/Y4\>e.\/\+- 6 7 S O ADVENT: SOUVENIR or PROMISE C A T H O L I C H O U R REV. JOHN J. DOUGHERTY Advent: Souvenir Dr Promise Six addresses delivered in thè nationwide Catholic Hour, produced by the National Council of Catholic Men, in cooperation with the National Broadcasting Company, f r o m December 1, 1946 through J a n u a r y 5, 1947 BY REV. JOHN J. DOUGHERTY Professor1 of Scripture and Hebrew Immaculate Conception Seminary, Darlington, New Jersey NATIONAL COUNCIL O P CATHOLIC MEN 1312 Massachusetts Ave., N. W. Washington 5, D. C1. P r i n t e d a n d d i s t r i b u t e d b y O u r S u n d a y V i s i t o r - H u n t i n g t o n , I n d i a n a TABLE OF CONTENTS Christ and the Christians: An E a r l y P o r t r a i t 7 Christ and the Prophets: An Ageless Design ,. 13 Christ and the People: A Contemporary Sketch .....U„.„ 19 Bethlehem: Souvenir and Promise 26 N a z a r e t h : A Challenge to Climb ....... ...; ! 32 Ground Plan of the Catholic Church 37 CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS: AN EARLY PORTRAIT Address given on Advent has come again. This sacred season recalls thQ first thing of Christianity and pre- dicts the last things of Chris- tianity. I t looks backward to the I n f a n t Christ, and forward to the infinite Christ; backward to divinity in a cave, and forward to divinity on the clouds of heaven. The Advent liturgy is a recollection of Bethlehem, and a reminder of Armageddon. It is the souvenir of Christ's first coming and the promise of His second coming. I see incentive in the sacred season and incen- tive in the troubled times to take stock of the things you and I live by—Christ and Christian- ity. Christianity is a philosophy of life that has been around f o r a long time. Any system of thought that has been around for a long time inevitably under- goes a s h i f t of emphasis. The reason is obvious. When an ideology passes from the master to the masses new pressures strike it, the pressures of the crowd. When a philosophy pass- December 1, 1946 es from the ivory tower of its birth and takes to the streets, it runs up against the pressure of the street, love and lust, greed and hate. There the philosophy is tested. If its lifeblood is truth, it will survive, but even the strongest philosophy may bend under the pressures of the street. There may be a s h i f t of emphasis. As illustration of my point, take our democratic way of life. Behind its operation there is a philosophy of self-government. Two ingredients are of the essence of t h a t philosophy, and were so conceived by the minds that gave it birth. These ingre- dients are the rights of individ- uals and the obligations of indi- viduals. When this ideology runs up against the pressures of the American street today, there is a s h i f t of emphasis. Every man cries out his rights in a de- mocracy, and no man whispers his obligations to the democracy. That s h i f t of emphasis can be perilous to the idea, f o r when men who govern themselves re- 8 io . ADVENT: SOUVENIR OR PROMISE member only their rights, and forget their obligations, they may awake suddenly to find they have lost their rights. When tha root withers the plant will die, and every right is rooted in an obligation. The wild thing that has no root in obligation is not right but anarchy. To come now to Christianity: we might expect that in two thousand years there would be a s h i f t of emphasis. Humanly speaking this s h i f t of emphasis might alter the idea essentially, and endanger its survival. A f t e r two thousand years we might expect that many who bear the family name no longer hold the family heritage. Now no one questions the service that Chris- tianity has rendered society in the past, but people anxiously ask: Can it do it again? They ask: Can Christianity ride through the hideous strength of this present storm, and again renew the face of the" earth? Can the Faith l i f t the fallen world? Observe I am not ask- ing if the Church will survive. I believe it will, f o r I believe the promise of Christ, " . . . . the gates of hell shall not prevail against i t " (Matthew 16:18). My question is: Will there be a Christian world tomorrow? I regret it is a question I cannot answer, but I do say that if Christianity is to renew the face of the earth, it is not an imita- tion, of the original t h a t will do i t ; it is not a watered-down Christianity that can do it. I dx> not think that a Chris- tianity with shifted emphasis can change the world any more than a democracy with shifted emphasis can survive in the world. In the name of history and logic I contend t h a t the Christianity that worked in the past is the thing that will work again. I t is not ideologies that are labeled Christian that will do this tremendous task, but Chris- tianity t h a t is stamped authen- tic. if your hammer has a broken head, you will find it difficult, or even impossible to drive the nail. If a s h i f t of em- phasis has broken the head of Christianity, it will lack point and power. It is mv purpose, therefore, to view Christianity as it was at first, t h a t if there be a false accent or. my own, I may, with the help of God, detect it. I come then to the examination. When you first encounter the Christian movement in the streets of Jerusalem and on the high roads of the Roman Enroire CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS: AN EARLY PORTRAIT 9 Christianity' is, belief in a per- son. The emphasis is on the pro- noun. On the lips of Christ the emphasis is on the first person. Jesus said, "I have come a light one thing is immediately clear: i n t o . t h e world" (John 12.