By Henry Aloysius Barry
If there are vast numbers who have not the true faith, this cannot be woven into an argument against the divinity of the Church or in favor of discrimination on the part of the Holy Ghost. It is on the other hand I should think a melancholy evidence, and a sad argument, of the world's indisposition.
Says St. Thomas:—"It is the function of divine Providence to provide each and every one with the requisites toward salvation, as long as no impediment on their part is made to stand in the way. If any one,—for example, a savage in the forest—obediently follows the leading of his natural reason in the matter of desiring what is good, and avoiding what is bad, we cannot but most certainly maintain that God, by internal inspiration, will reveal to him all that is necessary in point of believing or that He will send across his way some preacher of the faith, as He sent Peter to Cornelius." (St. Thomas de veritate,) "
Although one cannot on the strength of his own free will merit or acquire divine grace, one may nevertheless prevent himself from receiving it."—"Inasmuch as it is in the power of one's own free will to impede or not impede the reception of divine grace, one justly has the guilt laid up against him when he lays an obstacle in the way of receiving grace." (Idem Contra Gent. lib. 3, c. 159.) The apostle said, when addressing the clergy of Ephesus:—"Take heed to yourselves and the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost has placed you bishops to rule the Church of God." (Acts xx. 28.) To the Holy Ghost, therefore, the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church owes its marvellous force, its triumphs and indefectibility, that resistance to hell's portals, which was prophesied by Our Lord. Yes, "If it be of God you cannot overthrow it." The wondrous preservation of the Church then, through the ages, flashing the radiance of her chariot wheels on every generation and her triumphal onward sweep in the face of the furious gale of mortal passion and a thrice resented restriction on human liberty mark beyond the shadow of doubt her superhuman magnetism, force and character and emphasize the divinity of the Third Person, in Whose keeping her Founder has placed her. To meet all emergencies and changed conditions, the Holy Ghost inspires holy founders with a counter-spirit. These chosen souls raise regiments recruited from such persons as are adapted to the special work projected and are attracted individually by the Holy Ghost, by the spirit and purpose embodied in a particular religious rule.
The priesthood and religious life are under the dominance of the Holy Ghost both in their personnel and ministrative aspect. "Let no man take unto himself that honor, unless He be called as Aaron," that is drawn by the spirit. No one I fancy would be rash enough to obtrude himself upon the sanctuary or monastery without a conviction, ratified by the tribunal of penance, that the inward voice is the voice of the Holy Ghost calling Him.
There can be no doubt of the wisdom displayed in the vast ecclesiastic system, spiritual, moral, ethical, social, industrial massed in a solid economic unity and world-wide in its scope without peril of disrupting that same unity, like so many arteries in the physical body. It only needs the doing of his own part by each one before we should witness the conquest of the kingdom of God made, in a measure, complete. All the forces of the Church must be united and riveted together in a bond of the deepest, most fervid sympathy and effective cooperation. If the divine rhythm is at times somewhat blurred, this happens because an individual player does not follow his score as the Holy Ghost has written it on his conscience and in His institute or because through undisciplined zeal a player tampers with the score or thumps out a man-written note or in conceited virtuosity enlarges on his own part with the result of an inharmonious phrasing. If we but examine we shall find that thumping out a false note amounts to about the same as omitting a right one.
To play one's own part of life's score perfectly is all God requires of any one. If a musician has half his fancy occupied with the scoro and execution of another player he cannot avoid making mistakes. If we wish after these incidental remarks furthermore to emphasize the divinity of the Holy Ghost, we might summon attention to the fact that though every species of creature, human and angelic, has been invoked in Holy Scripture to sound forth the praise of God, the Holy Ghost is not to be found anywhere on the list. The canticle of the three youths in the book of Daniel covers all creation, 3 T et the only mention made of the word spirit is the one where David speaks of it in the sense of the "wind"—"Stormy winds". (Ps. cxlviii.) St. Paul in his first Epistle to the Colossians, and St. Peter also, enumerates the very highest creatures— "the angels and powers and virtues." (I. Peter iii, 22.) Now if the Holy Ghost were but a mere creature, as the heretical allege, He must needs have found mention in the Scriptural lists, which, as we have remarked, runs the scale, the whole gamut of creatures with its octaves, simple, double and triple.
