7. - That The World's Belief In Christ Is The Result Of Divine Power, Not Of Human Persuasion

But it is thoroughly ridiculous to make mention of the false divinity of Romulus as any way comparable to that of Christ. Nevertheless, if Romulus lived about six hundred years before Cicero, in an age which already was so enlightened  that it rejected all impossibilities, how much more, in an age which certainly was more enlightened, being six hundred years later, in an age of Cicero himself, and of the emperors Augustus and Tiberius, would the human mind have refused to listen or believe in the resurrection of Christ's body and its ascension into heaven, and have scouted it as an impossibility, had not the divinity of the truth itself, or the truth of the divinity, and corroborating miraculous signs, proved that it could happen and had happened?

Through virtue of these testimonies, and notwithstanding the opposition and terror of so many cruel persecutions, the resurrection and immortality of the flesh, first in Christ, subsequently in all in the new world, was believed, was intrepidly proclaimed, and was sown over the whole world, to be fertilized richly with the blood of the martyrs. For the predictions of the prophets that had preceded the events were read, they were corroborated by powerful signs, and the truth was seen to be not contradictory to reason, but only different from customary ideas, so that at length the world embraced the faith it had furiously persecuted.

8. - Of Miracles Which Were Wrought That The World Might Believe In Christ, And Which Have Not Ceased Since The World Believed

Why, they say, are those miracles, which you affirm were wrought formerly, wrought no longer? I might, indeed, reply that miracles were necessary before the world believed, in order that it might believe. And whoever now-a-days demands to see prodigies that he may believe, is himself a great prodigy because he does not believe, though the whole world does. But they make these objections for the sole purpose of insinuating that even those former miracles were never wrought. How, then, is it that everywhere Christ is celebrated with such firm belief in His resurrection and ascension? How is it that in enlightened times, in which every impossibility is rejected, the world has, without any miracles, believed things marvellously incredible? Or will they say that these things were credible, and therefore were credited? Why then do they themselves not believe?

Our argument, therefore, is a summary one - either incredible things which were not witnessed have caused the world to believe other incredible things which both occurred and were witnessed, or this matter was so credible that it needed no miracles in proof of it, and therefore convicts these unbelievers of unpardonable scepticism. This I might say for the sake of refusing these most frivolous objectors. But we cannot deny that many miracles were wrought to confirm that one grand and health-giving miracle of Christ's ascension to heaven with the flesh in which He rose. For these most trustworthy books of ours contain in one narrative both the miracles that were wrought and the creed which they were wrought to confirm.

The miracles were published that they might produce faith, and the faith which they produced brought them into greater prominence. For they are read in congregations that they may be believed, and yet they would not be so read unless they were believed. For even now miracles are wrought in the name of Christ, whether by His sacraments or by the prayers or relics of His saints; but they are not so brilliant and conspicuous as to cause them to be published with such glory as accompanied the former miracles. For the canon of the sacred writings, which behooved to be closed, causes those to be everywhere recited, and to sink into the memory of all the congregations; but these modern miracles are scarcely known even to the whole population in the midst of which they are wrought, and at the best are confined to one spot. For frequently they are known only to a very few persons, while all the rest are ignorant of them, especially if the state is a large one; and when they are reported to others in other localities, there is no sufficient authority to give them prompt and unwavering credence, although they are reported to the faithful by the faithful.

The miracle which was wrought at Milan when I was there, and by which a blind man was restored to sight, could come to the knowledge of many; for not only is the city a large one, but also the emperor was there at the time, and the occurrence was witnessed by an immense concourse of people that had gathered to the bodies of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius, which had long lain concealed and unknown, but were now made known to the bishop Ambrose in a dream, and discovered by him. By virtue of these remains the darkness of that blind man was scattered, and he saw the light of the day.

But who but a very small number are aware of the cure which was wrought upon Innocentius, ex-advocate of the deputy prefecture, a cure wrought at Carthage, in my presence, and under my own eyes? For when I and my brother Alypius, who were not yet clergymen, though already servants of God, came from abroad, this man received us, and made us live with him, for he and all his household were devotedly pious. He was being treated by medical men for fistula, of which he had a large number intricately seated in the rectum. He had already undergone an operation, and the surgeons were using every means at their command for his relief.

In that operation he had suffered long-continued and acute pain; yet among the many folds of the gut, one had escaped the operators so entirely, that, though they ought to have laid it open with the knife, the never touched it. And thus, though all those that had been opened were cured, this one remained as it was, and frustrated all their labour. The patient, having his suspicions awakened by the delay thus occasioned, and fearing greatly a second operation, which another medical man - one of his own domestics - had told him he must undergo, though this man had not even been allowed to witnessed the first operation, and had been banished from the house, and with difficulty allowed to come back to his enraged master's presence - the patient, I say, broke out to the surgeons, saying, "Are you going to cut me again? Are you, after all, to fulfill the prediction of that man whom you would not allow even to be present?" The surgeons laughed at the unskilled doctor, and soothed their patient's fears with fair words and promises. So several days passed, and yet nothing they tried did him good. Still they persisted in promising that they would cure the fistula by drugs, without the knife. They called in also another old practitioner of great repute in that department, Ammonius (for he was still alive at that time); and he, after examining the part, promised the same result as themselves from their care and skill.

On this great authority, the patient became confident, and as if already well, vented his good spirits in facetious remarks at the expenses of his domestic physician, who had predicted a second operation. To make a long story short, after a number of days had thus uselessly elapsed, the surgeons, wearied and confused, had at last to confess that he could only be cured by the knife. Agitated with excessive fear, he was terrified, and grew pale with dread; and when he collected himself and was able to speak, he ordered them to go away and never to return. Worn out with weeping, and driven with necessity, it occurred to him to call in an Alexandrian, who was at that time esteemed a wonderfully skilled operator, that he might perform the operation his rage would not suffer them to do. But when he had come, and examined with a professional eye the traces of their careful work, he acted the part of a good man, and persuaded his patient to allow those same hands the satisfaction of finishing his cure which had begun it with a skill that excited his admiration, adding that there was no doubt his only hope of a cure was by an operation, but that it was thoroughly inconsistent with his nature to win the credit of the cure by doing the little that remained to be done, and rob of their reward men whose consummate skill, care, and diligence he could not but admire when he saw the traces of their work.

They were therefore again received to favour; and it was agreed that, in the presence of the Alexandrian, they should operate on the fistula, which, by the consent of all, could now only be cured by the knife. The operation was deferred till the following day. But when they had left, there arose in the house such a wailing, in sympathy with the excessive despondency of the master, that is seemed to us like the mourning at a funeral, and we could scarcely repress it. Holy men were in the habit of visiting him daily; Saturninus of the blessed memory, at that time bishop of Uzali, and the presbyter Gelosus, and the deacons of the church of Carthage; and among these was the bishop Aurelius, who alone of them all survives - a man to be named by us with due reverence - and with him I have often spoken of this affair, as we conversed together about the wonderful works of God, and I have found that he distinctly remembers what I am now relating. When these persons visited him that evening according to their custom, he besought them, with pitiable tears, that they would do him the honour of being present next day at what he judged his funeral rather than his suffering. For such was the terror his former pains had produced, that he made no doubt he would die in the hands of the surgeons. They comforted him, and exhorted him to put his trust in God, and nerve his will like a man. Then we went to prayer; but while we, in the usual way, were kneeling and bending to the ground, he cast himself down, as if some one were hurling him violently to the earth, and began to pray; but in what a manner, with what earnestness and emotion, with what a flood of tears, with what groans and sobs, that shook his whole body, and almost prevented him speaking, who can describe!

Whether the others prayed, and had not their attention wholly diverted by this conduct, I do not know. For myself, I could not pray at all. This only I briefly said in my heart: "O Lord, what prayers of Thy people dost Thou hear if Thou hearest not these?" For it seemed to me that nothing could be added to this prayer, unless he expired in praying. We rose from our knees, and, receiving the blessing of the bishop, departed, the patient beseeching his visitors to be present next morning, they exhorting him to keep up his heart. The dreaded day dawned. The servants of God were present, as they had promised to be; the surgeons arrived; all that the circumstances required was ready; the frightful instruments are produced; all look on in wonder and suspense. While those who have most influence with the patient are cheering his fainting spirit, his limbs are arranged on the couch so as to suit the hand of the operator; the knots of the bandages are united; the part is bared; the surgeon examines it, and, with knife in hand, eagerly looks for the sinus that is to be cut. He searches for it with his eyes; he feels for it with his finger; he applies every kind of scrutiny: he finds a perfectly firm cicatrix! No words of mine can describe the joy, and praise, and thanksgiving to the merciful and almighty God which was poured from the lips of all, with tears of gladness. Let the scene be imagined rather than described!

In the same city of Carthage lived Innocentia, a very devout woman of the highest rank in that state. She had cancer in one of her breasts, a disease which, as physician say, is incurable. Ordinarily, therefore, they either amputate, and so separate from the body the member on which the disease has seized, or, that the patient's life may be prolonged a little, though death is inevitable even if somewhat delayed, they abandon all remedies, following, as they say, the advice of Hippocrates. This the lady we speak of had been advised to by skillful physician, who was intimate with her family; and she betook herself to God alone by prayer. On the approach of Easter, she was instructed in a dream to wait for the first woman that came out from the baptistery after being baptized, and to ask her to make the sign of Christ upon her sore. She did so, and was immediately cured.

