The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-06-29
POPULAR APoLoGETlcS.
Adapted From the German of Rev.
Peter Mikes, S. j., by Rev.
! James Watcher.
"a. The Sage of Nazareth.

do not consider Christ COO, Still they
speak of Him with the greatest rev.
erence. They call Him "the Great
Sage of Nazareth" 1.-The Unsurpassa-
BILE, Unattainable Ideal Of Moral Great
ness, Who must hold the first place
in the temple of genius and human
ity." In the Life of Jesus" by David
Strauss (T1S74) and Ernest Renan
(T1S92) we find a whole bouquet of
such praises.
Answer: Christ would answer:
"Ye hypocrites! | know you! | know
your greeting and Judas KISS"
Either Christ is God or mockery;
either God, praised forever, or a
wretch who falsely claimed to be God
In the last instance there are two pos
sibilities.
Either He knew this to be a bias
phemous lie or He did not know it.
If He did not know it, then He was
mailman, Who imagined Himself God
and could not be healed from this mad
ambition by the greatest tortures. In
that case we may pity Him, but He
does not deserve the fame of a genius
or sage. These titles would only be
hypocrisy and mockery.
But if He was conscious OF this lie,
if He again and again deceived the
people; if in order to spread His doc
trine He used the immoral means of
lying and swore falsely in court; if
He arrOgated to Himself the rights
of God Himself and demanded from
men alteration, faith and obedience,
then we must turn away with the
deepest disgust from such a deceiver.
Whoever still praises Him as an I'M
attained ideal of moral greatness,
plays the hypOcrite and scoffer.
mo one who does not believe in the
divinity of Christ can call himself a
Christian, because even the lowest
degree of self-respect forbids each man
to call himself an admirer and dis.
cipIe of a deceiver and madman."-
(Cf. P. Rob, S. j., Was list Christus?-
What Is Christ?)
SIS. Fables of Dedication.
Objection: The overwhelming i'm
greatness of Jesus made on His fol
lowers induced them to consider Him
a superior being, and under the in
fluence of the Greco-Roman world
view they called Him the Son of God
nay, God Himself. 1t took about a
century for this deifcation
~@ Answer: 1. History contradicts this
20 bn iIyiyoi 81
the very beginning the foundation OF
Christianity. What Simon Peter, the
first Pope, professed: "Thou art
Christ, the Son of the Living God,' the
same belief Thomas proclaimed after
the Resurrection: "My Lord and my
Cod" The same was preached by
the Apostles on Pentecost, and the
same writes ST. Paul, the Apostle OF
the Gentiles: in that Divine Name
they all worked miracles. On the
rock-foundation of the belief in the
divinity of Christ was built the whole
of Christianity. That is the plain
teaching of history.
2. Moreover, we can not reasonably
imagine how the adherents of Christ
could have accomplished this deifica
ton. 1t is not as easy as some OF
these infidel professors imagine be
hind their books.
Attempts at dedication have been
made and with all kinds of efforts
and means; but all in vain.
Augustus Caesar (T14), the most
powerful ruler of the Roman Empire
was deified both before and after his
death, that is, he was reckOned among
the gods of the whole Roman Empire
In his honor temples were built anG
affairs erected and priests appointed
They even claimed miracles CHarnack
would say wonderful power-deeds'')
to have happened at his cradle and
grave; and senator SwOre that al
the emperors death he saw his SOU
ascend into heaven. Augustus, the
long-eXpected Prince of Peace, tC
whom the whole world did homage
the divine Augustus, who was solemn
ly proclaimed and installed by the
greatest power on earth, as the sor
of the gods, was not able to hold this
deiied position.
At the same time there was born il
a stable among the despised Jewish
people son of a poor carpenter O
Galilee; He gathers few ignoran
fishermen around Himself; after
few years as public teacher of the
people, He dies the ignominious dealt
of the cross between two criminals
He called himself the Son of God
the world believed Him then and be
lieves Him to this day How come!
this? Whence this difference?
A second attempt at dedication was
made when the Neo-Platonian philoso
ply tried to place one of it's heroe!
on the, altar with the express pur
pose to displace the divinity of thu
God of the Christians AS the idea
of all goodness, wisdom and holmes!
these philosophers considered the ther
celebrated Neo-Pythagorean philoso
pher, Appollonius of Tyana, who liveC
in the first century.
Miracles and prophecies in abun
dance were attributed to him; the
greatest philosophers and the most elo
duent panegyrists glorified his lift
with eloquence and striking reason
ing. His whole activity was said tt