Year: 1877

| "


THE CATHOLIC LIFE.


Father Barke has recently spoken as


follows on the realities OF Catholicism and
| Catholic life There are many who believe


in the Church of God, who have been born
| and baptized in her fold, or who by some


extraordinary grace, and it is, indeed, an
| extraordinary grace, were called from the
ranks of infidelity, darkness, and error


iato the admirable light of Gud. They
| belong to Gods Holy Church, bat they


seem actually ashamed of what should be


their prOudest boast. If they go out to u
| dinner party they are ashamed to do THE,


to make this sign of the Cross, this glori-


ous sign that in the day of Judgment shall


chime upon the forehead IF the elect of
| God, that Gross through which alone, the


Scripture tells Us, the joy and glory of


Heaven Can be obtained. But there are


others who are fervent, loud, blatant in


their lip professions of Catholicity, who


are Jealous, farious in their denunciations


of all optside the Church, even of those
| whom the Church herself absolves. But


look at their lives. How do they cores


pond with their professions Do they
| frequent the eacraments of the Church Z
Do they approach the confessional Do
you ever see them partake of the sacred
| banquet of the Holy Communion No,


they are mockery to the intidel, they are


stumbling block to the believers. They
| are spoken of as the criminal classes the


debduche, the drunkard, the fraudulent
| tradesman, the dishonest servant, are all
| to be found in these ranks; the careless,


in their profession of Catholicity, but care


less of every injunction the Catholic


Church imposes. Are they faithful, are


they real in their lives, they whom Christ
Himself describes as those who with their


lips indeed confess His truth, but who in


n iuea Tbo
every first essential of the true Catholic, of
the true man, is reality. The Church, unlike
anything else calling itself religion on
this earth, puts the professors of it's doc
trines to rude tests. Do you believe in the |
Church If you do, you will have to stafVe |
yourself on the days of fast which she
imposes. You will have to submit to pain !
and to humiliation. Are you a proud mani
Are yon an intellectual mani Well, you
will have TO go to some poor priest, who |
perhaps does not know half as much as |
you. You will have to kneeI at his feet, |
you will have to confess to him, you will |
have to speak to him of things that you
would rather die--rather commit suicide
than reveal to any other living being. IF
you be true man, writhing in sorrow and
humiliation, you will have to reveal to
him the darkest secrets of your soul. You
will have to acknowledge to him your sins,
your excesses, your baseness, your false-
hood, your dishonesty, your filthiness of
soul. These are indeed rude tests. Where
there is reality there must be rude tests
Contemplate the eternal God born in the
stable on Christmas morning, His mother
hunted from house to house, driven as O
last resort to a stable; the Child God
brought forth amidst beasts, aud Graded
in the straw of their mapger, WAS not this
q sc fl GENTLY rude test of the truth, the
reality of Gcd as he entered the world
Contemplate Him as He leaves il, pailed to
q cross, hard, rough bed for q dying man,
His head lacerateA with tborns, HIS body
torn with scourges, His lips parched with
thirst, with wounded body aud broken
heart, dying for the sins of rien. These
were indeed rude tests that Gods reality
endured. he came into the world a man.
He took upon bimself the heritage of mis-
cry. He proved himself true man, and
from the moment of his birth to the mo
ment of his death, he never shrank from
agony or sorrow. Outside the Catholic
Church there is no test to which those that
call themselves members of the body must
submit. The Protestant minister that steps
into the pulpit in the trim black robes of
his ministry to preach the doctrine of per-
fection, he is a married man ; he has wife
aud children of his own; he has the lux
uries and comforts that hjs life affords be
denies himself nothiDg-whe asks him to
deny himself3 But the Catholic priest ,
must resist his human inclination and pas
sious-must resist them, aye, even to the
letting OF blooo. de must, II necessary,
ay bare his own back to the discipline,
and cut the flesh and draw the blood that
would rebel but before he can come into
The pulpit-befOre he can stand at the altar
he must be like the angels of God in his
personal purity. Is not this q rude test
The true Church must impose rude tests,
and true men must endure them. The
Catholic that will not submit TO the CbuTch's
Catholic that is Mahome-
Jan or Mormon in his sensuality--do not
tell me that he has any other claim or title
20 the name of Christian than that bap-
.ismal robe of Innocence and adoption
which he has not merely defiled. but torn
INTO shTeds by his offences. VeritGs de
Eerra ortG Sst. It sprang forth from the
virgin earth of the pure womb of Mary, s
when Jesus Christ, our fellOw-man, was
torn into the world, and none can claim
fellowship with Christ except by true con
IOrmity With the principles Hls life and