Says St. Thomas:—"It is the function of divine Providence to provide each and every one with the requisites toward salvation, as long as no impediment on their part is made to stand in the way. If any one,—for example, a savage in the forest—obediently follows the leading of his natural reason in the matter of desiring what is good, and avoiding what is bad, we cannot but most certainly maintain that God, by internal inspiration, will reveal to him all that is necessary in point of believing or that He will send across his way some preacher of the faith, as He sent Peter to Cornelius." (St. Thomas de veritate,) "
Although one cannot on the strength of his own free will merit or acquire divine grace, one may nevertheless prevent himself from receiving it."—"Inasmuch as it is in the power of one's own free will to impede or not impede the reception of divine grace, one justly has the guilt laid up against him when he lays an obstacle in the way of receiving grace." (Idem Contra Gent. lib. 3, c. 159.) The apostle said, when addressing the clergy of Ephesus:—"Take heed to yourselves and the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost has placed you bishops to rule the Church of God." (Acts xx. 28.) To the Holy Ghost, therefore, the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church owes its marvellous force, its triumphs and indefectibility, that resistance to hell's portals, which was prophesied by Our Lord. Yes, "If it be of God you cannot overthrow it." The wondrous preservation of the Church then, through the ages, flashing the radiance of her chariot wheels on every generation and her triumphal onward sweep in the face of the furious gale of mortal passion and a thrice resented restriction on human liberty mark beyond the shadow of doubt her superhuman magnetism, force and character and emphasize the divinity of the Third Person, in Whose keeping her Founder has placed her. To meet all emergencies and changed conditions, the Holy Ghost inspires holy founders with a counter-spirit. These chosen souls raise regiments recruited from such persons as are adapted to the special work projected and are attracted individually by the Holy Ghost, by the spirit and purpose embodied in a particular religious rule.
The priesthood and religious life are under the dominance of the Holy Ghost both in their personnel and ministrative aspect. "Let no man take unto himself that honor, unless He be called as Aaron," that is drawn by the spirit. No one I fancy would be rash enough to obtrude himself upon the sanctuary or monastery without a conviction, ratified by the tribunal of penance, that the inward voice is the voice of the Holy Ghost calling Him.
There can be no doubt of the wisdom displayed in the vast ecclesiastic system, spiritual, moral, ethical, social, industrial massed in a solid economic unity and world-wide in its scope without peril of disrupting that same unity, like so many arteries in the physical body. It only needs the doing of his own part by each one before we should witness the conquest of the kingdom of God made, in a measure, complete. All the forces of the Church must be united and riveted together in a bond of the deepest, most fervid sympathy and effective cooperation. If the divine rhythm is at times somewhat blurred, this happens because an individual player does not follow his score as the Holy Ghost has written it on his conscience and in His institute or because through undisciplined zeal a player tampers with the score or thumps out a man-written note or in conceited virtuosity enlarges on his own part with the result of an inharmonious phrasing. If we but examine we shall find that thumping out a false note amounts to about the same as omitting a right one.
To play one's own part of life's score perfectly is all God requires of any one. If a musician has half his fancy occupied with the scoro and execution of another player he cannot avoid making mistakes. If we wish after these incidental remarks furthermore to emphasize the divinity of the Holy Ghost, we might summon attention to the fact that though every species of creature, human and angelic, has been invoked in Holy Scripture to sound forth the praise of God, the Holy Ghost is not to be found anywhere on the list. The canticle of the three youths in the book of Daniel covers all creation, 3 T et the only mention made of the word spirit is the one where David speaks of it in the sense of the "wind"—"Stormy winds". (Ps. cxlviii.) St. Paul in his first Epistle to the Colossians, and St. Peter also, enumerates the very highest creatures— "the angels and powers and virtues." (I. Peter iii, 22.) Now if the Holy Ghost were but a mere creature, as the heretical allege, He must needs have found mention in the Scriptural lists, which, as we have remarked, runs the scale, the whole gamut of creatures with its octaves, simple, double and triple.
