EXTRACTS FROM THE SERMON PREACHED BY FATHER BURKE ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEDICATION OF THE ARMAGH CATHEDRAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 35, 27 December 1873, Page 9

EXTRACTS FROM THE SERMON PREACHED BY FATHER BURKE ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEDICATION OF THE ARMAGH CATHEDRAL.

TttS distinguished preacher having taken the following for his text— The just man lives by faith," proceeded to deliver an eloquent and moat impressive sermon. He said— These words, dearly beloved brethren, sre from the writings of Saint Paul. May it please your 1 eminence, most rev. lords, and dearly beloved brethren, the Apostle of the Gentiles, divinely inspired by the Holy Ghost, laid down in these woids one of the grandest and most consoling principles that can fall upon the ear of man. He says men live for various objectssome live to enrich themselves, some to gain power ; but among the various ends, objects for which men can live, the Apostle selects one, and he says—" There is something else which a man can live for." My just man—that is to say, the just man in my estimation— is the man who lives by faith. As it is with individuals, dearly beloved brethren, so it is with a nation. A nation may live for this object or for that ; a nation may live for the purposes of war or gain % a nation may live for the purposes of commerce ; but a nation or a people may also live the bjgher U{e of whioh the Apoßtle Bpea4B# A mnJ live by faith. Now, dearly beloved brethren, what do these wordi mean— to live by faith P Whether we consider it in the individual or the nation it means simply this, that the Almighty God condescends to offer Himself as the object and purpose of man's life. He placet Himself in the category of objects fer which a man may live. He takes His place as it were, amongst created things, and he says "Ton may live to obtain riches, you may live to obtain power ; you may lire for political influence ; but there is one grand object you can live for, and that is faith. And this, according to the Apostle, is the highest form of justice, the highest, noblest nobility of man— for a man or a nation who lives by faith, first of all, arises to ihe dignity of realising the unseen. We cannot see Him and yet we can live for Him.Nearly 1500 years have passed away since that most memorable event in the annals of the world and of the Church when a stranger landed upon the shores of Ireland, and in an old Celtic town proclaimed to the princes and to the kings of the ancient land the name and the glories of Jesus Christ the Son of God. St. Patrick was fortunate in his apostleship, for he came to a people who seemed naturally created' foir a life of divine faith. He found amongst the Irish race, the men to whom he preached, a strange faculty -of realising the unseen and realising the truth of the apostle's words ; no difficulties orossed him ; he had only to proclaim the name of God and the true God, the name of Jesus, the name of Mary the mother of our Lord, when instantly, as if it came to them naturally, the whole people all like one man arose, and without asking from their apostle the testimony of one tear of sorrow or one drop of blood, the Irieh nation, the Irish people sprang to the truth which came to them from St. Patrick's lips, and if the apostle was fortunate in the people to whom he preached, Ireland wfcs also fortunate in the apostle whom Almighty God sent to her. He brought with him not merely the unction of his episcopal consecration, not merely the authority of the holy Ohuroh of God, not only commission from Celestine, the Pope of R«me, but brought with him a kindly, loving heart, so like the hearts of the people to whom he preached. He brought also with him immense learning, and yet a simplicity of character most childlike because most Christian. He brought with him a becoming love for the nation and for the people, and a deep appreciation of all that is most beautiful in the natural character of the Irish* race. At once, and with a divine instinct, Ireland took her apostle to her bosom, and Patrick clasped the young Church in the embrace of his apostolic love. He remained thirteen years in Ireland as a Bishop preaching the Gospel in the midland portion of the country, and in the far west towards the western ocean. Then in the thirteenth year of his ministry, when he already had converted a great part of the island, when he had already built churches and established missions throughout the land, St. Patrick betkought himself that the time had come when he should establish a primatial see and the metropolitan jurisdiction of an archbishop over the newly converted country. Divine Providence guided the Apostle's steps until lie came among these hills, and here obtained possesiion of * piece of land, and there Patrick, the Apostle, founded the Church and city of Armagh. Now it is that we observe how the Irish race lived by faith. Amongst the annals of nations, dearly beloved brethren, we find that until a people are first converted to Christianity it requires a long delay of years before that people can produce the matured harvest of a national priesthood. The only exception to this rule was the Irish nation. No sooner were they converted than they instantly rote to the sanctity and grandeur of a national priesthood. No sooner were they converted than they became instantly a monastic nation, and the great centre of Ireland's monasticism and of her early success was the very spot on which you stand, the cathedral of the city of St. Patrick in Armagh. Here for three hundred years, from the 6th until the close of the Bth century, scholars came from every part of the known world that they might derive from the successor of St. Peter that great knowledge which they were to bring back to their own people and to their own nation, so that Ireland became through her scholars, through these three centuries, the very light of the world for great learning, the very light of the world for the brightness of her sanctity. From St. Patrick's See, from Patrick's Cathedral of Armagh, us from a centre came all that life, that life of faith by which the nation consecrated itself in the highest form of monastic sanctity to God ; that life of apostolic zeal by which our fathers became the apostles of the whole world; that 'life of supreme sanctity by which the island itielf was made to be the mother of the brightest and the greatest saints of the Church of God. The next great feature in the me of faith of any people is power, the aggressive power, and this also, the Irish race inherited from God through the ministry of St. Patrick. He made them aot on.v a holy people, not only % faithful people, but He made our fathers to be a strong people, and the secret of their strength was th.iir faith. After 800 years of monastic sanctity, it was in the design •f €t«A that the Irkk rats wm mot ml? tkt helisft, tat were tkf

strongest and most powerful people on the face of the earth j and in order to prove this, God let loose on Ireland the scourge of the Daiii'h nation. Before the conquering arms of the Danes many of the nations of Europe went down. They reached England and took possession ot the land. They took possession of the western shores of Scotland, and tt portion of the northern provinces of Prance, and whereever they went they declared war against the saints of God, against the Cross, and against the Christian religion. For 300 years, year after year their fleet swept the seas, and their armies swept in thousands and thousands upon the shores of Irelrnd. But here they found the people united as one man upon the gi and principle of their religion. They found the whole Irish race, all the men of the land, the fathers and sons for generation after generation for 300 years clinging firmly and unitedly to their faith ; and the Danish invader struck blow after Wow at them, until at length the great and mighty warrior drew his •word in the name of the Crucified, and smote the Danes, thafc they neyer lifted up their hands against the Iriah people any more, nor dared to set foot on Irish soil again. Thus the Almighty Goi showed, in the power of this people, a wonderful unifying power and strength, the power of the principle of divine faith. Now, another invasuonlbllowed, etui more terrible, and this time it was not the faith of the Irish people that was assaulted, it was only their national existence. And dear to every nation as its liberty aud its national existence ought to be, and strong and heroic aa were the efforts of Ireland's kings and princes to preserve the treasure of her national existence still, in the providence of God, it was designed that Ireland should shine out amongst the nations as unconquered and unconquerable only upon the question of divine life and her faitb. Powerful as was the principle of nationality, Ireland was defeated on this issue. God took it away from us. The national life of our people is not based on military glory, such glory is not ours j our interests are merged in those of another people. The providence of God has not brought out our national life in commerce and in wealth } all these things we have been iadilferent to, and we hay© sacrificed them. But the providence of God brought out the unconquerable, the imperishable life of the Irish ruce only upon the question of their faith. On that alone every power on earth may assail, and on that alone every power in hell may rise against them. On the question of faith, the Irish nation has risen a conqueror from every battle-field, no matter how much blood she has shed 400 Sears the stranger was in the land, and during this time the Irish whops and primates of Armagh clung around the cathedral of Armagh To the Irish race Armagh was as Jerusalem to the House of David" the fountain of her faitb. But now 300 years ago a great change came over the thoughts of the English nation— a great change came over the manners and the morals of the land. England solemnly and Badly abjured the Catholic faith, and separated herself from the Church of God— a change that was effected with much bloodshed iv the sister fend, and was also sought to be effected in Ireland. Edicts went forth that the name of Peter or of his succeesor was no longer to be heard on Irish soil£When Patrick administered the Sacraments to the Irish people, it was in virtue of the power he received from the Pope of Rome, and St. Patrick tried to give to the Irish race the secret of all their religion, of all their faith, of their undying and imperishable life when he used these words :— " Stand by Home; if there be any distensions or quarrels bring them to Borne j don't go to Borne as slaves to a master, but go to Borne as children to their mother." In other words he sent deep into .the Irish mind, deep into the Irish heart, the secret of all religion, of all^Catholicity, of all Divine truth— namely, that the Almighty God left behind Him on earth a representative and a vicar who speaks in the name of Jesus Christ ; and the only man on earth who has the authority to speak as Vicar of Christ, and in the name of Ged-a man who is supreme in the Church of God, who witnesses to her faith with infallible voice, and who cannot mislead the people —and that man is the Pope of Borne. Patrick taught the people of Ireland that as long as they were united with Peter in Pome they were united with Jesus Christ, and no power in earth or hell can take your faich from you. Now, tins is the very principle that saved Ireland in that sad day in the 16th century when called on to .uurenJer her fwth, and I wish to put this before you. When Henry VIII called on Ireland to become Protestant Le did not at once ask the people to pull down the altar*. He did not ask them to abjure the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He did not assert it was idolatrous It! did not break up the constitution of the Church in detail. All the Protestant kings of England asked the Irish people to do wasto re! nounce their allegiance to Bome-to give up their connection with Peter. We have seen m that a splendid illustration of her first sanctity W f 21 hev i ? fcrer e th > the y°«°g nation was able to lepel the Danish invader, and maintain incessant war for 300 years—a thing we read of in the history of no other people ever created. We have seen the love which bound the people to the archbishops, bishops and pries s during the 400 years of the Saxon invasion. TneySe SSTS^T T^ *£"* * iped aWa * tW lears from her Set and bade her never despair, for as long as she waa faithful to God God would never utterly abandon the Irish people, And now the decree goes forth to the bishopsof Ireland to give up thTpone-ii? to give up the Catholic religion, but to give^p toe Kpe^and Z •cknowledge the King of England head of the Church, as well aThead of the State. And on that day there was a man to whom AkniSr God gave the high privilege to be the champion of the faith of £«. and, who, epoke truropettongued throughout the land to the peonle of Ireland, and said, "Peter, the Pope, is the soul, and hid S to be Cathohc. Brace yourseli up, if necessary, to fight rather than blaspheme Peter's prerogative/' . Tfie word wenWthVugWtS land, and, God be blesaed, from George Cremour, wl-o wai t 4 Prrmate of all Ireland, and the Bishop of Armagh. *The wZLrtul sight was seen by the world of a whole nation- Jriests, bishop *d people standing up lika one man, and crying out "J?ro ark ci i rVV' Ever* heresy that has ever sprung up in the world has deamLriPcUta HUfftyw, and every schism in the Church of God h M shea b'jopu, but

to English Protestantism was reserved the strange privilege of making not one man, not one family, not even a tribe of men, but a whole nation, the united champions of truth and martyrs of Catholicity The whole nation, from the day of her first trials owes her salvation to the fearless and energetic voice of the Archbishops of Armagh— the Primates of Ireland. Wo now come to a period of persecutions the most terrible, and dearly beloved, I will only call your attention to the of teen bishops of Armagh who followed immediately the Beformation, to see in them and in their acts how much our fathers suffered That Primate died in 1543, and the bishop who succeeded him, though consecrated, was never allowed to set foot in Ireland, and the Irish Church had not the privilege of beholding her spouse. Primate D»\ral was the next Archbishop of Armagh, and no sooner was he consecrated than Oalholio truth and Catholic doctrine resounded throughout the land. He was taron in the reign of .Edward the Sixth. and dragged into prison, and then Bent into exile. He was recalled in the time of Queen Mary, and lived to see the faith for which he had suffered exile and imprisonment triumphant throughout the land He was succeeded by Bichavd Grey, who governed Armagh from 1563 to 1595. He was 22 years archbishop, whichne spent in the Tower of London. He was manacled with iron and reduced to starvation. He was offered everything in the world, honor and power, his own See of Armagh, his own Cathedral and all, if he would renounce one tittle, one iota of the Catholic faith if he would give up Peter j but from the dungeon his voice came forth and thrilled the nation. « Hear me," he said, « who speaks from his dungeon and his chains : let Ireland stand by Peter." That man was unconquerable ; he died from prison in 1585. He was succeeded by Primate M'Gauran, who reigned from 1586 to 1589. He landed in Ireland, but he had to flj from Ids own city, and took refuge with a noble Irish chieftain named Msguire, of Fermanagh There was a terrible battle fought between the English and Irish forces at a place called the field of Mortars. The Primate was on the field of battle j he was attending to the wounded and administering the Holy Sacrament to the dying, and for the crime of attending to these— the crime of holding tbe body of the Lord in his fingers— a troop of English lanctn thrust their lances through hi a body as they passed iv the route ; so he fell martyr to the feitti and Holy Sacraments of the Catholic religion. He was succeeded by Peter Lombard in the see. He was a man renowned for his learning, but he wa 3 never allowed even to set foot in the diocese of Armagh. In 1627 Hugh O'BeiUy governed this diocese until 1651. During his reign the Catholics of Ireland enjoyed for a time * Pfwa of prosperity. As Primate of Armagh he stood foremost in the ranks of those who endeavored to maintain Ireland's nationality He was fcbe foremost in her councils, the friend of Owen Boe O'Neil and the other heroes of his time, and he kept the faith of Ireland, and her "»*i°° aI ?l0? l 0J 7 ak™' *£' fche battle was destined to be lost, and Hugh Jft-? 4 ??^ He died in 1661 on a small island on Lough Ewe called Trinity Island, where he was hiding from Cromwell's partizan followers. His successor aa Primate was Edward O'Beilly, who from 1664 to 1662 again served the Irish Church. And mark yVu, this was itt the reign of King Charles the 11. However he was banished from ms see by a false accusation j and by this time, seeing, by 100 years' experience that it was impossible to make Ireland give up the Catholio fanh, the Minister of the day, thought he might try what freedom and teaching would do The drawn sword was the only argument eye* used m relation to Ireland} but this Minister with unusual cunning, thought that he might extract some expression from the people, from the Primate of Armagh, from the Bishop and the priest of the peonle some expression against the Catholic faith. Accordingly he eot an apostate priest to draw up certain resolutions. There were nothing to them contrary to the Catholic faith; there were only a few thfogs about the Pope of Kome. There was a great point in that, and H£ for the purpose of making the Irish people sever from Peter that this apostate priest and the resolutions were prepared. What did this minister o the .Crown of England do? Why, "he wrote a most kind letter to the Primate wishing him to come home to Ireland andto his see of Armagh, and that he would be received in the best manned bu that he was expected to subscribe to a document. He came/and called a synod of the bishops in Dublin, the document was put into Jus hands and what d,d he «y P He said there is enough £tf£doe£ ment to separate Ireland from Borne, and whatever tends to Tap X faitn of my people or deatroy their allegiance to Peter, I will not see! I >nay die. You may burn my right hand off, but I will not sSrn this document. His example stimulated the other bishops, and the paper was flung into the face of the Viceroy and the Very die. This Primate died in exile. He was succeeded by a man iZ SKSw Xf? 6 tOT7 A° £ A thiß «V»*T--*» gifted and sainSl Oliver Plunkett. He presided over the see from 1666 to 1681 Ha wviST d ? - LL ° nd{m { Or Uiß li £- . Hiß body was Uter^y torn to pieces With hu dying eyes he saw the hand of the hangman gra«iag P to?et at his heart and tear it from him , and his head was futofffndlS great soul went up to tell at th* Throne of God the tale of IrXuX wrong He was the last of the Irish bishops who shed his bSidfor the faith. His successor died in exile, as many others of thow who came after him The hand of persecution relaxed, and th?Wsh people began to breathe. One hundred and fifty years aWour nmnES were reduced to a miserable minority but what Tie tb^ to-day