The physician who had advised her to apply no remedy if she wished to live a little longer, when he had examined her after this, and found that she who, on his former examination, was afflicted with that disease was now perfectly cured, eagerly asked her what remedy she had used, anxious, as we may well believe, to discover the drug which should defeat the decision of Hippocrates. But when she told him what had happened, he is said to have replied, with religious politeness, though with a contemptuous tone, and an expression which made her fear he would utter some blasphemy against Christ, "I thought you would make some great discovery to me." She, shuddering at his indifference, quickly replied, "What great thing was it for Christ to heal a cancer, who raised one who had been four days dead?" When, therefore, I had heard this, I was extremely indignant that so great a miracle, wrought in that well- known city, and on a person who was certainly not obscure, should not be divulged, and I considered that she should be spoken to, if not reprimanded on this score. And when she replied to me that she had not kept silence on the subject, I asked the women with whom she was best acquainted whether they had ever heard of this before. They told me they knew nothing of it. "See", I said, "what your not keeping silence amounts to, since not even those who are so familiar with you know of it." And as I had only briefly heard the story, I made her tell how the whole thing happened, from beginning to the end, while the other women listened in great astonishment, and glorified God.

A gouty doctor of the same city, when he had given in his name for baptism and had been prohibited the day before his baptism from being baptized that year, by black wooly-haired boys who appeared to him in his dreams, and whom he understood to be devils, and when, though they trod on his feet, and inflicted the acutest pain he had ever yet experienced, he refused to obey them, but overcame them, and would not deter being washed in the laver of regeneration, was relieved in the very act of baptism, not only of the extraordinary pain he was tortured with but also of the disease itself, so that, though he lived a long time afterwards, he never suffered from gout; and yet who knows of this miracle? We, however, do know it, and so, too, do the small number of brethren who were in the neighbourhood, and to whose ears it might come.

An old comedian of Curubis was cured at baptism not only of paralysis, but also of hernia, and, being delivered from both afflictions, came up out of the font of regeneration as if he had nothing wrong with his body. Who outside of Curubis knows of this, or who but a very few might hear it elsewhere? But we, when we heard of it, made the man come to Carthage, by order of the holy bishop Aurelius, although we had already ascertained the fact on the information of persons whose word we could not doubt.

Hesperius, of a tribunitian family, and a neighbour, of our own, has a farm called Zubedi in the Fussalian district; and, finding that his family, his cattle, and his servants were suffering from the malice of evil spirits, he asked our presbyters, during my absence, that one of them would go with him and banish the spirits by his prayers. One went, offered there the sacrifice of the body of Christ, praying with all his might that vexation might cease. It did cease forthwith, through God's mercy. Now he had received from a friend of his own some holy earth brought from Jerusalem, where Christ, having been buried, rose again the third day. This earth he had hung up in his bedroom to preserve himself from harm. But when his house was purged of that demonical invasion, he began to consider what should be done with the earth; for his reverence for it made him unwilling to have it any longer in his bedroom.

It so happened that I and Maximinus bishop of Synita, and then my colleague, were in the neighbourhood. Hesperius asked us to visit him, and we did so. When he had related all the circumstances, he begged that the earth might be buried somewhere, and that the spot should be made a place of prayer where Christians might assemble for the worship of God. We made no objection: it was done as he desired. There was in that neighbourhood a young countryman who was paralytic, who, when he heard of this, begged his parents to take him without delay to that holy place. When he had been brought there, he prayed, and forthwith went away on his own feet perfectly cured.

There is a country-seat called Victoriana, less than thirty miles from Hippo-regius. At it there is a moment to the Milanese martyrs, Protasius and Gervasius. Thither a young man was carried, who, when he was watering his horse one summer day at noon in a pool of a river, had been taken possession of by a devil. As he lay at the monument, near death, or even quite like a dead person, the lady of the manor, with her maids and religious attendants, entered the place for evening prayer and praise, as her custom was, and they began to sing hymns. As this sound the young man, as if electrified, was thoroughly arouse, and with frightful screaming seized the altar, and held it as if he did not dare or were not able to let it go, and as if were fixed or tied to it; and the devil in him, with loud lamentation, besought that he might be spared, and confessed where and when and how he took possession of the youth.

At last, declaring that he would go out of him, he named one by one the parts of his body which he threatened to mutilate as he went out; and with these words he departed from the man. But his eye, falling out on his cheek, hung by a slender vein as by a root, and the whole of the pupil which had been black became white. When this was witnessed by those present (others too had now gathered to his cries, and had all joined in prayer for him) although they were delighted that he had recovered his sanity of mind, yet, on the other hand, they were grieved about his eye, and said he should seek medical advice. But his sister's husband, who had brought him there, said, "God, who has banished the devil, is able to restore his eye at the prayers of His saints." Therewith he replaced the eye that was fallen out and hanging, and bound it in its place with his handkerchief as well as he could, and advised him not to loose the bandage for seven days. When he did so, he found it quite healthy. Others also were cured there, but of them it were tedious to speak.

I know that a young woman of Hippo was immediately dispossessed of a devil, on anointing herself with oil mixed with the tears of the presbyter who had been praying for her. I know also that a bishop once prayed for a demonic young man whom he never saw, and that he was cured on the spot.

There was a fellow-townsman of ours at Hippo, Florentius, and old man, religious and poor, who supported himself as a tailor. Having lost his coat, and not having means to buy another, he prayed to the Twenty Martyrs, who have a very celebrated memorial shrine in our town, begging in a distinct voice that he might be clothed. Some scoffing young men, who happened to be present, heard him, and followed him with their sarcasm as he went away, as if he had asked the martyrs for fifty pence to buy a coat. But he, walking on in silence, saw on the shore a great fish, gasping as if just cast up, and having secured it with the good nature assistance of the youths, he sold it for curing to a cook of the name of Catosus, a good Christian man, telling him how he had come by it, and receiving for it three hundred pence, which he laid out in wool, that his wife might exercise her skill upon, and make into a coat for him, But, on cutting up the fish, the cook found a gold ring in its belly; and forthwith, moved with compassion, and influenced, too, by religious fear, gave it up to the man, saying, "See how the Twenty Martyrs have clothed you."

When the bishop Projectus was bringing the relics of the most glorious martyr Stephen to the waters of Tibilis, a great concourse of people came to meet him at the shrine. There a blind woman entreated that she might be led to the bishop who was carrying the relics. He gave her the flowers he was carrying. She took them, applied them to her eyes, and forthwith saw. Those who were present was astounded, while she, with every expression of joy, preceded them, pursuing her way without further need of a guide.

Lucillus bishop of Sinita, in the neighbourhood of the colonial town of Hippo, was carrying in procession some relics of the same martyr, which had been deposited in the castle of Sinita. A fistula under which he had long laboured, and which his private physician was watching an opportunity to cut, was suddenly cured by the mere  carrying of that sacred fardel - at least, afterwards there was no trace of it in his body.

Eucharius, a Spanish priest, residing at Calama, was for a long time a sufferer from stone. By the relics of the same martyr, which the bishop Possidius brought him, he was cured. Afterwards the same priest, sinking under another disease, was lying dead, and already they were binding his hands. By the succour of the same martyr he was raised to life, the priest's cloak having been brought from the oratory and laid upon the corpse.

There was there an old nobleman named Martial, who had a great aversion to the Christian religion, but whose daughter was a Christian, while her husband had been baptized that year. When he was ill, they besought him with tears and prayers to become a Christian, but he positively refused, and dismissed them from his presence in a storm of indignation. It occurred to the son-in-law to go to the oratory of Saint Stephen, and there pray for him with all earnestness that God might give him a right mind, so that he should not delay believing in Christ.

This he did it with great groaning and tears, and the burning fervour of sincere piety; then, as he left the place, he took some of the flowers that were lying there, and, as it was already night, laid them by his father's head, who so slept. And lo! before dawn, he cries out for someone to run for the bishop; but it happened at that time to be with me at Hippo. So when he had heard that he was from home, he asked the presbyters to come. They came. To the joy and amazement of all, he declared that he believed, and he was baptized. As long as he remained in life, these words were ever on his lips: "Christ, receive my spirit" though he was not aware that these were the last words of the most blessed Stephen when he was stoned by the Jews. There were his last words also, for not long after he himself also gave up the ghost.

There, too, by the same martyr, two men, one a citizen, the other a stranger, were cured of gout; but while the citizen was absolutely cured, the stranger was only informed what he should apply when the pain returned; and when he followed this advice, the pain was at once relieved.

Audurus is the name of an estate, where there is a church that contains a memorial shrine of the martyr Stephen. It happened that, as a little boy was playing in the court, the oxen drawing a wagon went out of the track and crushed him with the wheel, so that immediately he seemed at his last gasp. His mother snatched him up, and laid him at the shrine, and not only did he revive, but also appeared uninjured.

A religious female, who lived at Caspalium, a neighbouring estate, when she saw so ill as to be despaired of, had her dress brought to this shrine, but before it was brought back she was gone. However, her parents wrapped her corpse in the dress, and her breath returning, she became quite well.

