The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1923. FAITH

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 6, 8 February 1923, Page 29

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1923. FAITH

gens tarn fera, nemo omnium tarn est T immanis , cujus meniem non imbuerit deo--9' — i ram gens tarn ‘There is no nation tarn est I* immanis . cujus mentem non imhuerit deoi rum opinio-. “There is no nation so barbarous, non© SO' savage, whose mind is not imbued with some idea of the gods/’ says Cicero. “There is on© self-existent Being; everything that is generated is from Him,” says Orpheus. To multiply passages from Pagan writers, who profess their belief in God and argue that it is common to all nations, is not necessary; for it has passed into a truism that, as Cicero says, no nation is so barbarous as to be without an idea of God. The vague notions of the minds of the poor barbarians groping unconsciously towards the Light were,, in civilised countries, developed and examined by the great thinkers of the past until following the lead of Aristotle H maestro di color chi sanno Greek sages attained to a remarkably accurate knowledge of the nature of the Supreme Being, in so far as the mind of man is capable of knowing Him. Thus by painful labor and serious study continued from age to age, human reason was able not only to assert that there must be one God above all but also that He is the first cause of all things. Nay, arguing from the effects to the cause, men who studied profoundly the nature of the universe, and in particular, the nature of the mental and spiritual faculties of the human soul, were able to speak with certainty of many of God’s attributes. All that the scholars of old Greece and of old Rome knew, is gathered up and presented in orderly detail in the introductory articles of the Summa of St. Thomas, who follows Aristotle in demonstrating from reason that God is one, infinite, personal, eternal, immutable, -existent; that He is supreme goodness, beauty and truth omnipotent and omnipresent. So that any man who studies these articles, which are the prearnbula fidei ■ the avenues to faith— recognise how wisely the Vatican Council points out that divine revelation contains many truths which, though difficult of attainment, may yet be known by men from human reason, alone. ',.r ' V * I.The Council, however, goes on to say that it is only by revelation,that these truths may be known with firm certitude and without admixture of error by all mankind. We have proof of this in the vague and

puerile ideas of God among uncivilised people, and no less in the blind gropings and pitiful struggles even of scholars after the truth. It follows that even the preamhula of faith are difficult of acquisition for the generality of men, and, from this, that natural religion must always be very unsatisfactory to souls that realise the emptiness of this life and crave inarticulately for something higher and more . satisfying. Only in the possession of revelation can the fulness be found that satiates the infinite yearnings of the human soul after happiness; only in faith is found the key which unlocks the world of revealed truth and enables the mind of man to seize and to possess it without shadow of fear and without the unrest of doubt. And only from God can faith come; for it is a supernatural gift, and, being a gift, something to which we have no right or title. A priori, then, it is illogical to wonder why this or that person whose life is to all outward appearances above, reproach has no faith; for faith, of its own nature, is as much above human merit as life is above the reach of the dead body from which it has fled. A posteriori, however, we do know that God who wills that all men be saved will give to each man sufficient grace to save him; and from this we may argue that if a man has not faith it is because he has not co-operated with the grace which God has given him, or else that the grace will yet be given—to be received or rejected. Sometimes God grace comes to men, as it were, violently. In this way did it come to Magdalene and to Paul. But such violences of grace are not the ordinary rule of God Providence with individuals or with nations. The ordinary means of obtaining grace are prayer and the Sacraments; the latter are for believers, but the former for all; and we cannot doubt that earnest, humble, persevering prayer will always have its effect. Remembering these elementary principles let us look at the world as we find it to-day. Outside the Catholic Church and we have frequent testimony for it from those who ought to know best-religion is cold and faith is weak among the multitudes or absent altogether, there are many good people in all the Churches; but there are millions who have no sense of religion whatever; many who never seek and never find in it the comfort and the strength it holds for all; who leave it entirely out of their thoughts day after day, and never tnmk of regulating their lives on its principles. There are also many who have lost faith in the Churches, but go on hoping that they will find the truth. In all the modern movements for something better and higher there is that striving after the supernatural on the part of men who are not aware that the immortal soul which was breathed into them is really fighting to get back to God from whom it came. In social movements, in art and in poetry and in literature, that reaching forward W hJf n o n T n 1S discermble everywhere. Within the last half century science and art and philosophy have come closer to God, and the day has gone when anyone but a sciolist would dare assert that the old, old truths that children learn about the Supreme Being are in contradiction with the results of modern thought w and Wallace have spoken for the scientists* Weds has spoken for socialists; Brunetiere and Banes' and lately Psichan, have witnessed for literature and nn t , vfuu ha Y e I turned their backs on the old wornout shibboleths of the Yoltaires and the Huxleys and if we are not actually movino- fast towards a/age of J? lief , Vi tbe , ancient truths we are certainly on the threshold of the dawn of a momentous era. * ... It is not a little thing to be able to say that for every scholar who is an atheist we can appeal to a greater whose studies have led him to God—or at least to the Pagan philosopher's ideas of God, which as we have said are the avenues to faith. It is still more that many who came so far have been blessed with the vision which makes the way so clear and so easy forever • why some remain at the portals and others are inside is a mystery which can find no explanation except in the principles we have laid down. Human reason can bring: men to believe in God j but the faith -that brines the certainty and the security of revelation is from God alone. It has been made more obvious than ever .it

was before that reason rightly exercised proclaims a Creator and Ruler of all things. There the foundation is laid upon which supernatural religion may be reared for all sincere men in God’s good time. We who have the faith ought never forget that it is a gift for which we should thank God daily. In struggle and temptation we should learn to rely on it and to use its supernatural aids and resources, hoping for the blessed reward that it promises hereafter when the shadows have passed away and we see clearly all things in the light of the Great White Rose. Charity ought to move us to pray for those who are seeking still in deeper shadows than we have ever known, that by the sincerity of their purpose and the honesty of their own efforts they may deserve one day that touch from the Hand of God which will remove the scales from their eyes and reveal- to them the eternal answers to all their problems.