Christ and the Christians : an early portrait


THE CATHOLIC HOUR

CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS:
AN EARLY PORTRAIT

BY

REV. )OHN ). DOUGHERTY
\

Professor of Sacred Scripture,

Immaculate Conception Seminary, Darlington, N. J.

\61S4§

The first in a series of four addresses, delivered in the Catholic
Hour, broadcast by the National Broadcasting Company in cooperation
with the National Council of Catholic Men, on December 1, 1946, by the
Rev. John J. Dougherty, Professor of Sacred Scripture, Immaculate Con-
ception Seminary, Darlington, N. J. After the series has been completed
on the radio, it will be made available in one pamphlet.

National Council of Catholic Men
Washington, D. C.



CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIANS:
AN EARLY PORTRAIT

Advent has come again. This

sacred season recalls the first

thing of Christianity and pre-

dicts the last things of Chris-

tianity. It looks backward to the

Infant 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 Armagedon. 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 for a

long time. Any system of
thought that has been around

for a long time inevitably under-

goes a shift 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-
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 shift of
emphasis.

As illustration of my point,
take our demorcatic way of life.
Behind its operation there is a

philosophy of self-government.

Two ingredients are of the
essence of that 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 shift of emphasis. Every

man cries out his rights in a de-
mocracy, and no man whispers
his obligations to the democracy.

That shift of emphasis can be

perilous to the idea, for when

men who govern themselves re-
member only their rights, and
forget their obligations, they

may awake suddenly to find they
have lost their rights. When
the 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

shift of emphasis. Humanly

speaking this shift of emphasis

might alter the idea essentially,

and endanger its survival. After

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 lift the fallen

world? Observe I am not ask-
ing if the Church will survive.

I believe it will, for I believe the

promise of Christ, . the

gates of hell shall not prevail

against iV {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 that will do

it
;

it is not a watered-down

Christianity that can do it.

I do 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 that the

Christianity that worked in the

past is the thing that will work

again. It is not ideologies that

are labeled Christian that will do

this tremendous task, but Chris-

tianity that 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 shift of em-

phasis has broken the head of

Christianity, it will lack point

and power.

It is my purpose, therefore, to
view Christianity as it was at

first, that if there be a false

accent on 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 Empire
one thing is immediately clear:

Christianity is belief in a per-

son. The emphasis is oii the pro-

noun. On the lips of Christ the
emphasis is on the first person.

Jesus said, ‘T have come a light

into the world'’ {John 12:46).

Jesus said, ‘T am the way, and
the truth, and the life" {John

14:6). To his disciples Jesus

said, '‘Come, follow me" {MatU



hew 4:19). Qn 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 . . . for in him

were created all things in the

heavens and on the earth ... All

things have been created
through and unto him” {Cotos-

sians l:15ff). 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. John: “ . . . 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” (2:6f).
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 from 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 truth”;

He said, “I am the truth.” As a
consequence the believers held

that there was an inviolable fix-
ity to His doctrine; no one

could add to it or subtract from

it; 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 that 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 bj5 compared to

a yoke or a burden or a cross;

a program that demanded men
to prefer Christ to father and

mother, wife and property, and

self. True, there was a great

natural enthusiasm for the

maker of the program, but en-

thusiasm is a fragile foundation

on which to build high morality.

True, there was a liatural loyalty

to this great teacher, but the

demands of the program dug

deep and hard into natural loves

and hates—His stern divorce
law for 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 fear 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, ‘Tt 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 fruit. See the out-

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. It 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 for 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

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

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. In the personal character

of the Gospel lay its social

worth, for 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. It is my per-
suasion that without men like
that it cannot be done. This is,

I believe, the sober fact: Before

the sun of social justice rise

there must come the dawn—^the
dawn of personal justice.





3^}S'5S1

THE CATHOLIC HOUR
1930^—Seventeenth Year—1946

The nationwide Catholic Hour was inaugurated on
March 2, 1930, by the National Council of Catholic Men
in cooperation with the National Broadcasting Company
and its associated stations. Radio facilities are provided
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The Catholic Hour was begun on a network of 22
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