The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-11-02

nOur1SheS tue Sp1r1t or charity by the mutual forgiveness of injury and error which cements all mankind into one vast penitent society by the application of the Precious Blood of Christ. \ F While the Church beautiful the ma teria1 walls for the sake of her chil- dren who are yet "clothed with the muddy vesture of decay" she herself enjoys within their limits the clearer view of an immaterial temple, whose walls are the souls of the elect, whose angels, whose pavenaents are the null titudes of blessed worshippers, whose pillars are the prophets and theI teachers of the Church, whose High
 Priest is Christ and whose light is God Himself. This. unseen, mystic temple is, in every Church, the special
 place of those souls which are pleas ing to God and chosen from all etern-
 ity to share His glory. Its outward
 sign is the tabernacle where, today,
 Jesus begins His eucharistic life
 resides with Him in a mystic but real
 sense, for she is His inseparable
 spouse, bought at the dearest of
 prices, cleansed and made perfect and Church is our interceSsor, the con tidant of the secrets of Jesus and the recipient of angelic Veneration. It is in this intimate union with Jesus, re- peated in so many tabernacles, that she finds the superhuman wisdom and courage necessary for her mission. T of refuge, the asylum of wearied and distressed souls worn out with con- hict and temptation. In Israel of old l | there were ten such cities, whither | the fugitive and the debtor might repair, but in the Church of Christ, l! | the spiritual Israel, there are thou sands of such calm retreats where the l soul may escape the oppression of sin | and Satan and it's own accusing voice. l The Church is the home of the lowly 1 | and the humble of heart, and it is in l | @L,s I, on the history of the publican Zee l chaeus, whose 1owly condition and l | humble soul made him dearer to | Jesus on certain occasion than the | | noble and powerful who thronged l
 The House of God is built for the l the keynote of the life of Jesus. His | spirit was straitened and His soul was | saturated with anguish to see the suf- 1 | ferings of the poor. dumb masses on whom the scripes and Pharisees
 them come to Him, the weary and the ! heavy-1aden. They were the great body of the lost sheep He had come Ito save. The poor had the Gospel
 by Him and as a sign of His divine l mission. The first vacations to Chris
 tianity were among the lowliestt
 priests were fishermen, artisans, out ] casts, and pariahs according to the | cruel social code of that day. And l ever since the Cnr1SI1dn mas been the natural refuge of the people. | There the social inequalities are blot ted out. There the rich and the poor
 by the ST -rit and the oft-repeated | canons of he Church are on the same footing -ne spiritual treasures are
 dealt out there according to merit | for the invisible Lord Himself con i troIs their administration. In the great world outside these walls might and cunning may prevail, and simple
 honesty, purity of heart, uprightness
 of intention, be set down as folly, but in this holy city of God things are judged differently, and such an one
 may easily be the first in the sight of
 God who is the most despised among his fel1ow-men. In all the long his tory of the Christian religion there is
 scarcely anything more touching than the affection of the masses of the peo-
 pie n, for aaaih their t,e, churches; They build
 them and surround them with venera- ton. They are their light in times of ignorance and their bulwark in days
 of oppression. The cities of Europe
 were times when there was neither
 peace nor security for the people out
 side their shadow. Many free pop
 ular institution has been kept alive
 in and through the parish church,
 and it was to these humble institu-
 dons and the devoted men who served
 them in past ages that the serfs and
 the captives and the poor, the bulk
 of the population at certain times,
 owed the alleviation of their hard
 lot and it's final ame1ioration. At
 every period of ecclesiastical history
 the churches have been the centres
 of practical Christianity, and it is
 from them that it's mild influences
 have radiated through human so-
 ciety.
 The city of God is not only built
 up of human souls; it grows out of
 them as naturally as the rose is the
 product of the sap that swells it's I stem is he
 fruit of the soil and the atmosphere
 in which it raises its proud 1eafy
 Middle Ages the thousand splendid
 churches which line the highways
 and the byways of the world, grew
 out of a. spiritual soil and in an at
 It was soil saturated with the blood
 of martyrs and.s d.sconfessors, with the
 sweat of holy missionaries who had , toiled their whole lives to plant the seed of Christianity, with the warm
 tears of holy virgins and brave Chris
 tlan matrons who opposed the ex-
 amples of tender innocence and
 Christian nd1dness to the coarse and brutal life of the warrior, with the drops of anguish extorted from all those who had suffered oppression for justice sake. So it is in every age. There is a marvellous identity in the I | Church, an unbroken continuity of experience and situation which makes F us the brethren of all who have ever
 lived and labored within her limits
 which fills us with sympathy for them F and transfers to us the fruits of their : lives and their examples. The Church i, l is never without her cloud of wit |, | neSSes, never a barren mother. And least of all is it in this beloved ; land, where a century ago the Cath . olic Church began in all humility and ; lowliness, but moving in her proper atmosphere, breathing the divine air of liberty. The tiny grain of mustard l seed has grown into. a mighty tree, a | whose pleasant shadows are cast over I the whole land, and whose rich foliage draws down the constant f blessing of heaven. But it has not : lgrown without suffering and self , | denial. Thank God we have not had . 1 the confession of labor, of priyation . of sacrifice. Where was there ever