The Catholic World, Vol. 06, October, 1867 to March, 1868.Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 06, October, 1867 to March, 1868.
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
Now, to this divine order, this divine law, this catholic faith
and worship symbolized to us by Rome, the visible centre of its
unity and authority, stands opposed another order, not of life,
but of death, called the world, originating with our first
parents, and in their disobedience to the divine law, or
violation of the divine order established by the Creator,
conformity to which was essential to the moral life and
perfection of the creature, or fulfilment of the promise given
man in creation. The order violated was founded in the eternal
wisdom and goodness of the Creator, and the relations which
necessarily subsist between God as creator and man as his
creature, the work of his hands. There is and can be for man no
other law of life; even God himself can establish no other. By
obedience to the law given or conformity to the order established
man is normally developed, lives a true normal life, and attains
to his appointed end, which is the completion of his being in
God, his beatitude or supreme good. But Satan tempted our first
parents to depart from this order and to transgress the divine
law, and in their transgression of the law they fell into sin,
and founded what we call the world--not on the law of life, but
on what is necessarily the law of death.
The principle of the world may be collected from the words of the
Tempter to Eve: "Ye shall not surely die, but shall be as gods,
knowing good and evil." These words deny the law of God, declare
it false, and promise to men independence of their Creator, and
the ability to be their own masters, their own teachers and
guides. "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil;" that is,
determining for yourselves, independently of any superior, what
is right or wrong, good or evil, or what is or is not fitting for
you to do. You shall suffice for yourselves, and be your own law.
Hence, as the basis of Rome is the assertion of the divine law,
conformity to the divine order, or submission to the divine
reason and will, that is, humility, the basis of the world is the
denial of the divine order, the rejection of the law of life and
the assertion of the sufficiency of man for himself, that is,
simply, pride.
{3}
Rome is based on humility, the world on pride; the spirit of Rome
is loyalty and obedience, the spirit of the world is disloyalty
and disobedience, always and everywhere the spirit of revolt or
rebellion. Between these two spirits there is necessarily an
indestructible antagonism, and no possible reconciliation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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