-46). Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). To his disciples Jesus said, "Come, follow me" (Matt- hew 4:19). On the lips of Peter the emphasis was on the third person. Peter said, "Him God exalted with his right hand to be Prince and Savior . . ." (Acts 5:31). Peter said, "God raised him on the third day . . ." (Acts 10:40). On the lips of John the emphasis is on the third person. John said, "All things were made through him . . . in him was life" (John 1:3- 4). On the lips of Paul the em- phasis is on the third person. Paul said, "He is the image of the invisible God . . . f o r in him were created all things in the heavens and on the earth . . . All things have been c r e a t e d through and unto him" (Colos- sians l : 1 5 f f ) . The whole Gospel is summed up in Paul's magnifi- cent accent on the personal: " . . . - we . . . preach a crucified Christ . . . " (1 Corinthians 1:23). When you first encounter the Christians in Jerusalem's streets or the Empire's high roads a second thing is clear: they be- lieved this person to be divine. There is no doubt about this in the words of St. J o h n : " ' . . . the Life Eternal which was with the Father . . . has appeared to us" (1 John 1:2). There is no doubt about it in the words of St. Paul to the Philippians: " . . . though he was by nature God . . . (he) emptied himself, taking the na- ture of a slave and being made like to men" ( 2 : 6 f ) . • Where did the Christians get this idea? The New Testament leaves no doubt as to that. The idea came from the Master Him- self, from the Master who said, " . . . I am f r o m above . , I am not of this world" (John, 8: 23); from the Master who said, " . . . I have come down from heaven . . ." (John 6:38); from the Master who said, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). Christianity then was an ideology that was summed up in a person. Christ was the phil- osophy. He did not say to His- followers: "I teach you t r u t h " ; He said, "I am the truth." As a consequence the believers held that there was an inviolable fix- i o . ADVENT: SOUVENIR OR PROMISE ity to His doctrine; 110 one could add to it or subtract from i t ; it was divine revelation from above and no man could change its content or its spirit. This astounding idea so gripped the heart of Paul t h a t he wrote: "Even if . . . an angel from heaven should preach a gospel to you other than that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema" (Galatians 1:8). Christianity was also a pro- gram of behavior that was sum- med up in a person. Christ was the program. It was a hard pro- gram that could be compared to a yoke or a burden or a cross; a program that demanded men to prefer Christ to f a t h e r and mother, wife and property, and self. True, there was a great natural enthusiasm f o r the ? maker of the program, but en- thusiasm is a fragile foundation on which to build high morality. True, there was a riatural loyalty to this great teacher, but the demands of the program dug deep and hard into natural loves and hates—His stern divorce law f o r example. ' Was the enthusiasm of nature and loyalty of nature enough to make men live the superhuman program of the Cross? For the Christians that question was purely theoretical,- for "they be- lieved that they were given an energy from above. Christ did not f e a r to give them a program above themselves, because He gave them a power above them- selves. He could give them a superhuman program because He would give them a super- natural energy. They could live His program by virtue of the energy of God. The death and resurrection of Christ brought that energy within reach. Through Christ they were " . . . partakers of divine na- ture . . (2 Peter 1:4). Through Christ they were the " . . . temple of God . . (1 Corinthians 3:16). The pro-' gram was possible and the vic- tory certain because Christ was not only the light; He was the life, and Paul could say, " I t is now no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me" ' (Galatians 2:20). Now picture 'the primitive Christian. Behold his conscious- ness absorbed in the awareness of, intimacy with God in Christ. Catch the accent of his speech. The emphasis is on the words grace and peace; grace, the real power from God in his mind and will; and peace, the inward rest that is its f r u i t . See the out- CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS: AN EARLY PORTRAIT 11 ward signs of this inward life. Note the accent on altruism. Mark how people say of him: See how these Christians love one another. Note where the pivot of importance lies; it is beyond — in another world. Heaven is not a vague, distant, unreal never-never land of shadowy existence, doubtful lo- cation and more doubtful shape and size. I t is substance eter- nal, for Christ is there and there He will meet the good Christian. Because his treasure is there, so is his heart. But that very thing and its magnifi- cence makes him a good citizen of the earth f o r he knows that the only way to heaven is to serve Christ in men. He knows that if he is the brother of Christ, so are the poor, the hun- gry and the naked. He knows that Christ will say to him on Judgment Day, " . . . as long as you did it for one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it