The Irish standard., 1917-02-24

preached IN, the mouse OF Cornelius. he
states those facts with authority.
You know the word which hath
been published through all Judea: for
it began from Galilee, after the bap-
tism which John preached, Jesus of
Nazareth: how God Amounted him with
the Holy Ghost, and with power, who
went about doing good, and healing
all that were oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him. And we are
witnesses of all things that he did
in the land OF the Jews and in Jeru.
salem, whom they killed, hanging him
upon tree. Him God raised up the
third day and gave him to be made
manifest, not to all the people, but to
witnesses preordained by God, even to
us, who did eat and drink with him
after he arose again from the dead !:
And he commanded us to preach to
the people, and to testify that it is he
who was appointed by God, to be judge
of the living and of the dead" (Acts X
37-43)
We do not live only in days when
people drifted, carried about by every
wind of doctrine, as we read in the
new testament. The apostles lived in
days just like our own. In that respect
and in many others too. And so then
the new testament teaches most EN-.
phatically that st. Peter was supreme
in the college of the apostles. In other
words he was the chief apostle he was
the figure Of creation. Listen to his
tone of authority Take his first words
St. Mark begins his gospel in this way:
1.-The book of the generation of Jesus
Christ" Listen to st. Peter talking
to st. Mark: THE beginning of the
gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God
That is something to startle the world
isn't it? That would shock some to
thinking. Take his epistles. Listen
to the way in which he writes. He
does not say Now beseech you breth
rem" Only once he puts it that way
st. Paul does it again and again in his
letters. In St. Paul's letters we have
him beseeching the people. You dc
not find that on the part of st. Peter
After your faith virtue, after virtue
knowledge, after knowledge temper
ance, after temperance patience, and
so he goes OH. He gives them instruc
tions what to do. And SO you see you
have the living God with living voice
Now in the middle ages, or in the
early middle ages, there were frequent
pilgrimages to Rome. Kings went to
Rome not only to do honor to the Holy
Father of their day, which they did,
but one Canute from the throne OF
England, he made special pilgrimage
to Rome. There was no glorious basili.
ca of st. Peters then. The ancient
city had not been disinterred to the
extent that it is today. What took
them? They went to the burial place
of st. Peter. What did they see? This
Is fact not widely known, but you
will find it now Incorporated in a
learned book written by the archeoli-
gist of the church. What does he
write? He writes that the Christians
that kept alive the traditions of st.
Peters burial place and st. Paul's
burial place. and the bishops and arch
bishops went to Rome to receive the
pallium, and every one of them in
those early days before the great
basilicas and cathedrals were erected,
went particularly to do what the Eng
fish people did at the shrine of Thomas
A. Beckett, they went to the burial
places of st. Peter and st. Paul; and
the time came when the curiosity of
men was so aroused that the church,