ST. JOSEPH'S, DUNEDIN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 7, 14 June 1873, Page 8

ST. JOSEPH'S, DUNEDIN.

Last Sunday, the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, Bey J. Lenihan officiated at the usual Missa Cantata at 11 a.m. The sermon was preached hy Rev T. Crowley, and was a most impressive and useful instruction on the great gift of Faith — the obligations it imposes on us, the use we should make of it, the appreciation we should have of it. Dr Moran preached after vespers on the Gospel of the day, which was from Matt, xxviii. 18 — 20. Our space limits us to a few brief notes of the Bishop's eloquent discourse, which, though touching on most abstruse points of doctrine, was marked by that lucidity of explanation, and practicability of application, which are the special characteristics of his Lordship's sermons. He premised that this Gospel ie a part of th« instruction given by our Divine Redeemer during the time that intervened between his resurrection and ascension: but where it was given is not quite clear. Some commentators suppose it to have been given in Galilee, where our Lord appointed to meet his Apostles immediately after his resurrection ; whilst others think it was delivered on the Mount of Olives just before his ascension. After some remarks on the festivals which the Church has lately celebrated in honor of each of the three Divine Persons, considered under their individual attributes, and on the fitness of honoring them jointly, as the great Triune God, which the Church does in a special manner on Trinity Sunday, his Lordship proceeded with the commentary of the Gospel. He remarked that our Divine Redeemer being about to give a great commission to his Apostles ; to bestow on them the powers of the Apostolatc j and to impose on them onerous duties ; first lays before them his own letters patent ; his authority to do so, saying — " All power is given me in heaven and in earth." We are to understand that here he speaks of his capacity as God-man, for as-God, ho possessed in himself the plenitude of power from all eternity, and none could be given to him j but, as God-man, he says, all power is given to me from the Father— that is, given from" the Divinity, to his Sacred Humanity. This power is given in two ways. First by the Hypostatic Union j and secondly, by way of merit ; for by his sufferings and death our Divine Redeemer purchased all creation, he purchased the Church, he ransomed all mankind: " Going, therefore, teach ull nations." Here, our Divine Redeemer gives to his Apostles the power and the right to teach all nations, and consequently no one is authorized to refuse or reject their teaching. If men refuse to listen to or accept this teaching, they have rebelled against the command and the law of God ; for when our Lord laid a command on hia Apostles to teach, that command implied another on the rest of mankind — all nations — to accept that trtwting. " Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son* and of the Holy Ghost." Here he enunciates the great fundamental doctrine of Christianity, without which Christianity would be unintelligible—the mystery of the Trinity of persons, in Unity of essence. Our Divine Redeemer says "in the same," to show that the three distinct personalities which he mentions constitute but one power, one nature, one entity, one great Supreme Being. Proud man may say, this is unintelligible ; I cannot comprehend it. But, do we understand the mystery of our own being ? Can we comprehend itP Do we understand the power which causes the blade of grass to grow up, and the grain to germinate ? Certainly not. All these are mysteries to us ;we cannot comprehend, •we cannot explain them. And if these are " beyond our conception, fhall we, with our poor finite reason, seek to fathom the, impenetrable mysteries of the great Infinite God, or refuse-to believe them because we cannot understand them ! Should we not rather with devotion and reverence bow down before them, whilst we cry out with the Apostle, from the depths of our own nothingness, " O the depth of the riches, of the wisdom, and of the knowledge of God I " " Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." That is, your teaching is to continue after baptism, and to the end of man's life ;at no time is he to be independent of your teaching. And he is to observe all things,— that is, he cannot accept -the part of your teaching which may please him, and reject the rest ; for he that believeth, shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be condemned. " And behold I am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the world." Here it is very plain that our Divine Redeemer spoke not only to the Apostlee, whose lives he well knew were riot to exceed the ordinary years of human life, but also of those successors who are to continue and carry on the work of teaching all nations. He promised in the most emphatic manner his abiding presence in hi 9 Church, to preserve her fram error ; and that she is to be the infallible teacher of all mankind, directed and guided by one Divine Redeemer himself, even to the consummation of the world. Consequently, to deny the infallibility of the Church, or to assert that she could at any time foil into error, is to assert that our Lord Jesus Christ coi^d himself err, and so to deny his Divinity.