for me" (Matthew 25:40). It follows then that Christian- ity was not set in motion merely as a program of social reform or a pattern for political Utopia. Neither John the Baptist, nor Jesus of Nazareth, described the Kingdom of God as a collective farm, or a five-day week, or a personal operation involving the human heart which no one can get at but yourself and God. It was a personal plea that went out from the banks of the Jor- dan and the hills of Galilee. We cannot' de-emphasize that ever. The Gospel is a personal pro- gram first. It is the plan for personal salvation, and thereby the foundation of social salva- tion. It was a personal appeal to the commoner and the king, and when kings and commoners lived it they had the good so- ciety. I n ' t h e personal character of the Gospel lay its social worth, f o r the good society is nothing more than the commun- ity of good individuals. The body politic, like the physical body, is healthy when the cells are healthy. Individual Christians once re- newed the face of the earth. One by one they joined "The Underground" of God and then one day shot from the catacombs to make the Western World. Men like that can do it again, men like that writing, men like that governing, men like that hiring, men like that organizing, men coveting Heaven more than gold, coveting peace more than profit, coveting grace more than neighbor's wife. I t is my per- 12 io . ADVENT: SOUVENIR OR PROMISE balance of power in Europe. Both the forerunner and the Master preached a personal re- form. Their first cry was: Re- pent. Repentance is a highly suasion that without men like that it cannot be done. This is, I believe, the sober f a c t : Before the sun of social justice rise there must come the dawn—the dawn of personal justice. CHRIST AND THE PROPHETS: AN AGELESS DESIGN Address given on Insight is defined as the power of seeing into things, so as to get a thorough knowledge of them. It is a keenness of mind rather than of eye, a power of penetration that resides in the spirit rather than the flesh. There is the insight of the man of science, who sees into the ele- ments of nature and harnesses their forces for the good or ill of mankind. There is the insight of the man of letters, who sees into the beauty of nature and the complexity of man, and brings both to walk upon his stage in forms that delight. There is the insight of the man of God, who sees into the Maker's plan behind the spheres and into his purposes in men and events, and who proclaims them in stirring and artistic phrase. These three are the insight of the scientist, the insight of the poet, and the insight of the prophet. Without these three the world would be- a drab unchal- lenging place. The scientist has given comfort and convenience to men, the poet has given in- December 8, 1946 spiration and delight, and the prophet has given—God. The insight of the prophet is above all. His vision is not made by man ; it is made by God. Prophecies are not woven on the loom of his own fancy; their fabric is of heaven, not of earth. In His loving impatience, God let the prophet peer momentarily into His own infinite treasure, and catch there a glimpse of golden things to come. Like all men the prophets believed that man lost a golden age by sin, and unlike other men the prophets were taught by God of a golden age to come. Like colored bits of mosaic the details of the Mes- sias-King and his kingdom fell f r o m the hands of God'. Isaias caught a glimpse of a virgin with child ; Micheas caught a glimpse of Bethlehem as birth- place of the King ; Daniel caught a glimpse of Him upon the clouds of heaven. So the proph- ets of the passing times sketched details of this timeless design of the mind of God, and in the full- ness of time Jesus stood in the 14 io . ADVENT: SOUVENIR OR PROMISE Synagogue at Nazareth and read from Isaias the prophet, closed the book and said, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:211. Jesus was prophet and the ful- fillment of prophecy. He is above all prophets, for He has given us God in Himself. He is poet too, f o r He has given us doctrine and morality clothed in beauteous form. His poetic insight made the lilies of the field and the birds of the air talk about the Kingdom of God. His poetic in- sight made coins and pearls and fishing nets thé parable dress of doctrine. Jesus was conscious of his link with the prophets of old, with the faltering Jeremias, and the urban Isaias. He proclaimed that they spoke of Him in their inspired songs. He could say with confidence, "You search the Scriptures . . . and it is they that bear witness to me" (John 5:39 f ) . He knew that He was the fulfillment of the prophecies. Nowhere is this seen more clear- ly and more beautifully than , in the narrative of St. Luke that tells of the appearance of the risen Christ on the road to Emmausi Two disillusioned dis- ciples were on their way toi Emmaus when they were joined by a stranger. They told Him of Jesus of Nazareth, "a prophet mighty in work and word," and of their hopes that lay.buried with Him; their hopes and Jesus were three days dead. As they went along the stranger said to them, " ' 0 foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all t h a t the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things before entering into his glory?' And begining then with Moses and with all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things referring to