The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1955-02-11


There are the great religious families of men and
women Sisters and Brothers, whose lives are
sacredly devoted TO the spread Of Gods kingdom
bv teaching Catholic truth There is the Catholic
press which by the way is now spending
month of pfoclaimng. Advertising recommending
its aims and accomplishments, There Is the "a
tholic school, college university With all these
agencies at work how can i be said that we Ca
tholies do not tell anyone OF the allsuffleng
treasure that is, ours2
And vet despite the wide and untiring effort
of Catholics to make their religion known, TO share
10 all others the necessary truth Of their faith, the
on.Catholic world declares with sincerity that Ca
thoIics "don't tell anybody about IT, Consider
the beautiful lines - and especially the last hne-
composed by Cornelis Otis Skinner, quoted by ia
ther Granny, SA in the Ape Nara of last January
fifteenth:
Mary, most serenely fair,
Hear an unbelievers prayer
Nurtured in an austere creed,
Sweetest Lady, she has need
OF the solace of your grace;
See the tears that stain her face
AS she kneels TO beg your love
You whom no one told her Of.
Now the place of Our Blessed Mother IN Gods
plan for our salvation is Of the important truths
Of Catholic fatth And do we tell nobody Of IT?
Why we have just come to the end OF the year
has been telling, over and over and in every con
cevabe way, the truth about the Blessed Virgin
The world itself in its newspapers and reviews
has been far from silent about the Marian Year
How can anyone say that the Blessed Mother is
one whom no one told off,
II must be that this business of telling people
religious truths is like telling truths to little
pupil in school You may tell and tell and tell
YOU may describe explain you may illustrate
and exemplify and still the little pupil is passive
and unimpressed Then one day, after the twentieth
or the fifteth telling the pupil may begin to listen
he may make at least a tiny effort to understand
what you arc saying. And 10, the light OF apprecia
ton shines in his eye; he grasps the lesson, and
finds it satisfying, pleasing enjoyable And with The
light of understanding, there is another CLEAN IN
his eye which says, why haven't heard Of this
before?"
The Catholic lives in the supernatural daylight
Of the faith II he does not talk often or earnestly
about that daylight it is mostly because ne assumes
- altogether unwauentedly ~ that all others see
things as he does And when occasion arises for
speech about his religion, he often speaks in terms
that are clear enough for him, but are nearly mean
ingless in the ears that receive them.
Doubtless we all need to speak more frequently
Of the faith But we need even more to pray daily
and hourly that what we speak will be understood
nest telling And only God can stir the mind and
win OF our hearer to hear with understanding and
appreciation Always work how we will, 'it is God
that giyeth the increase"
When we hear the accusation that we keep our
religion secret, that we shave everything and don't
tell anybody" we may indeed reproach ourselves
for lack of a stronger missionary effort but We
need not feel that we are altogether at fault. We
shall not be so unkind TO retort, I'VE do tell you,
but YOU don't listen Yet such reply would not
be wholly unwarranted
The thing to remember is that we must 90 right
on telling We have 10 state the truths and
over We have to refute the old eaLmnies
again and again. We have to know our faith,
live our faith and talk our faith, trelessly, per
severing unto the end And must not be exas-
perated when, after years of effort to make per-
son understand, he turns on us at last and asks,
We'll, why haven't you said so2"
Our Lord Himself sometimes cried after dev-
ering an important lesson, "He that has ears TO
hear let him hear" Many indeed have ears, but not
ears to hear" The will TO listen, to attempt TO
understand, IS too frequently absent from the per
son upon whose ears our words fall as sounds
AHA
There are millions Of such netsons Our great
Catholic press our splendid library Of Catholic
books constantly increased by the energy and gen
ms OF Catholic writers are things completely un
known to the non-Catholics We meet with and work
with day after day. There is tremendous audience
for our telling; hardly handful of that audience
know what we are telling, or that we are telling
anything And when suddenly one of the auditor!
actually hears he is filled with establishment first
and then wonders why the great news came 4
him so late-and he blames our silence.
Let Us keep right on telling. and praying tha
people will listen.