At Hippo, a Syrian called Bassus was praying at the relics of the same martyr for his daughter, who was dangerously ill. He too had brought her dress with him to the shrine. But as he prayed, behold, his servants ran from the house to tell him she was dead. His friends, however, intercepted them, and forbade them to tell him, lest he should bewail her in public. And when he had returned to his house, which was already ringing with the lamentations of his family, and had thrown on his daughter's body the dress he was carrying, she was restored to life.

There, too, the son of a man, Irenaus, one of the tax gatherers, took ill and died. And while his body was lying lifeless, and the last rites were being prepared, amidst the weeping and mourning of all, one of the friends who were consoling the father suggested that the body should be anointed with the oil of the same martyr. It was done, and he revived.

Likewise Eleusinus, a man of tribunitian rank among us, laid his infant son, who had died, on the shrine of the martyr, which is in the suburb where he lived, and, after prayer, which he poured out there with many tears, he took up his child alive.

What am I to do? I am so pressed by the promise of finishing this work, that I cannot record all the miracles I know; and doubtless several of our adherents, when they read what I have narrated, will regret that I have omitted so many which they, as well as I, certainly know. Even now I beg these persons to excuse me, and to consider how long it would take me to relate all those miracles, which the necessity of finishing the work I have undertaken forces me to omit. For were I to be silent of all others, and to record exclusively the miracles of healing which were wrought in the district of Calama and of Hippo by means of the this martyr - I mean the most glorious Stephen - they would fill many volumes; and yet all even of these could not be collected, but only those of which narratives have been written for public recital.

For when I saw, in our own times, frequent signs of the presence of divine powers similar to those who had been given of old, I desired that narratives might be written, judging that the multitude should not remain ignorant of these things. It is not yet two years since these relics were first brought to Hippo-regius, and though many of the miracles which have been wrought by it have not, as I have the most certain means of knowing, been recorded, those which have been published amount to almost seventy at the hour at which I write. But at Calama, where these relics have been for a longer time, and where more of the miracles were narrated for public information, there are incomparably more.

At Uzali, too, a colony near Utica, many signal miracles were, to my knowledge, wrought by the same martyr, whose relics had found a place there by direction of the bishop Evodius, long before we had them at Hippo. But there the custom of publishing narratives does not obtain or I should say, did not obtain, for possibly it may now have been begun. For, when I was there recently, a woman of rank, Petronia, had been miraculously cured of a serious illness of long standing, in which all medical appliances had failed, and, with the consent of the above named bishop of the place, I exhorted her to publish an account of it that might be read to the people.

She most promptly obeyed, and inserted in her narrative a circumstance which I cannot omit to mention, though I am compelled to hasten on to the subjects which this work requires me to treat. She said that she had been persuaded by a Jew to wear next her skin, under all her clothes, a hair girdle, and on this girdle a ring, which, instead, of a gem, had a stone which had been found in the kidneys of an ox. Girt with this charm, she was making her way to the threshold of the holy martyr. But after leaving Carthage, and when she had been lodging in her own demesne on the river Bagrada, and was now rising to continue her journey, she saw her ring lying before her feet. In great surprise she examined the hair girdle, and when she found it bound, as it had been, quite firmly with knots she conjectured that the ring had been worn through and dropped off; but when she found that the ring was itself also perfectly whole, she presumed that by this great miracle she had received somehow a pledge of her cure, whereupon she united the girdle, and cast it into the river, and the ring along with it.

This is not credited by those who do not believe either that the Lord Jesus Christ came forth from His mother's womb without destroying her virginity, and entered among His disciples when the doors were shut; but let them make strict inquiry into this miracle, and if they find it true, let them believe those others. The lady is of distinction, nobly born, married to a nobleman. She resides at Carthage. The city is distinguished, the person is distinguished, so that they who make inquiries cannot fail to find satisfaction. Certainly the martyr himself, by whose prayers she was healed, believed on the Son of her who remained a virgin; on Him who came in among the disciples when the doors were shut; in fine - and to this tends all that we have been retailing - on Him who ascended into heaven with the flesh in which He had risen; and it is because he laid down his life for this faith that such miracles were done by his means.

Even now, therefore, many miracles are wrought, the same God who wrought those who read of still performing them, by whom He will and as He will; but they are not as well known, nor are they beaten into the memory, like gravel, by frequent reading, so that they cannot fall out of mind. For even where, as is now done among ourselves, care is taken that the pamphlets of those who receive benefit be read publicly, yet those who are present hear the narrative but once, and many are absent; and so it comes to pass that even those who are present forget in a few days what they heard, and scarcely one of them can be found who will tell what he heard to one who he knows was not present.

One miracle was wrought among ourselves, which, though no greater than those I have mentioned, was yet so signal and conspicuous, that I suppose there is no inhabitant of Hippo who did not either see or hear of it, none who could possibly forget it. There were seven brothers and three sisters of a noble family of the Cappadocian Casarea, who were cursed by their mother, a new-made widow, on account of some wrong they had done her, and which she bitterly resented, and who were visited with so severe a punishment from Heaven, that all of them were seized with a hideous shaking in all their limbs. Unable, while presenting this loathsome appearance, to endure the eyes of the fellow citizens, they wandered over almost the whole Roman world, each following his own direction.

Two of them came to Hippo, a brother and a sister, Paulus and Palladia, already known in many other places by the fame of their wretched lot. Now it was about fifteen days before Easter when they came, and they came daily to church, and specially to the relics of the most glorious Stephen, praying that God might now be appeased, and restore their former health. There, and wherever they went, they attracted the attention of everyone. Some who had seen them elsewhere, and knew the cause of their trembling, told others as occasion offered. Easter arrived, and on the Lord's day, in the morning, when there was now a large crowd present, and the young man was holding the bars of the holy place where the relics were, and praying, suddenly he fell down, and lay precisely as if asleep, but not trembling as he was wont to do even in sleep. All present were astonished. Some were alarmed, some were moved with pity; and while some were for lifting him up, others prevented them, and said they should rather wait and see what would result. And behold! he rose up, and trembled no more, for he was healed, and stood quite well, scanning those who were scanning him. Who then refrained himself from praising God?

The whole church was filled with the voices of those who were shouting and congratulating him. Then they came running to me, where I was sitting ready to come into the church. One after another they throng in, the last comer telling me as news what the first had told me already; and while I rejoiced and inwardly gave God thanks, the young man himself also enters, with a number of others, falls at my knees, is raised up to received my kiss. We go into the congregation: the church was full, and ringing with the shouts of joy, "Thanks to God!" everyone joining and shouting on all sides, "I have healed the people" and then with still louder voice shouting again. Silence being at last obtained, the customary lessons of the divine Scriptures were read. And when I came to my sermon, I made a few remarks suitable to the occasion and the happy and joyful feeling, not desiring them to listen to me, but rather to consider the eloquence of God in this divine work. The man dined with us, and gave us a careful account of his own, his mother's and his family's calamity.

Accordingly, on the following day, after delivering my sermon, I promised that next day I would read his narrative to the people. And when I did so, the third day after Easter Sunday, I made the brother and sister both stand on the steps of the raised place from which I used to speak; and while they stood there their pamphlets was read. The whole congregation, men and women alike, saw the one standing without any unnatural movement, the other trembling in all her limbs; so that those who had not before seen the man himself saw in his sister what the divine compassion had removed from him. In him they saw matter of congratulation, in her subject for prayer. Meanwhile, their pamphlet being finished, I instructed them to withdraw from the gaze of people; and I had begun to discuss the whole matter some what more carefully, when lo! as I was proceeding, other voices are heard from the tomb of the martyr, shouting new congratulations. My audience turned round, and began to run to the tomb. The young woman, when she had come down from the steps where she had been standing, went to pray at the holy relics, and no sooner had she touched the bars than she, in the same way as her brother, collapsed, as if falling asleep, and rose up cured. While, then, we were asking what had happened, and what occasioned this noise of joy, they came into the basilica where we were, leading her from the martyr's tomb in perfect health.

Then, indeed, such a shout of wonder rose from men and women together, that the exclamations and the tears seemed like never to come to an end. She was led to the place where she had a little before stood trembling. They now rejoiced that she was like her brother, as before they had mourned that she remained unlike him; and as they had not yet uttered their prayers in her behalf, they perceived that their intention of doing so had been speedily heard. They shouted God's praises without words, but with such a noise that our ears could scarcely bear it. What was there in the hearts of these exultant people but the faith of Christ, for which Stephen had shed his blood?

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

5. - Of The Resurrection Of The Flesh, Which Some Refuse To Believe, Though The World At Large Believes It

But granting that this was once incredible, behold, now, the world has come to the belief that the earthly body of Christ was received up into heaven. Already both the learned and unlearned have believed in the resurrection of the flesh and its ascension to the heavenly places, while only a very few either of the educated or uneducated are still staggered by it. If this is a credible thing which is believed, then let those who do not believe see how stolid they are; and if it is incredible, then this also is an incredible thing; that what is incredible should have received such credit.

Here then we have two incredible - to wit, the resurrection of our body to eternity, and that the world should believe so incredible a thing; and both these incredible the same God predicted should come to pass before either had as yet occurred. We see that already one of the two has come to pass, for the world has believed what was incredible; why should we despair that the remaining one shall also come to pass, and that this which the world believed, though it was incredible, shall itself occur? For already that which was equally incredible has come to pass, in the world's believing an incredible thing. Both were incredible: the one we see accomplished, the other we believe shall be; for both were predicted in those same Sacred Scriptures by means of which the world believed.