himself" (Luke 24:25-27). At Emmaus they recognized Him at the breaking of the bread, and when He had gone, they could look back upon those miles and say, "Was not our heart burning within us while he was speaking on the road, and ex- plaining to us the Scriptures?" (Ibid, 24:32). Jesus taught t h a t He was the one the nation awaited with hungry expec- tation. When from his prison dungeon on the wild heights of Machaerus John sent messen- gers to Jesus with the question: "Art thou he who is to come. . .?" (Matthew 11:3), Jesus quoted from Isaias the prophet: "Go and report to John what you have heard and CHRIST AND THE PROPHETS: AN AGELESS DESIGN 15 seen : the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise, the poor have the gospel preached to them" {Ibid 11:4-6). In the light of these things it is not hard to understand the ac- cent the Church placed on the prophets. The first idea in the first sermon 0% the first day of the Church was the citation of a prophet. Speaking of the signs of the Spirit's presence, Peter said, ". . . this is what was spoken though the prophet Joel: " 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says the Lord, t h a t I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh' " (Acts 2:16 f ) . It is not hard to understand the basic part the prophets played in the preaching of the Gospel. Paul could say to the faithful, "You ^ r e built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus him- self as the chief corner stone" (Ephesians 2:20). The signifi- cance of the prophets lies in this : together with miracles they are the testimony of God himself to the mission of Jesus. Miracles were God's witness to Christ in nature, and prophecies were God's witness to Christ in history. The first was impossible without the power of God, and the second impossible without the knowledge of God. They were a double-edged sword that open- ed the mind to believe. Nor has time changed the love of the Church for prophecy. The lit- urgy of Advent rings with the words of the prophets. The prophecies are still the startling witness of God to the Redeemer of the world. It is a strengthen- ing experience to catch the spirit and fervor of the Church in this. Timeless lights and shadows are Summoned to play upon the figure of - the Savior, and with the soft step of age they come to bear witness again to the Expected of Nations. Gently they speak of God's own restless anxiety to make. His Son known to the world. The design drawn by the prophets from Moses to Mala- chias was not a puzzle to be solved by the clever. To' accept Christ's interpretation of them a man needed a clean heart more than a quick wit, for the con- dition of a man's heart is much more of his own making than the condition of his head. God spoke through the prophets. Divine words fell f r o m human tonguès. The prophecies were conditioned by that fact. The prophets saw 1« io . ADVENT: SOUVENIR OR PROMISE wonderous things beyond words, and then they strove to give utterance to these unspeakable wonders with figurative speech and symbol. They were the finite brush the infinite artist used to limn a design of the Messias. To no one of them was given a full portrait of the King to come. Their visions were fleeting things like flashes of light in the dark. They fought the battles of God and the God of Battles came to them in swift brilliant visions opening their minds to behold the victory to come. Thus when Isaias and all the kingdom saw the black night of defeat and disaster descend upon the tribes of Zabulon and Nephtali, there came to him that swift vision of God in which he saw f u t u r e salvation, and he wrote: "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death light is risen. . . "FOR A CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace" (Isaias 9 passim). The prophecies need an inter- preter to give them unity and clarity, for men left to them- selves are prone to take symbolic language literally, and reduce spirit to matter. To the be- liever, Christ is the living in- terpretation of the prophecies. It was of Him the prophets Spoke, and He said so. When Christians compared His life from the Annunciation to the Ascension with what the proph- ets had said, they found a start- ling identity. . Men who saw the shameless sight of Christ on Calvary read Psalm twenty-one and were filled with amazement; they read: "All they that saw me have laughed me to~ scorn; they have spoken with the lips, and wagged the head. . . "They have dug my hands and feet. They have numbered all my bones. . . "They parted my garments amongst them: and upon my vesture they cast lota. . . "All the ends of the earth shall remember, and shall be converted to the Lord" (Psalm 21 passim). Men who saw the shameless sight of Christ on Calvary and knew His sinless life were CHRIST AND THE PROPHETS: AN AGELESS DESIGN 17 amazed when they read the words of Isaias, They read: "Surely he has borne our in- firmities and carried our sor- rows. . . "He was wounded f o r our ini- quities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed. "All we like sheep have gone astray, everyone hath turned aside into his own way: "And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. "He was offered because it was his own will and he opened not his mouth. "He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer. . . "He hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his mouth. . . "He hath delivered his soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked: "And he hath borne the sins of many, and. hath prayed f o r the transgressors" (Isaias 53 passim). When the early Christians read these lines written hun- dreds of years before Calvary, a sense of the timeless came over them, and they seemed to heat God whispering the name of Jesus through, the ages. Men saw the deeds of Jesus and heard His words. They heard him say in the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the peacemakers." At the Last Sup- per the Twelve heard Him speak long and often about peace. Men remembered His greeting a f t e r the Resurrection: "Peace be to you." In Him they saw fulfilled the words of Isaias: "His empire shall be multi- plied, and there shall be no end of peace. . . ." (9:7). Then they understood the vision Isaias described in sym- bols: "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie with the kid: "The calf and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together, and a little child shall lead them" (11:6). Then the sense of the timeless came again, and again the whis- pering of God through the cen- turies. When mothers read to their children the story of Christmas by the light of the oil lamps in Antioch or Ephesus, they read from Matthew or Luke. There the children heard the accents of Micheas and Isaias. Seven 18 io . ADVENT: SOUVENIR OR PROMISE hundred years before the chil- dren were born,, or the Child, the prophets had caught the swift vision of God's anointed. Isaias wrote: "Behold the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel (God with u s ) " (Isaias 7:14; Matthew 1:23 f ) . Micheas had caught a glimpse of God's light; He wrote: "And thou, Bethlehem of the land of Juda, a r t by no means least among the princes of J u d a ; "For from thee shall come forth a leader, who shall rule my people Israel" (Micheas 5:2 Matthew 2:6). Then the children were filled with a sense of the timeless and they seamed to catch the sound of the whispering of God long ago. The prophets were not day-, dreamers who sought escape in a flowery f u t u r e . They lived vitally and intensely in the present; they lived in the pres- ent by the f u t u r e : they got strength for the present from the promise of the future. Their captivating fire and their con- tagious force fed on hope. They pleaded the cause of God when times were good and times were bad, because they knew that the cause of an eternal God is time- less. They fudged by value rather than price. They knew that a merciful heart was worth more than the blood of a thou- sand bulls, that a heart full of pity was worth more than a handful of incense, that a mite with humility was worth more than drachmas with f a n f a r e . Like them, the prophet from Nazareth, "mighty in work and word,"' hated drawing-room vir- tue and private vice, loved sin- ners and h a t e d hypocrisy, preached that God loved mercy more than sacrifice, and that the luckiest man in the world is the clean of heart, because he shall see God. The fire and fervor of the prophets was born of a promise to come; our fervor and fire must be born of a promise f u l - filled. Christ is the promise. The prophets looked forward to a Savior to come; our world must look back to a Savior that has come, for with Peter I believe that there is salvation in no other. "For there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). CHRIST AND THE PEOPLE: A CONTEMPORARY SKETCH Address given on I t is a problem to my mind that so many people live as though they were never to die, and die as though they were never to live — forever. The problem does not grow less when I realize that many of them have fine minds, possess great skills, or enjoy exceptional talents. Not the least interesting phase of thè problem is that they think me rather quaint f o r believing that I shall live forever, that they consider me altogether unac- quainted with reality in believ- ing that my eternal condition will depend upon the moral con- dition of myself wherever and whenever my time runs out; which time, incidentally, is highly uncertain f o r me and for them. I propose to consider this problem with. you this evening, f o r I think it is yours as well as mine. Let's take the people with good heads first. I have met intelligent people within the Church, and especially intelli- gent people outside the Church, intelligent people who have en- tered the Church and intelligent December 15, 1946 people who have left it. If we were to count heads at this mo- ment, I am sure we would find about a many good heads in the Church as out of it; I think a poll would show that neither the Christians nor the pagans have cornered the market on intel- lects. But where does this lead us ? I think at this point the po- sition may be stated without ob- jection from either p a r t that being a Christian involves some- thing more than having a good head. Or to put it in other words, Christianity is not de- signed as a clique for the clever. When I look for confirmation of this conclusion, I find that the night that Christ was born angels spoke for him—since an infant cannot speak for himself —and they sang: "Peace on earth to men of good will." They did not sing: "Peace on earth to men with good heads." Further- more, when Jesus gave the mes- sengers of John the signs of His Messiasship, He said, ". . . the poor have the gospel preached to them" (Matthew 1 1 : 6 ) — t h e poor, not the clever. I