The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-12-04
CONTINUED from page IL
THE WORD OF GOD

me. When you listen to the man of
God speaking in the pulpit you
hearken to the voice OF the Eternal.
Farreaching in its results and mo.
mentous is the announcement of the
word of God by the Catholic priest.
When he speaks he sounds warning
to those who are dallying with temp
tation, he drops into the ears of young
and old, high and low, the awful
realities of death, judgment, hell,
eternity; he tells of the fathomless
depth of divine compassion; he in
structs, eXhorts, corrects, reproves, adj
monishes his fellowbeings not in the
name of human authority but in the
holy name of God before Whom even
the angels bow low in alteration and
strike their harps of praise. Always
and everywhere it is his sublime task
to proclaim the Gospel truths whether
they be pleasing or displeasing to the
propensities of flesh and blood.
The voice of the Catholic dispenser
of the Word is the voice of one crying
in the world: Prepare We the way of
the Lord. do penance for the
kingdom of God is at hand" 1t is the
only voice which has always dared to
say to every monster of moral rotten
ness, 1T is not lawful for thee" just
as fearlessly as st. John the Baptist
reprimanded King Herod for his mis-
conduct centuries ago-the only voice
which cannot be silenced and cannot
be bought.
The Message of the Catholic Pulpit.
What is the Catholic pulpit's mes
sage? A part of it consists OF Chris
tianity's doctrines, those mysterious
truths of the revealed law which the
human mind cannot fully comprehend.
These supernatural verities are diff
cult and are always open to the at
tacks of the scoffer and the unbeliever.
When an attack is made on any one
of them a word of explanation would
be sufficient to repel it, but unfor-
tunately the word is not always
spoken for the simple reason that the
| laity lack religious knowledge. When
ny JIllGh anu lCioI uIOuilu
them, poorly instructed Catholics are
silent and powerless because they
have no arrow in the culver of their
religious knowledge to pierce them.
Their condition is not praiseworthy
In our age and country in which the
why and the wherefore of everything
are demanded, in which objections to
the Church which are as old as the
eternal hills and which have been re-
futed myriads of times, century after
century, are paraded again in a new
garb, well-informed Catholics are
especially needed-men and women
who know their religion thoroughly
who are able to defend it, who can
give reasons for belonging to it and
who are consequently proud of the
faith of their forefathers.
Another part Of the Catholic pull
pits message is composed Of the great
truths of the moral order. The right
performance of the duties of one's
state in life requires a knowledge OF
them What are they? They are the
ten commandments and the precepts
of the Church on which perhaps many
consciences may have gone astray
They are the Christian virtues in re
gard to which some may not have
exerted themselves sufficiently. They
are the capital sins against which &
word of warning may be a priceless
blessing to many a soul. They are
the sacraments, those great channels
of divine grace which should be re
ceived with proper dispositions. Be
sides, there are the practices and Gus
toms of the Church and many othel
thing in the spiritual life which easily
escape the memory of those who fol
six days of the week are occupied will
the cares and trials and thoughts anC
burdens of earth-things which thu
Sunday sermon is intended to recall
and elucidate. 1t is the aim of thu
Catholic pulpit to treat subjects which
cover the whole field of human con
duct.
People Should Attend the High Mass
Extremely harmful to their spiritua
welfare is the practice of those Wht
habitually shun the High Mass, thu
parochial Mass, at which the principa
sermon of the day is preached. B!
their constant attendance at low
Masses they deprive themselves o
/. 1.-THE instruction and correction ant
nourishment and encouragement
which the word of God affords. Thei
dictata fnr tho Sunday carnaou i
not good sign. AS disgust for foot
is an index of bodily sickness, so in
difference toward the word Of Coz
is dangerous spiritual symptom. |
is our Savior who said: He that il
of God heareth the words of God
Therefore you hear them not becaus,
. you are not of God" 1t is strange bu
true that they who stand in creates
need of sermons miss them most fire
quently.
Excuses for Non-Attendance.
Worldly-minded Catholics are no
slow to find excuses for this neglec
of the word of God. They sometime
remark complacently that they do no
, feel the need of hearing sermons be
cause they know beforehand the sui
stance of what will be preached t,
them. That sounds plausible. Wha
. is the process by which such peopl
arrived at their abundant supply o
religious information? Perhaps the
got it by their extensive reading O
, religious literature, but they show n