And the very manner in which the world's faith was won is found to be even more incredible, if we consider it. Men uninstructed in any branch of a liberal education, without any of the refinement of heathen learning, unskilled in grammar, not armed with dialectic, not adorned with rhetoric, but plain fishermen, and very few in number - these were the men whom Christ sent with the nets of faith to the sea of this world, and thus took out of every race so many fishes, and even the philosophers themselves, wonderful as they are rare. Let us add, if you please, or because you ought to be pleased, this third incredible thing to the two former. And now we have three incredible, all of which have yet come to pass. It is incredible that Jesus Christ should have risen in the flesh and ascended with flesh into heaven; it is incredible that the world should have believed so incredible a thing; it is incredible that a very few men, of mean birth and the lowest rank, and no education, should have been able so effectually to persuade the world, and even its learned men, of so incredible a thing.

Of these three incredible, the parties with whom we are debating refuse to believe the first; the cannot refuse to see the second, which they are unable to account for if they do not believe the third. It is indubitable that the resurrection of Christ, and His ascension into heaven with the flesh in which He rose, is already preached and believed in the whole world. If it is not credible, how is it that it has already received credence in the whole world? If a number of noble, exalted, and learned men had said that they had witnessed it, and had been at pains to publish what they had witnessed, it were not wonderful that the world should believed it, but it were very stubborn to refuse credence; but if, as is true, the world has believed a few obscure, inconsiderable, uneducated persons, who state and write that they witnessed it, is it not unreasonable that a handful of wrong headed men should oppose themselves to the creed of the whole world, and refuse their believe? And if the world has put faith in a small number of men, of mean birth and the lowest rank, and no education, it is because the divinity of the thing itself appeared all the more manifestly in such contemptible witnesses.

The eloquence, indeed, which lent persuasion to their message, consisted of wonderful works, not words. For they who had not seen Christ risen in the flesh, nor ascending into heaven with His risen body, believed those who related how they had seen these things, and who testified not only with words but wonderful signs. For men whom they knew to be acquainted with only one, or at most two languages, they marveled to hear speaking in the tongues of all nations. They saw a man, lame from his mother's womb, after forty years stand up sound at their word in the name of Christ; that handkerchiefs taken from their bodies had virtue to heal the sick; that countless persons, sick of various diseases, were laid in a row in the road where they were to pass, that their shadow might fall on them as they walked, and that they forthwith received health; that many other stupendous miracles were wrought by them in the name of Christ; and, finally, that they even raised the dead. If it admitted that these things occurred as they are related, then we have a multitude of incredible things to add to those three incredible. That the one incredibility of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ may be believed, we accumulate the testimonies of countless incredible miracles, but even so we do not bend the frightful obstinacy of these sceptics. But if they do not believe that these miracles wrought by Christ's apostles to gain credence to their preaching of His resurrection and ascension, this one grand miracle suffices for us, that the whole world has believed without any miracles.

6. - That Rome Made Its Founder Romulus A god Because It Loved Him; But The Church Loved Christ Because It Believed Him To Be God

Let us here recite the passage in which Tully expresses his astonishment that the apotheosis of Romulus should have been credited. I shall insert his words as they stand: "It is most worthy of remark in Romulus, that other men who are said to have become gods lived in less educated ages, when there was a greater propensity to the fabulous, and when the uninstructed were easily persuaded to believe anything. But the age of Romulus was barely six hundred years ago, and already literature and science had dispelled the errors that attach to an uncultured age." And a little after he says of the same Romulus words to this effect: "From this we may perceive that Homer had flourished long before Romulus, and that there was now so much learning in individuals, and so generally diffused an enlightenment, that scarcely any room was left for fable. For antiquity admitted fables, and sometimes even very clumsy ones; but this age [of Romulus] was sufficiently enlightened to reject whatever had not the air of truth."

Thus one of the most learned men, and certainly the most eloquent, M. Tullius Cicero, says that it is surprising that the divinity of Romulus was believed in, because the times were already so enlightened that they would not accept a fabulous fiction. But who believed that Romulus was a god except Rome, which was itself small and in its infancy? The afterwards it was necessary that succeeding generations should preserve the tradition of their ancestors; that, drinking in this superstition with their mother's milk, the state might grow and come to such power that it might dictate this belief, as from a point of vantage, to all the nations over whom its sway extended. And these nations, though they might not believe that Romulus was a god, at least said so, that they might not give offense to their sovereign state by refusing to give its founder that title which was given him by Rome, which had adopted this belief, not by a love of error, but an error of love.

But though Christ is the founder of the heavenly and eternal city, yet it did not believe Him to be God because it was founded by Him, but rather it is founded by Him, in virtue of its belief. Rome, after it had been built and dedicated, worshipped its founder in a temple as a god; but this Jerusalem laid Christ, its God, former city loved of its founder, and therefore believed him to be a god; the latter believed Christ to be God, and therefore loved Him. There was an antecedent cause for the love of the former city, and for its believing that even a false dignity attached to the object of its love; so there was an antecedent cause for the belief of the latter, and for its loving the true dignity which a proper faith, not a rash surmise, ascribed to its object.

For, not to mention the multitude of very striking miracles which proved that Christ is God, there were also divine prophecies heralding Him, prophecies most worthy of belief, which being already accomplished, we have not, like the fathers, to wait for their verification. Of Romulus, on the other hand, and of his building Rome and reigning in it, we read or hear the narrative of what did take place, not prediction which before hand said that such things should be. And so far as his reception among the gods is concerned, history only records that this was believed, and does not state it as a fact; for no miraculous signs testified to the truth of this. For as to that wolf which is said to have nursed the twin brothers, and which is considered a great marvel, how does this prove him to have been divine? For even supposing that this nurse was a real wolf and not a mere courtezan, yet she nursed both brothers, and Remus is not reckoned a god. Besides, what was there to hinder anyone from asserting that Romulus or Hercules, or any such man, was a god? Or who would rather choose to die than profess belief in his divinity? And did a single nation worship Romulus among its gods, unless it were forced through fear of the Roman name? But who can number the multitudes who have chosen death in the most cruel shapes rather than deny the divinity of Christ?

And thus the dread of some slight indignation, which it was supposed, perhaps groundlessly, might exist in the minds of the Romans, constrained some states who were subject to Rome to worship Romulus as a god; whereas the dread, not of a slight mental shock, but of severe and various punishments, and of death itself, the most formidable of all, could not prevent an immense multitude of martyrs throughout the world from not merely worshipping but also confessing Christ as God. The city of Christ, which, although as yet a stranger upon earth, had countless hosts of citizens, did not make war upon its godless persecutors for the sake of temporal security, but preferred to win eternal salvation by abstaining from war. They were bound, imprisoned, beaten, tortured, burned, torn in pieces, massacred, and yet they multiplied. It was not given to them to fight for their eternal salvation except by despising their temporal salvation for their Saviour's sake.

I am aware that Cicero, in the third book of his De Republica, if I mistake not, argues that a first-rate power will not engage in war except either for honour or for safety. What he has to say about the question of safety, and what he means by safety, he explains in another place, saying, "Private persons frequently evade, by a speedy death, destitution, exile, bonds, the scourge, and the other pains which even the most insensible feel. But to states, death, which seems to emancipate individuals from all punishments, is itself a punishment; for a state should be so constituted as to be eternal. And thus death is not natural to a republic as to a man, to whom death is not only necessary, but often even desirable.

But when a state is destroyed, obliterated, annihilated, it is as if (to compare great things with small) this whole world perished and collapsed." Cicero said this because he, with the Platonists, believed that the world would not perish. It is therefore agreed that, according to Cicero, a state should engage in war for the safety which preserves the state permanently in existence, though its citizens change; as the foliage of an olive or laurel, or any tree of this kind, is perennial, the old leaves being replaced by fresh ones. For death, as he says, is no punishment to individuals, but rather delivers them from all other punishments, but it is a punishment to the state. And therefore it is reasonably asked whether the Saguntines did right when they chose that their whole state should perish rather than that they should break faith with the Roman republic; for this deed of theirs is applauded by the citizens of the earthly republic. But I do not see how they could follow the advice of Cicero, who tells us that no war is to be undertaken save for safety or for honour; neither does he say which of these two is to be preferred, if a case should occur in which the one could not be preserved without the loss of the other.

For manifestly, if the Saguntines chose safety, they must break faith; if they kept faith, they must reject safety; as also it fell out. But the safety of the city of God is such that it can be retained, or rather acquired, by faith and with faith; but if faith be abandoned, no one can attain it. It is this thought of a most steadfast and patient spirit that has made so many as one to die for his divinity.

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If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

THIS BOOK TREATS OF THE END OF THE CITY OF GOD, THAT IS TO SAY, OF THE ETERNAL HAPPINESS OF THE SAINTS; THE FAITH OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY IS ESTABLISHED AND EXPLAINED; AND THE WORK CONCLUDES BY SHOWING HOW THE SAINTS, CLOTHED IN IMMORTAL AND SPIRITUAL BODY, SHALL BE EMPLOYED.