see this 20 io . ADVENT: SOUVENIR OR PROMISE conclusion confirmed throughout the Gospels. The fact that some clever men do not believe only proves to me that f a i t h depends on something more than clever- ness, that it is as much a matter of will as of mind, as much a matter of heart as of head. I consider the second and third phases of my problem to- gether. There are men with great skills and talents who do not believe. I think of the amaz- ing skill of surgeons, that has given such benefits to men. I think of the startling skills of science and technology, that have made America a wonder- land of gadgets. America is also a fairyland of talents. There- is talent in letters—our consum- mate masters of words, littera- teurs homegrown and imported. At the mention of the word talent I behold a vision of floods of theatrical talent that pour upon our land from within and without. Nowhere in the world are there more song and dance men, more budding or fading Hamlets, i Now there are talent- ed people who are pagan, and talented people who are Chris- tian. Of itself talent does not shut out f a i t h or bring it in. There are great writers who have entered the Church, and great artists who have left it. When I look f o r the viewpoint of Christ on talent, I come upon a story he told about talents. The talents in the story are Greek coinage in value about two thousand dollars. The story goes that the master of a house had to go on a long journey, and he entrusted his property to his three slaves. He gave five tal- ents to one slave, two to another, and one to the third, and then he went off on his journey. The first two slaves, used their tal- ents well, and gained others, but the third dug a hole in the ground and hid his. Upon the master's return the first slave showed him the five other tal- ents he had gained, and the second showed him the two he had gained, but the third could only show the one he had hidden . in f e a r and caution. The master praised the first two, and pun- ished the third, because he had m^de poor use of the talent he had given him. The moral of the parable is this: each one of us must give an account of g i f t s : received, whether voice or charm, wealth; or beauty; with the g i f t goes: the responsibility of interprets ing it aright and using it well. Now the point I wish to make CHRIST AND*THE PEOPLE: A CONTEMPORARY SKETCH 21 is t h i s : something has happened to our thinking in regard to in- telligence, skills and talents, and because there is something fundamentally wrong with our thinking, these things have be- come idols of the tribe. There is in o'ur midst a widespread wor- ship of intelligence, skill, talent, success, wealth, beauty, and so • on, t h a t borders on an irrational idolatry. It is somewhat like the phenomenon of Indians dancing around a totem pole, or ancient Egyptians worshipping a sacred bull. It is not as naive or gross, not as ludicrous; but although more subtle, it is none the less a kind of idolatry. Idol- atry is putting a created thing in the place of the Creator, any created thing. I do not see that it is more idolatrous to worship the sun t h a t ' God made than to worship a body that God-made. When a man so lives as to put the whole meaning and purpose of his life in a person or thing, he is worshipping that person or thing, and worship is some- thing he should give to God alone. You cannot be a slave to God and Mammon. There is no idolatry without cult and ritual. Never in human history has the cult of the fe- male had more worshippers at its shrine. Every news-stand is a shrine to the cult, every maga- zine cover. The ingenuity of commercial art is boundless in devising new lights and shad- ows, new postures, new angles, new suggestions. The female face and form is thè magic sym- bol that will sell everything from bullets to butter. The cult has its chant sensuous' and sug- gestive, with the idea repeated unto despair that animal attrac- tion and emotional urge are man's supreme delight and the reason for man's existence. The cult of the female is not so naive as the cult of mummified bulls and cats, but it is equally. irra- tional. There is one place that will .help a man or woman bring the whole problem of the flesh into focus—a morgue. Now the purpose I had in mind in drawing out this dis- heartening picture of contem- porary cult was to point to a symptom. The disease is the Unbalanced attitude of many of us to sex, success, and stimu- lants: this diseased atmosphere is hardly the air that Christians thrive on. It is not easy to get a child to eat his breakfast the morning a f t e r Santa Claus' ar- rival. He is captivated by the shining painted things about 22 io . ADVENT: SOUVENIR OR PROMISE him. Now the shining painted world we walk in can easily fascinate us, and turn us f r o m the solid nourishment that is Christ and His truth. Surely it is possible that we continue to attend the rites of the altar of Christ, the Sacrifice of His Body and Blood, and yet still be allured to the cult of the painted people, and to the sweet wine in their cups. We are ever tugged between the bitter-sweet chalice of Christ and sweet- bitter cup of the flesh. This was true of the first Christians as well as of us. Paul could cry out in anger, "What harmony is there .between Christ and Be- lial? . . . And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?" (S Corinthians 6:15 f ) . But the tug is stronger today, for the city of man has put on more alluring finery, and the shallow people are enamelled more brilliantly, and it has found a way to move into the re- motest village in black and white or technicolor, and its voice can carry into the remotest attic without wires. The tug of the city is greater f o r the old strongholds have cracked wide open; the home, the inner for- tress, has sold itself to the enemy, and the elders have be- come like the children playing with the painted toys of the world. The idolatry of our time is a subtle idolatry; our false gods are not in the groves of the green hills, they are close and intimate. There is the false worship of intelligence. Leaders of this cult are the intellectuals, worshipping their own minds and accepting incense from the admiring crowds, setting limits to man and God by the f o u r corners of their mindi, answer- ing all questions and solving no problems, substituting experi- ment f o r thought, research f o r ' reflection, and extroversion for prayer. There is the false worship of skill, so that we have a world full of trained hands and a world full of empty hearts. The worshippers at the shrine look to the intellectuals and the skilled as the Greeks of old looked to their oracles. Because men are expert or erudite they are m a d e philosophers and prophets, infallible interpreters of destiny. Then there is the false worship of the talented. Before all, the beautiful and the talented worship themselves, comparing themselves w i t h themselves, becoming a law unto CHRIST AND THE P E O P L E : A CONTEMPORARY SKETCH 23 themselves, taking in marriage and putting away at whim, their greatest sin that they have lost the sense of sin. How many worship at their shrines; shallow people worship- ping shallow people! How many live by the creed: the great can do no wrong! What shall I cry? Are these thy gods, 0 America! With Elias? "How long, do you halt between two sides? If the Lord be God follow him, but if Baal, then follow him." (3 Kings 18:21). With Paul? "For who singles thee out? Or what hast thou that thou hast not re- ceived? And if thou hast re- ceived it, why dost thou boast as if thou hadst not received i t ? " (1 Corinthians 4:7). Such is Paul's interpretation of g i f t s of mind and body, gold or silver, fame or family. Talent, beauty and skill are given not as •gods to adore, but as a doorway to God. Our God is a hidden God, and these things are the re- flection of himself. Like the sun, the stars, the rains, "the earth and the fullness thereof are the good things of God, but they are not gods. Neither in theory nor practice are we to worship them, but rather the God that gave them. Reason demands that there be a term of reference f o r all of them, and the term of reference is God. When we in- terpret them in reference to God they také on a meaning t h a t en- dures beyond time ; then are the idols broken and the fragments become stepping stones to God and to peace of mind. To sum up my points thus f a r : an irrational self-worship predominates in the American scene; this creates a material- istic and self-centered atmos- phere; it is a highly attractive cult, and alluring to every man, so t h a t complete surrender to it or compromise with it is amaz- ingly easy. But, furthermore, I see impli- cations in the problem, alarming implications. This is what I mean: if we are unable to inter- pret correctly the things that I have just discussed, what of bigger things? If we do not refer little things to God, how shall we refer greater things? What are the greater things? Surely the first of the greater things is freedom. Can it be that men wTio interpret freedom wrongly in their personal lives, will interpret it rightly in their civic lives ? Can it be that a man who lives by no law within his four walls, will live by law be- tween .his two shores? Does the 24 io . ADVENT: SOUVENIR OR PROMISE scale of operations make moral- ity? To interpret freedom aright you must interpret restriction aright, for restrictions rise be- cause the other* fellow is also free. To interpret freedom aright you must interpret law aright, f o r the sum total of men breaking laws is a society not observing laws. If the mass of the people are fun-worshippers, where will we get the sinews of heart that freedom needs? When the test of strength comes—and it has ¿ome-—who will rise and say: "My strength is a s t h e strength of ten, because my heart is pure."* What shoulders will bear the weight of freedom, if every man wants only the f u n of freedom? This is the first implication. . Secondly, there is the big thing that is progress, scientific progress, economic progress and social progress. How do we in- terpret progress ? The experi- ence of history is t h a t man's spirit tags f a r behind the pro- gress of his world. His law comes long a f t e r his abuses. The progress of our age is altogether astounding, and it is disastrous •Alfred L o r d Tennyson, Sir Galahad. to be blind to its meaning in the fascination f o r a walkie-talkie or a pressure cooker. The change demands much more than re- modeling your kitchen. We must adjust our hearts and our minds in light of the great change in men and ideas. We must inter- pret- the change in light of our- selves, and somewhere find a fixed core of t r u t h that will ap- ply to man in an atomic age or stone age. That t r u t h must be a sense of values that progress cannot change nor time destroy. I believe it is to be found in its most beautiful expression in Christ's Sermon on the Mount, and in His Supper Discourse the night before He died. I believe that if we interpret ourselves and our times in light of the t r u t h of Christ, we will look upon all idolatry as folly, and false gods will vanish from our land. Like the statue of Nabuchodonosor's d r e a m all idols have feet of clay. The prophet Daniel saw the great stone cut out of the mountain strike the feet of clay and break them to pieces; then the shat- tered statue became " . . . like chaff of a summer's thrashing floor and they were carried away by the wind . . . but the stone that struck the statue, became CHRIST AND THE P E O P L E : a great mountain and filled the, whole earth" (Daniel 2:35). Pray that Christ will be like that A CONTEMPORARY SKETCH 25 stone f o r our dear land. Pray that He may fill our land be- cause He fills our hearts. BETHLEHEM: SOUVENIR AND PROMISE Address given on December 22, 1946 There is something of Christ- mas we all have in common and something of Christmas that is our very own. The real drama of Christmas is 'enacted in men's hearts rather than in their pageantry and display. Each man has his own Christmas story to tell; only he can tell it—and God. The carols, songs and stories we know so well are those that have found voice, but most wondrous Christmas stories have never been told; like Mary, many have "kept all these words pon- dering them" in their hearts. The Christmas of the priest is not the Christmas of the people. The Christmas of a parent is not the Christmas of a child. I t is a different Christmas for the boy who stands in the snow with his eyes glued on the wonders of the shop window, which only his eyes can have, and for the boy whose arms are filled with the shop's toys. Christmas is not the same f o r the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary and for the man who does not believe it. Christ- mas was not the same for Jesus, and- Mary, and Joseph. This Christmas is not the same as your last, nor will it be the same as your next. I t is an ever- changing day, because we are ever-changing people. One day Christmas meant everything be- cause you clasped a doll, then it meant everything because you clasped a child—your own, then it meant everything because you clasped a Child—God's own. For every man Christmas is the day when joy is so great that it comes very close to sadness, and people cry with joy. • Christ has done something to the day, that on it we must sing and pray, and weep and love. Christmas song is the expres- sion of sentiment and the ex- pression of faith. I t is the hymn of faith with sentiment, and if it is a sentimental song with- out faith, it is out of tune With the two thousand years old Christmas song of the Church. The f a i t h that breaks into song is the act of the mind embracing the Christ-Child and whispering, "God!" Because of this faith the whole world has been singing Christmas hymns for two thou- BETHLEHEM: SOUVENIR AND PROMISE 27 sand years. The hymns express two wondrous things, Emmanuel, which means God with us, and Virgin-Mother, which means Mary. These are the twin themes of the hymns of faith, two u n i q u e and wonderful things: the goodness of God to send His Son, and the goodness of God to send Him through the virgin womb of Mary; the good- ness of God to make His Son small enough to fit into our arms, and to make a woman pure enough to bear Him. The set- ting of this gracious goodness of God was Bethlehem. Bethlehem is a little white town populated with less than ten thousand people and with more than three thousand years of memories. Lovely are Bethle- hem's memories of David, lovely the memories of Ruth, but love- liest of all is the memory of Jesus. Because of that memory Bethlehem became a word in every man's language and a word in every man's song. Tonight wherg the night is taut With cold men Sing in a strange accent of Bethlehem. I t is a magic word, a universal word, and when they hear it men dream of peace—and the Prince of Peace. This uni- versal song is like the echo of the angels' song, as though the song never died, but only sleeps, and then on Christmas night it stirs men's hearts again and lives upon their lips. And what do they sing of? Who is this Child that the whole world re- members his birth with song? St. John gives the answer: "In this has the love of God been, shown . . . that God sent His only-begotten Son into -the world -. . ." (I John 4 : 9 ) . Bethlehem is souvenir of things past, and promise of things to come. I t is souvenir -of the Savior. There Jesus was born, and the name means savior. When Joseph was alarmed to see Mary with child, "an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Do not be afraid, Joseph, son of -David, to take to thee Mary thy wife, for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins.' " (.Matthew 1:20-22). When the shepherds looked in open- mouthed Wonder and f e a r at the brilliance of the glory of God in the night, and an angel standing by them, the angel said, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which shall be to all the people; for 28 io . ADVENT: SOUVENIR OR PROMISE there has been born to you today in the town of David' a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:10f.). When years later an aged disciple of Jesus looked back upon that night he could only say, "In this is the love (of God) . . . that he has first loved u