The Catholic Church and conversionChesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
Religion
The Catholic Church and conversion
Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
Conversion -- Catholic Church
generosity, and even geniality, can be locked up in a box, as the
legendary casket held the heart of the giant. It is a satisfaction, and
almost a joke, that it is only in a dark corner and a cramped space that
any man can discover that mountain of magnanimity.
It is the same with all the other points of attack, especially the old
ones. The man who has come so far as that along the road has long left
behind him the notion that the priest will force him to abandon his
will. But he is not unreasonably dismayed at the extent to which he may
have to use his will. He is not frightened because, after taking this
drug, he will be henceforward irresponsible. But he is very much
frightened because he will be responsible. He will have somebody to be
responsible to and he will know what he is responsible for; two
uncomfortable conditions which his more fortunate fellow-creatures have
nowadays entirely escaped. There are of course many other examples of
the same principle: that there is indeed an interval of acute doubt,
which is, strictly speaking, rather fear than doubt, since in some cases
at least (as I shall point out elsewhere) there is actually least doubt
when there is most fear.
But anyhow, the doubts are hardly ever of the sort suggested by ordinary
anti-Catholic propaganda; and it is surely time that such propagandists
brought themselves more in touch with the real problem. The Catholic is
scarcely ever frightened of the Protestant picture of Catholicism; but
he is sometimes frightened of the Catholic picture of Catholicism; which
may be a good reason for not disproportionately stressing the difficult
or puzzling parts of the scheme. For the convert’s sake, it should also
be remembered that one foolish word from inside does more harm than a
hundred thousand foolish words from outside. The latter he has already
learned to expect, like a blind hail or rain beating upon the Ark; but
the voices from within, even the most casual and accidental, he is
already prepared to regard as holy or more than human; and though this
is unfair to people who only profess to be human beings, it is a fact
that Catholics ought to remember. There is many a convert who has
reached a stage at which no word from any Protestant or pagan could any
longer hold him back. Only the word of a Catholic can keep him from
Catholicism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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