1. - Of  The Creation Of Angels And Men

As we promised in the immediately preceding book, this, the last of the whole work, shall contain a discussion of the eternal blessedness of the city of God. This blessedness is named eternal, not because it shall endure for many ages, though at last it shall come to an end, but because according to the words of the gospel, "of His kingdom there shall be no end." - Luke 1:33 - Neither shall it enjoy the mere appearance of perpetuity which is maintained by the rise of fresh generations to occupy the place of those that have died out, as in an evergreen the same freshness seems to continue permanently, and the same appearance of dense foliage is preserved by the growth of fresh leaves in the room of those that have withered and fallen; but in that city all the citizens shall be immortal, men now for the first time enjoying what the holy angels have never lost. And this shall be accomplished by God, the most almighty Founder of the city. For He has promised it, and cannot lie,and has already performed many of His promises, and done many unpromised kindness to those whom He now asks to believe that He will do this also.

For it is He who in the beginning created the world full of visible and intelligible beings, among which He created nothing better than those spirits whom He endowed with intelligence, and made capable of contemplating and enjoying Him, and united in our society, which we call the holy and heavenly city, and in which the material of their sustenance and blessedness is God Himself, as it were their common food and nourishment. It is He who gave to this intellectual nature free-will of such a kind, that if he wished to forsake God his blessedness, misery should forthwith result. It is He who, when He foreknew that certain angels would in their pride desire to suffice for their own blessedness, and would forsake their good, did not deprive them of this power, deeming it to be more befitting His power and goodness to bring good out of evil than to prevent the evil from coming into existence. And indeed evil had never been, had not the mutable nature - mutable, though good, and created by the most high God and immutable Good, who created all things good - brought evil upon itself by sin. And this its sin is itself proof that its nature was originally good.

For had it not been very good, though not equal to its Creator, the desertion of God as its light could not have been an evil to it. For as blindness is a vice the eye, and this very fact indicates that the eye was created to see the light, and as, consequently, vice itself proves that the eye is more excellent than the other members, because it is capable of light (for on no other supposition would it be a vice of the eye to want light) so the nature which once enjoyed God teaches, even by its very vice, that it was created the best of all, since it is now miserable because it does not enjoy God. It is He who with very just punishment doomed the angels who voluntarily fell to everlasting misery, and rewarded those who continued in their attachment to the supreme good with the assurance of endless stability as the meed of their fidelity. It is He who made also man himself upright, with the same freedom of will - an earthly animal, indeed, but fit for heaven if he remained faithful to his Creator, but destined to the misery appropriate to such a nature if he forsook Him.

It is He who, when He foreknew that man would in his turn sin by abandoning God and breaking His law, did not deprive him of the power of free-will because He at the same time foresaw what good He Himself would bring out of the evil, and how from this mortal race, deservedly and justly condemned, He would by His grace collect, as now He dose, a people so numerous, that He thus fills up and repairs the blank made by the fallen angels, and that thus that beloved and heavenly city is not defrauded of the full number of its citizens, but perhaps may even rejoice in a still more overflowing population.

2. - Of The Eternal And Unchangeable Will Of God

It is true that wicked men do many things contrary to God's will; but so great is His wisdom and power, that all things which seem adverse to His purpose do still tend towards those just and good ends and issues which He Himself has foreknown. And consequently, when God is said to change His will, as when, example, He becomes angry with those to whom He was gentle, it is rather they than He who are changed, and they find Him changed in so far as their experience of suffering at His hand is new, as the sun is changed to injured eyes, and becomes as it were fierce from being mild, and hurtful from being delightful, though in itself it remains the same as it was. That also is called the will of God which He does in the hearts of those who obey His commandments; and of this the apostle says, "For it is God that work in both to will." - Phil. 2:13 - As God's "righteousness" is used not only of the righteousness wherewith He Himself is righteous, but also of that which He produces in the man whom He justifies, so also that is called His law, which, though given by God, is rather the law of men. For certainly they were men to whom Jesus said, "It is written in your law" - John 8:17 - though in another place we read, "The law of his God is in his heart." - Psalm 37:31 -

According to this will which God works in men, He is said also to will what He Himself does not will, but causes His people to will; as He is said to know what He has caused those to know who were ignorant of it. For when the apostle says, "But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God" - Gal. 4:9 - we cannot suppose that God there for the first time knew those who were foreknown by Him before the foundation of the world; but He is said to have known them then, because then He caused them to know. But I remember that I discussed these modes of expression in the preceding books. According to this will, then, by which we say that God wills what He causes to be willed by others, from whom the future is hidden, He wills many things which He does not perform.

Thus His saints, inspired by His holy will, desire many things which never happen. They pray, for example, for certain individuals - they pray in a pious and holy manner - but what they request He does not perform, though He Himself by His own Holy Spirit has wrought in them this will to pray. And consequently, when the saints, in conformity with God's mind, will and pray that all men be saved, we can use this mode of expression: God wills and does perform - meaning that He who causes them to will these things Himself wills them. But if we speak of that will of which is eternal as His foreknowledge, certainly He has already done all things in heaven and on earth that He has willed - not only past and present things, but even things still future. But before the arrival of that time in which He has willed the occurrence of what He foreknew and arranged for before all time, we say, It will happen when God wills. But if we are ignorant not only of the time in which it is to be, but even whether it shall be at all, we say, It will happen if God wills - not because God will then have a new will which He had not before, but because that event, which from eternity has been prepared in His unchangeable will, shall then come to pass.

3. - Of The Promise Of Eternal Blessedness To The Saints, And Everlasting Punishment To The Wicked

Wherefore, not to mention many other instances besides, as we now see in Christ the fulfillment of that which God promised to Abraham when He said, "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed" - Gen. 22:18 - so this also shall be fulfilled which He promised to the same race, when He said by the prophet, "They that are in their sepulchres shall rise again; " - Isaiah 26:19 - and also, "There shall be a new heaven and a new earth; and the former shall not be mentioned, nor come into mind; but they shall find joy and rejoicing in it: for I will make Jerusalem a rejoicing, and my people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her." And by another prophet He uttered the same prediction: "At that time thy people shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust" of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." - Dan. 12:1-2 - And in another place by the same prophet: "The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and shall possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever." - 7:18 - And a little after he says, "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom." - Dan. 7:27 -

Other prophecies referring to the same subject I have advanced in the twentieth book, and others still which I have not advanced are found written in the same Sacred Scriptures; and these predictions shall be fulfilled, as those also have been which unbelieving men supposed would be frustrate. For it is the same God who promised both, and predicted that both would come to pass - the God whom pagan deities tremble before, as even Porphyry, the noblest of pagan philosophers, testifies.

4. - Against The Wise Men Of The World, Who Fancy That The Earthly Bodies Of Men Cannot Be Transferred To A Heavenly Habitation

But men who use their learning and intellectual ability to resist the force of that great authority which, in fulfillment of what was so long before predicted, has converted all races of men to faith and hope in its promises, seem to themselves to argue acutely against the resurrection of the body while they cite what Cicero mentions in the third book De Republica. For when he was asserting the apotheosis of Hercules and Romulus, he says: "Whose bodies were not taken up into heaven; for nature would not permit a body of earth to exist anywhere except upon earth." This, forsooth, is the profound reasoning of the wise men, whose thoughts God knows that they are vain. For if we were only souls, that is, spirits without any body, and if we dwelt in heaven and had no knowledge of earthly animals, and were told that we should be bound to earthly bodies by some wonderful bond of union, and should animate them, should we not much more vigorously refuse to believe this, and maintain that nature would not permit an incorporeal substance to be held by a corporeal bond? And yet the earth is full of living spirits, to which terrestrial body are bound, and which they are in a wonderful way implicated.

If, then, the same God who has created such beings wills this also, what is to hinder the earthly body from being raised to a heavenly body, since a spirit, which is more excellent than all bodies, and consequently than even a heavenly body, has been tied to an earthly body? If so small an earthly particle has been able to hold in union with itself something better than a heavenly body, so as to receive sensation and life, will heaven disdain to receive, or at least to retain, this sentient and living particle, which derives its life and sensation from a substance more excellent than any heavenly body? If this does not happen now, it is because the time is not yet come which has been determined by Him who has already done a much more marvellous thing than that which these men refuse to believe. For why do we not more intensely wonder that incorporeal souls, which are of higher rank than heavenly bodies, are bound to earthly bodies, rather than that bodies, although earthly, are exalted to an abode which, though heavenly, is yet corporeal, except because we have been accustomed to see this, and indeed are this, while we are not as yet that other marvel, nor have as yet ever seen it? Certainly, if we consult sober reason, the more wonderful of the two divine works is found to be attach somehow corporeal things to incorporeal, and not to connect earthly things with heavenly, which, though diverse, are yet both of them corporeal.

                                                                    Page 1
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

To HIS ACCUSERS' questions, our Lord Jesus Christ gave only the answer of his withering silence. From a worldly point of view, he did the foolish thing. What would you think of someone before a court who might clear himself of a charge by a word, or a show of power, and yet refuses to do so? Well, here is our Lord going to the Cross and to death, simply because he will not do the worldly thing. That was foolishness. The folly of Omnipotence!

And from that day to this, the Church has been robed in the garment of a fool, because she never does the worldly thing. Her saints are fools, because they plunge after poverty like others dig after gold, tear at their body while others pamper theirs, and dare even to swing the world a trinket at their wrist, in order that they might gain an everlasting crown. Her devout nuns are fools who leave the lights and glamours of the world for the shades and shadows of the Cross, where saints are made; her priests are fools because they practice celibacy in a world that has gone crazy about sex.

The Vicar, the Pontiff, is a fool, for refusing to relax the teachings of Christ. Yes, the Church is a fool, and all her loyal members are fools, but they are fools only from the world's point of view, not from God's point of view. For with the foolish things of the world God has chosen to confound the wise, and with the weak things of the world to confound the strong.

The Church must always bear the taunt of being not modern and unworldly, as our Lord Jesus had to bear it before Herod. And our Lord warned us that it would be the mark of the divinity of the Church: "If you had been of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you... If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before you." In other words: "If you ever want to discover my religion on the face of the earth, look for the Church that does not get along with the world." The religion that gets on with the world, and is accepted by it, is worldly; the religion that does not get on with the world is other-worldly, which is another way of saying that it is divine.

The Church is very modern, if modern means that her members should change their hats with the seasons, and even with the styles, but she is not modern if it means that every time someone changes his hat, he should also change his head, or in an applied sense, that she should change her idea of God every time psychology puts on a new shirt, or physics a new coat.

The Church is modern, if modern means incorporating the new found wisdom of the present with the heritage of the centuries, but she is not modern if it means sneering at the past as one might sneer at someone's age. She is modern, if modern means a passionate desire to know the truth, but she is not modern if it means that truth changes with the calender, and that what is true on Tuesday is false on Wednesday. The Church is modern, if modern means progress toward a fixed ideal, but she is not modern if it means changing the ideal instead of attaining it.

The Church is like an old schoolmaster - the schoolmaster of the centuries - and as such she has seen so many students pass before her, cultivate the same poses, and fall into the same errors, that she merely smiles at those who believe that they have discovered a new truth; for in her superior wisdom and experience, she knows that many a so-called new truth is only a new label for an old error.

It is about time that the modern world gave up expecting the Church to die because she is "behind the times." Really she is behind the scenes, and knows just when the curtain will fall on each new fad and fancy. If an announcement had been made a thousand times about a death, and the funeral never took place, people would soon begin to take the announced funeral as a joke. And so it is with the Church. She is always supposed to be behind the times, and yet it is she who lives beyond the times.

At least a hundred voices in every century since her birth have tolled the bells for her funeral, but the corpse never appeared. They are always buying coffins for her, but it is they who use the coffins. They are always assisting at her apparently last breath, and yet she moves. They are always digging her grave, and it is a grave into which the diggers fall, The taunt that she is "behind the times" and "out of touch with the world" will never annoy her, for she knows that it is easy to be in the swim, in the sense of being "up to the times" for even a dead body can float downstream.

                               It takes a live Body to resist the current.

THE CHURCH IS THE BODY of Christ, composed of the many millions or billions of individuals who have been incorporated to it by Baptism, and governed by the invisible head, Christ, and the visible head, the Vicar of Christ on earth. But a body and a head are not sufficient to constitute the Mystical Christ as the Church. The Church must also have a soul as the principle of its life and its unity. That soul is the Holy Spirit.

In order that we may properly understand the role of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Blessed Trinity, try to picture the apostles and the faithful on earth during the ten days after the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven. The Church then existed in its raw material - its great arteries had been formed, its head had been named, its members were called, but it still lacked a soul.

The apostles and disciples and the faithful were still separate individuals; they needed a soul to make them one. The condition of the Church can be represented better by the analogy of life. Its members were like the elements in a chemical laboratory, capable of being part of the body, and yet not a body because lacking a soul. We know up to one hundred percent the chemicals that enter into the constitution of a human body, and yet with all our superior knowledge of chemistry, we cannot make a body in our laboratories. Why? Because we lack the power to give a unifying principle, a soul, to those chemicals which will make them mutually coalesce into that new emergent we call life.

Now the apostles were like the chemicals in a laboratory; they were individuals, each with his own outlook on life, each with his doubts, his uncertainties, his point of view. They could not give themselves unity anymore than chemicals alone can make life. The permanent union of their minds was impossible without a certitude from on high, for life is not a push from below, but a gift from above. They needed a soul, a spirit - a vivifying, unifying principle which would make the cells of the Mystical Body cohere in the unity of a headship under Christ. And this vivifying, unifying spirit did not come until the day of Pentecost.

Organization has nothing to do with the marvelous vitality of the Church, nor is there any other human explanation. If the Church were left to its human elements it would have perished long ago. The secret of her immortal life is her Eternal Spirit. which cannot be destroyed by the world anymore than the soul of an infant can be destroyed. Hence in the face of the force of violence the Spirit manifests the immortality of her being; against the force of ideas the Spirit shows the immortality of her ideas; and against the force of passion the Spirit shows the immortality of her love.

If there is any picture that adequately describes the Church in time, it is that of a person living throughout the cataclysms and revolutions, the progress and the unfolding of the centuries. A person who is fifty today is the same identical person as always, despite the changes in his bodily life and the historical upheavals of our time. He can say, "I saw mankind exalt itself to a god in the prewar period; I saw that same humanity prove it was not a god but only a beast in the battlefields of the World War[s]; I saw it settle down to a false peace without ever learning the lesson that it cannot survive without God." In like manner, the Church is an abiding Person through all centuries. The only difference between her now and then is the difference between the acorn and the oak, the mustard seed and the great tree. The Church members have come and gone, like the cells in a human body, but her Spirit has remained one and the same.

And since it is the Spirit that makes the Body, the Church which is the Mystical Body of Christ has been contemporaneous with the centuries. When, therefore, we in the twenty-first century wish to know about Jesus Christ, about his early Church, about history, or know Him and His Church, we go not only to the dusty records but to the living Church.

BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN  ( 1895 to 1979 )

                                                                     Page 1
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

Saint Augustine stands as one of the greatest and most influential of Christian theologians. "It may be safely predicted that while the mind of man yearns for knowledge, and his heart seeks rest, the Confessions will retain that foremost place in the world's literature which it has secured by its sublime outpourings of devotion and profound philosophical spirit."

It should be borne in mind that the Confessions was not intended to be an intellectual exercise, removed from the everyday realities of life. In it, Augustine seeks to lay bare his heart, his soul - before God and before his fellowmen. It is an honest book and a book that speaks to the heart first of all.

We moderns may find some difficulty in his allegorizations, especially those found in the last three books. But one translator aptly remarked, "Where the strict use of history is not disregarded, (to use Augustine's expression) allegorizing by way of spiritual meditation, may be profitable." Certainly his insights are not to be despised!

Born in 352, in a small city of Tagaste, Africa (in what is now Algeria) Augustine lived in the time of the growing ascendancy of the Christian Church and the growing decline of the Roman empire. It was scarcely a quarter of a century earlier that the great Council of Nicaea had been held, and there were heresies and schisms throughout the Christian world that still held sway over hearts and minds. Donatists continued to hold that many Catholic Orders were invalid because they came through traditori (those who had denied the faith during the severe persecution and had later repented and been restored to the Church).

In his later years, Augustine would spend much effort in fighting for the unity of the Church against their schismatic beliefs. Arianism (denying the full divinity of Christ) succeeded in winning the allegiance of the Emperor and his mother, and echoes of that threat to the peace and unity of the Church continued to resound throughout Augustine's lifetime. But for Augustine personality, his sojourn among the Manicheans gave the background for much of the material we find in the Confessions. After his schooling under a harsh tutor in Tagaste, he was sent to Madaura for a short time. Family finances forced his return home and resulted in an idle year, 369-370. He was then sent to Carthage, to what would be equivalent to a University, where he distinguished himself in the rhetorical school. His father died in 371, but his mother continued to support his schooling with the aid of a wealthy patron, Romanianus. It is evident that he continued to cherish high ambitions for his worldly success. While at Carthage, Augustine came under the influence of the Manicheans and took a mistress, to whom he was faithful for fifteen years. To them was born one son, Adeotus.

After some years of teaching at Carthage, Augustine decided to go to Rome. His mother opposed the idea, but could not dissuade him. After a brief stay in Rome, he was appointed in 385 as Public Teacher of Rhetoric at Milan, where he first came under the influence of Saint Ambrose. In 385-386, the Empress Justina demanded the surrender of two churches to the Arians. Saint Ambrose led his people in a refusal to surrender the churches, even when confronted by military force. Augustine was aware of this crisis, but he was not personally involved.

Ten years spent with the Manicheans had brought Augustine many intellectual difficulties with their system. Although they had encouraged his own sceptical approach to the Sacred/Holy Scriptures, they had not satisfied his thirst for sure knowledge nor his growing uneasiness with his disorderly life. With his mother's help, Augustine's mistress was dismissed and arrangements were made for his marriage, which had to be postponed because his intended was underage. But his struggles with the flesh resulted in his taking a new mistress because he felt morally incapable of making a better choice. He chronicles the inner struggles which led, with timely help from Ambrose, to his departure from the Manicheans and his conversion to the Catholic faith. He was baptized at Easter, 387, along with his son, Adeotus. Having resigned his position as professor of Rhetoric, he and his company were waiting for a ship to make their way back to Africa when his mother suddenly became ill and died at Ostia, the port of Rome.

The next year, having returned to Tagaste and sold his property there, Augustine set up a monastic kind of community with a few friends, continuing his writing. In 391, with much misgiving on his part, he consented to be ordained presbyter at Hippo, a nearby city of about 30,000. The Church was not strong there, its population being a mixture of pagans, Jews, several schismatic sects, and a large group of Donatists. In 395 (in violation of the eighth canon of Nicaea) he was made assistant bishop to the aged Valerius, and succeeded him as bishop the following year.

It was not long after his election as bishop that he began the Confessions, completing them probably in 398. Thus they represent his thought and the account of his life in its midstream. He wrote this book "at the request of friends who begged him to commit to writing those recollections of his former life to which he often referred in private conversation. He consented for the characteristic reason that he desired his friends to mourn and rejoice along with him as they followed his retrospect of past years, and on his behalf to give thanks to God."

Augustine's years as bishop involved struggles with errors he believed to be a threat to salvation and to the welfare of the Church on several fonts: Manicheans, Donatists, Arians and Pelagians. In addition to these very real battles, the Roman empire itself was under mortal assault. It is one of the great ironies of history that as Augustine finished his immortal City of God in the quiet of his monastic residence, the Vandals were pillaging the countryside of North Africa. "While the Vandals besieged Hippo, Saint Augustine died (August 28, 410) in the sanctity and poverty in which he had lived for many years. Shortly afterward, the Vandals destroyed the city, but left his cathedral and library untouched."

Sending the Confessions to a friend, Augustine wrote, "In these behold me, that you may not praise me beyond what I am. Believe what is said of me, not by others, but by myself."

                                                                   Page 1
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
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Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

On using the name of the Lord Jesus and the true cause for the apostles to rejoice:

Jesus called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. - Luke 9:1-2 - Matt. 10:1 - Mark 6:7 -

John spoke up. 'Master', he said 'we saw a man casting out devils in your name, and because he is not with us we tried to stop him.' But Jesus said to him, 'You must not stop him: anyone who is not against you is for you.' - Luke 9:49-50 -

The Lord Jesus Christ appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him, in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself was to visit. He said to them, 'The harvest is rich but the labourers  are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest. - Luke 10:1-2 -

The seventy-two came back rejoicing, 'Lord', they said 'even the devils submit to us when we use your name.' He said to them, 'I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Yes, I have given you power to tread underfoot serpents and scorpions and the whole strength of the enemy; nothing shall ever hurt you. Yet do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you; rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.' - Luke 10:17-20 - John 12:31-32 - Rev. 20:12 -

Reverend Father Martin Luther ( 1472 to 1553 ) had never intended to break away from the Catholic Church, he had hoped to reform it from within, but events spiraled out of his control. It was on the date of 'All Souls Day' in 1517, that Rev. Fr. Martin Luther inadvertently began the Reformation (religious upheaval) of the sixteenth century. Then, came the others as well as the English Reformation. As the Reformation and Protestantism spread over Europe, a parallel 'Counter-Reformation' was established within Catholicism. Both the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation had common roots in a shared desire to end the evil of corruption and abuses of power of the late medieval Church; thus, those who broke away from the Church became known as the 'Reformation' whilst those that remained are known as 'Counter-Reformation.'

When Paul III, who became Pope in 1534. He make his two teenage nephews cardinals which of course, did not bore well for reform, but most of the other cardinals, the Pope Paul III appointed were reformers. On the whole the Pope was keen to reform the Church and the papacy. A commission was set up to investigate abuses in the Church and make recommendations for reform: known as the Concilium, was widely published and was quite damning. A lot of abuse had been detected throughout the Church, and the commission advised that the Pope, the Cardinals should think spiritually and act about spiritual matters, practices 'Holiness' and spend less time worrying about their position and benefits in the world.

Finally, in 1545, Pope Paul III succeeded in overcoming the anti-reform party in the Church and calling a council at Trent to address the whole problem of ecclesiastical abuses and Protestantism. As far as the doctrine is concern, the 'Council of Trent' refused to fully budge in the direction of the Protestants. But the 'Council of Trent' agreed with the Protestants that faith is necessary to salvation, but it disagreed with them that it is sufficient. Similarly, the 'Council of Trent' rejected the Protestants' contention that the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible is the sole source of doctrine and that it is more authoritative than the Church.

Instead, the 'Council of Trent' retain the traditional view that the Church and the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible form a whole, undivided body of teaching. This means that Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible is indeed authoritative, only it is interpreted by the Church. Thus, the 'Council of Trent' reaffirmed the seven Sacraments, the doctrine of Purgatory, the use of Relics, the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Clerical celibacy and other elements that the Protestants denounced as not scriptural. The doctrine of transubstantiation [the presence of the Lord Jesus in the Eucharist] was reaffirmed and it was made explicit.

Pope Pius IV promulgated the decisions of Trent in 1564. After that, Trent acted rather as the 'Council of Nicaea' it provided a universal of doctrine and discipline within the Catholic. Many Catholics became more concerned of their faith that the Protestants disagreed or rejected, such as the seven Sacraments and the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was in this period that the 'Ave Maria' or 'Hail Mary' prayer had come into universal use in the eleventh centuries till today.

Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with you,
Blessed are you among women,
And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now, and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

As the Catholic Church is progressing, a new force is appearing, that is, the 'Society of Jesus' also known as 'the Jesuits.' The Society of Jesus or 'the Jesuits' were founded by a Spanish soldier named Ignatius of Loyola, under the service of the king of Spain, who prided himself in his military prowess, and he was a nobleman. One day, in a battle between two rival cities, a canon ball fell upon his legs and exploded. One of his legs was shattered, and he was carried home by his enemies, no less, because they respected his bravery in battle. His recovery was very slow and very painful. After some months of convalescence, he asked for some books to read to while away his time. He requested for some romantic novels, but there were only two books available, a book on the Life of Christ and a book on the Lives of the Saints.

So Ignatius of Loyola had no choice but to read these two books and became interested in spirituality. After leaving the hospital, he spent times in prayer and meditation in monastery, and came out of this deeply wrought experience with a deep rooted desire to 'help souls.' For him this meant essentially to help people discover their pathway to God. After a while of so doing, he was warned by the Church authorities not to carry on unless he had qualified himself with a Church degree. This is what turned his mind towards studying theology and to the priesthood, and eventually brought him to the University of Paris, where he found himself rooming with Francis Xavier and Peter Favre.

In 1540, Pope Paul III approved the new 'Society of Jesus.' The principal virtue for its Jesuits - who were all priests - was obedience, to the general of the order and the Pope. The Society of Jesus as a whole was to the service of the Pope in whatever capacity he saw fit. The Jesuits did not have a specified rule to follow, but they did have the Spiritual Exercises that Ignatius of Loyola wrote. And eventually the Spiritual Exercises was use as a tool, an instrument and as a way or method for helping people to discover themselves, their desires, their personal experiences and their way to God.

It seem that Saint Ignatius of Loyola had in mind to preach to the Muslims, and in fact, some of the first missions that he sent the early Jesuits on were to Muslims.

 However, the Church recognized the value of the Jesuits in opposing Protestantism and put them to work in this major mission. Jesuit scholars began to study the arguments and the beliefs of the leading Protestants and wrote answers to them. The Jesuits went through theological debate with them as well. A renowned Italian Jesuit named Robert Bellarmine, a theologian with impeccable reputation for preaching that Protestants as well as Catholics came to hear his sermons. Saint Robert Bellarmine was a deeply charitable person who was known to clothe the poor and needy with his tapestries and he was a very honest man. Appointed to the post of professor of controversies at the Jesuit college in Rome by Pope Gregory XIII, Saint Robert Bellarmine studied the works of the Reformers and wrote fair-minded responses to the Protestants. He was not simply a reactionary who denied that the Protestants had said anything worthwhile: on the contrary, he aimed to defend an understanding of Christianity which was rooted in the Church fathers, especially Saint Augustine of Hippo.

To engage in such scholarship, Jesuits had to be well educated, and from an early stage Saint Ignatius of Loyola was determined that education would play a key role. It was, after all, supposed to be a Society of elite priests, dedicated to spreading the Christian message, and this required extensive spiritual training and spiritual education. Spiritual schools and training centers were therefore opened. By the time Saint Ignatius of Loyola died in 1556, there were 35 Jesuits schools throughout Europe. He believed that spiritual education should be available to everyone, and it were extremely popular, and this did a great deal to stem the advance of Protestantism.

Saint Peter Canisius play a major role in the German Counter-Reformation, he was the eighth person to join the Society of Jesus. Saint Peter Canisius spent many years preaching throughout Germany and he had opened Jesuit schools there. Saint Peter Canisius was present at the Council of Trent and wrote a number of books explaining Catholic doctrine: the short Catechisms he composed, with small explanations of each belief, were extremely popular and still used in the nineteenth century. And this stem the advance of Protestantism. Catholics remember Peter Canisius as the 'second apostle of Germany' after Boniface.

In order to successfully quashed Protestantism, the Jesuits continue to opened spiritual schools. The Jesuits translated anti-Protestant and devotional works into their own native language, popularized the Catholic liturgy, and official Catholicism was still struggling for dominance with Orthodoxy in Ukraine. Finally, the Jesuits penetrated Ukraine and helped to bolster Catholicism, an effort formalized in 1596 with the Union of Brest. This declaration created a brand new church, the Ukraine Catholic Church, which was in communion with the Roman Catholic Church but used Orthodox rites.

The latter half of the sixteenth and seventeenth century saw a large number of extraordinarily brilliant men emerge from the ranks of the Jesuits. Some, such as Saint Matteo Ricci, made a splash on the world stage; others, such as the scientist Athanasius Kircher SJ, were content to explore volcanoes or study the causes of disease. Many Jesuits studied science. That made Jesuits great explorers, too - of the 8 major rivers in the world, 5 were first charted by Jesuits.

The Jesuits successfully quashed Protestantism, and that the most famous missionaries of the era were all Jesuits. In fact, half of Europe have apostatized, but the Renaissance explorers had revealed whole new worlds which might be amenable to Catholicism.

                                                                   Page 1
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

God has always been present to His Church in a way different from His presence elsewhere. The Church of the Old Testament already enjoyed a prototype, show of the Eucharistic Presence. The ancient sanctuary contained two items of particular significance: the lamp stand and the bread of presence. Saint John applies both to Christ, the Light of the World - John 8:12 - and the Bread of Life - John 6 -

Saint Paul epistle to the Hebrews 9:2 - records that "there was an outer tabernacle which contained the lamp stand and the table and the loaves set before God; sanctuary was the name given to this." The so-called table of the show bread was important not so much for the table itself as for the bread placed upon it. It was the bread of presence, literally "bread of the face." It was to this bread of presence that Christ referred to Matthew 12:4 as "the loaves set out there before the Lord." The bread was meant as a memorial placed continually in God's presence.

The bread is to be a token sacrifice to the Lord. - Lev. 24:7 -

Each Saturday a fresh supply of bread was substituted for the old loaves, twelve in number, one for each of the twelve tribes. All were thus represented, little Benjamin no less than royal Judah, Dan as well as the priestly Levi, and just as much for one tribe as for another. No part of God's family was forgotten. Each was fully represented, and they were always before Him.

The table is to hold the loaves of bread which are to be set out continually in My Presence. - Ex. 25:30 -

The bread of the Old Testament was thus the presence of the people before the Lord, but the Bread of the New Testament is the Presence of the Lord before the people. In the Old Testament there was never a moment when they were out of His sight. Bread was a continuous reminder to Him of His covenant relation to them and of His promises to them of a Savior and Redeemer. As the twelve tribes were made one in His presence, so also His ecclesia, His Church, by "the one bread is made one body, though we are many in number; the same bread is shared by all." - 1Cor. 10:17 -

The bread of presence was before His face; that is why it was called the continual bread: "keep hallowed loaves set forth continually" - 2Chron. 2:4 - "the bread set forth there as always." - Num. 4:7 -

The bread was to be made of the finest flour, and, upon each row, incense was placed to indicate that the offering was a sacrifice to the Lord.

Put grains of fine incense upon them; the bread is to be a token sacrifice to the Lord. - Lev. 24:7 -

Thus was prefigured the union of the sacrament and sacrifice under the New Law.

Even a "sanctuary lamp" was provided - not that the bread was the substance of the Body and Blood of Christ, but only a shadow, an anticipation.

Never must the altar be empty of this perpetual fire. - Lev. 6:13 -

From that day to this, a lamp announces the Presence.

For the Christian who lives in the realm of grace, the demands of the holiness of God are not less demanding that they were for the Jew under the Old Testament. If those who rebelled in the desert did not escape judgment, much less shall we who are privileged to live in the fullness of revelation.

Beware of excusing yourselves from listening to Him who is speaking to you. There was no escape for those others, who tried to excuse themselves when God uttered His warnings on earth; still less for us, if we turn away when He speaks from heaven. - Heb. 12:25 -

The Old Testament contains seven instances of sudden judgment in connection with the tabernacle or the temple, its liturgy, its worship or its vessels. Three of them had to do with the offering of incense, three with the ark, and one with the candle stick.

Probably the first to die in the desert were Aaron's two sons who had just been ordained priests. God had sent down fire from heaven upon the altar of sacrifice and directed that it be always kept burning, like a sanctuary lamp before a tabernacle. - Lev. 9:23-24 - What their sin was is uncertain - it may have been drinking alcohol in forbidden circumstances - Lev. 10:9 - but in any case, they offered a "strange fire." They may have lighted a fire themselves instead of taking it from the altar, and they may also have mixed a strange incense which was expressly forbidden - Ex. 30:9-10 - "whereupon the Lord sent down fire which devoured them and they died there in the Lord's presence." - Lev. 10:2 -

To approach the tabernacle with the spirit of the world in our soul instead of the Spirit of Christ is to offer foreign fire. But whatever the sin of those Old Testament priests was, we are bidden to "worship God as He would have us worship Him, in awe and reverence; no doubt of it, our God is a consuming fire." - Heb. 12:28-29 -

The ark fell into the hands of the Philistines - 1Kings 4; 1Sam. 4 - because the Jews had used it as a magical charm to protect them in time of war. The Philistines put it in the temple of Dagon, and the statue of the god fell prostrate before the ark, as those who came to arrest Our Blessed Lord fell down at the mention of His name. - John 18:6 -

When the Philistines refused to acknowledge the power of God, great numbers of them died with the plague. - 1Kings 5:6; 1Sam. 5:6 - As the ark was a source of blessings to those who reverenced it, it was similarly a source of affliction to those who refused to recognize the power of God, Who dwelt symbolically in it. The same is true of Christ.

We are Christ's incense offered to God, making manifest both those who are achieving salvation and those who are on the road to ruin; as a deadly fume where it finds death, as a life-giving perfume where it finds life. Who can prove himself worthy of such a calling? - 2Cor. 2:15-16 -

Everywhere the ark went while it was in the hands of the Philistines, there went the punishment of God:

No city was free from the fear of death, and God's heavy visitation; even those who survived had shameful sores to tend, and everywhere cries of anguish went up to heaven. - 1Kings 5:12; 1Sam. 5:11-12 -

Though we see no such manifestations of this power when the Eucharist is profaned, may it not be that God is reserving His judgment for those who approach it without faith? Men may plead that they have eaten in His Presence and done wonderful works in His name and cried, "Lord, Lord" but He will say that He knows not such workers of iniquity. - Matt. 7:21-23; Luke 12:25-27 -

The Philistines finally became penitent, returned the Ark, and offered tokens of reparation for their sins; but how much more mercy they would have obtained if they had acknowledged God's presence not in terror, but in appeal to His mercy!

If God punished the Philistines so harshly for keeping the ark, which was only a promise and prototype of the Eucharist, then what reverence should the Eucharist itself not awaken in those who have the reality and the substance! How terrible a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God! - Heb. 10:31 - How feeble Nebuchadnezzar seemed when he fed on grass! - Dan. 4:30 - What a contemptible "god" did Herod appear when worms were devouring his vitals! - Acts 12:21-23 - How Belshazzar trembled with fear, his knees shaking at the sight of the handwriting on the wall! - Dan, 5:6 - How Felix fled from enlightenment when Paul reasoned with him about righteousness and judgment! - Acts 24:25 - Persons who are filled with slavish fear seek to banish what causes them terror rather than part with the sin that alone makes God an object of dread. But to us has been given the power to call down the Lord on our altars! Our greater privileges should make us tremble at knowing how God punished those with fewer talents and less light.

Another Old Testament incident that helps the bishop and priest to see how much reverence God demands for His Sacrament is seen in the punishment that was given to the people of Bethshemesh. They were happy to receive the ark back from the Philistines, but they failed to show respect. Rather, manifesting an unlawful curiosity, they looked into it and were smitten by God. - 1Kings 6:19; 1Sam. 6:19 -

Such was the Lord's displeasure when any irreverence was shown to the ark. The law was clear as to who might touch the ark and how it should be carried. It was not proper to put it in a wagon, as had been done, nor was it to be touched by anyone except the priest:

Then when Aaron and his sons have wrapped up the sanctuary and all its appurtenances ready for the march, the sons of Caath (Kohath) will enter and carry them away in their wrappings; they are not to touch the things of the sanctuary, on pain of death. - Num. 4:15 -

The ark should have been carried by two stave, held by priests. Uzzah was not a priest and was accordingly not authorized to touch the holy thing. This violation of God's command may have been the fruit of a habitual irreverence induced by long familiarity with the ark. God's action showed that no service was acceptable to Him unless regulated by strict adherence to His revealed Will. The utmost reverence was demanded of all who approached Him. - Lev. 10:3 -

How strictly the Lord enjoins His priests:

Keep yourselves unsullied, you that have the vessels of the Lord's worship in your charge. - Isaiah 52:11 -

The privilege of belonging to the Mystical Body of Christ implies both tremendous privileges and equally tremendous responsibilities.

Nation is none I have claimed for My own, save you; and guilt of yours is none that shall go unpunished. - Amos 3:2 -

Such are the judgments falling upon men in connection with the tabernacle, its worship, its holy vessels or its priesthood. When all these are taken together, one trembles at the reverence God demands for the things that are His and the punishment He metes out sometimes for the least infraction of what is dedicated to His service. The altar at which the priest stands is holy.

If the angels tremble, shall we not quake? But the Presence must not kindle a fear born of sin or impiety, but a holy fear begotten of love for One Who dwells among us.

BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN  ( 1895 to 1979 )

                                                                     Page 3
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -