyaS