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Page 9
"No; if this Church were truly of Christ, she would imitate Him better.
It was His supreme mission to point to _things that are above;_ to lift
men's thoughts above dross and gold and jewels and worldly influence and
high places and power; to point to _a Heavenly Jerusalem, not made with
hands;_ to comfort the sorrowful with a vision of future peace, not to
dabble with temporal matters; to speak of grace and heaven and things to
come, and _to let the dead bury their dead!_ The best we can do for her,
then, is to disembarrass her of her riches; to turn her temporal
possessions to frankly temporal ends; to release her from the slavery of
her own ambition into the _liberty of the poor and the children of
God!"_
(ii) In a word, then, the Church is too worldly to be the Church of
Christ! _You cannot serve God and Mammon_. Yet in another mood our
critic will tell us that we are too otherworldly to be the Church of
Christ. "The chief charge I have against Catholicism," says such a man,
"is that the Church is too unpractical. If she were truly the Church of
Jesus Christ, she would surely imitate Him better in that which, after
all, was the mark of His highest Divinity--namely in His Humanity
towards men. Christ did not come into the world to preach metaphysics
and talk forever of a heaven that is to come; He came rather to attend
to men's simplest needs, _to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked_, to
reform society on better lines. It was not by His dogma that He won
men's hearts; it was by His simple, natural sympathy with their common
needs. He came, in a word, to make the best of this world, to use the
elements that lay ready to His hand, to sanctify all the plain things of
earth with which He came in contact.
"These otherworldly Catholics, then, are too much apart from common life
and common needs. Their dogmas and their aspirations and their
metaphysics are useless to a world which wants bread. Let them act more
and dream less! Let them show, for example, by the prosperity of
Catholic countries that Catholicism is practical and not a vision. Let
them preach less and philanthropize more. Let them show that they have
the key to this world's progress, and perhaps we will listen more
patiently to their claim to hold the key to the world that is to come!"
But, surely, this is a little hard upon Catholics! When we make
ourselves at home in this world, we are informed that Jesus Christ _had
not where to lay His Head_. When we preach the world that is to come,
we are reminded that Jesus Christ after all came down from that world
into this to make it better. When we build a comfortable church, we are
told that we are too luxurious. When we build an uncomfortable one we
are asked how we expect to do any good unless we are practical.
II. Now, of course, both these charges were also objected against our
Blessed Lord. For He too had His double activities. It is true that
there were times when He gave men earthly bread; it is also true that He
offered them heavenly bread. There were times when He cared for men's
bodies; there were other times when He bade them sacrifice all that
makes bodily life worth living; times when He sat at meat in the house
of a rich man, and times when He starved, voluntarily, in the desert.
And the world found Him wrong whichever He did. He was too worldly when
He healed men on the Sabbath; for is not the Law of God of more value
than a man's bodily ease? Why can He not wait till to-morrow? He was too
worldly when He allowed His disciples to rub corn in their hands; for
does not the Law of God forbid a man to make bread on the Sabbath? He
was too worldly, too unpractical, too sense-loving when He permitted the
precious ointment to be spilled on His feet; _for might not this
ointment have been sold for much and given to the poor?_ Is not
spirituality enough, and the incense of adoration?
And He was too otherworldly when He preached the Sermon on the Mount.
What is the use of saying, _Blessed are the Meek_, when the whole world
knows that "Blessed are the Self-Assertive"? He was too otherworldly
when He spoke of Heavenly Bread. What is the use of speaking of Heavenly
Bread when it is earthly food that men need first of all? He was too
otherworldly when He remained in the country on the feast day. _If He be
the Christ_, let Him be practical and say so!
It was, in fact, on these very two charges that He was arraigned for
death. He was too worldly for Pilate, in that He was Son of Man and
therefore a rival to Caesar; and too otherworldly for Caiphas, since _He
made Himself Son of God_ and therefore a rival to Jehovah.
III. The solution, then, of this Catholic Paradox is very simple. (i)
First, the Church is a Heavenly Society come down from above--heavenly
in her origin and her birth. She is the _kingdom of God_, first and
foremost, and exists for His glory solely and entirely. She seeks, then,
first the extension of His kingdom; and compared with this, nothing is
of any value in her eyes. Never, then, must she sacrifice God to Mammon;
never hesitate for one instant if the choice lies between them. For she
considers that eternity is greater than time and the soul of man of more
value than his body. The sacraments therefore, in her eyes, come before
an adequate tram-service; and that a man's soul should be in grace is,
to her, of more importance than that his body should be in health--if
the choice is between them. She prefers, therefore, the priest to the
doctor, if there is not time for both, and Holy Communion to a good
breakfast.
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