ENCYCLICAL LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, 15 July 1909, Page 1090

ENCYCLICAL LETTER

Of our Most Holy Father Pius X

BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE (Continued from last week.) And His Appeals to Princes. And since silence or indolence on our part, as unfortunately is not unfrequently the case among the good, would incriminate tis too, let every one of the sacred Pa ( stors take as said to himself for the defence of his flock, and bring home to others in due season, Ariselm's words to the mighty Prince of Flanders: .4s you are my Lord and truly beloved by me in God, I pray, conjure, admonish, and counsel you, as the guardian of your soul, not to believe that your lofty dignity is diminished if you love and defend the liberty of the Spouse of God and your Mother, the Church, not to think that you abase yourself 'when you exalt her, not to believe, that you weaken yourself tohen you strengthen her. Look round you and see; the examples are before you; consider the princes that attack and maltreat her; what do they gain by it, what do they attain? It is so clear that there is no need to say it. And all this he explains with his usual force and gentleness to the powerful Baldwin, King of Jerusalem: .4s your most faithful friend, I pray, admonish, and conjure you, and I pray God that you live under God's law and in all things submit your will to the will of God. For it is only when you reign according to the will of God that you reign for your own welfare. Nor permit yourself to believe, like so many bad kings, that the Church of God has been given to you that you may use her as a servant, but remember that she has been recommended to you as to an advocate and defender. In this would God loves nothing mobb than the liberty of His Chubch. They who seek not so much to serve as to rule her, are clearly acting in opposition to God. God wills His Spouse to be free and not a slave. Those who treat her and honor her as sons surely show that they are .her sons and the sons of God, while those who lord it over her, as over a subject, make themselves not children, but strangers to her, and are therefore excluded from the heritage and the dower promised to her. Thus did he unbosom ' his heart so full of love for the Church; thus did he show his zeal in defence of her liberty, so necessary in the government of the Christian family and so dear to God, as the same great Doctor concisely affirmed in the energetic words: In this world God loves nothing more than the liberty of His Church. Nor can We, Venerable Brothers, make known to you our feelings better than by repeating that beautiful expression. How They Apply to Bishops. Equally opportune are other admonitions addressed by the Saint to the powerful. Thus, for example, he' wrote to Queen Matilda of England : 'If you wish in very deed to return thanks rightly and well and efficaciously to God, take into your consideration that Queen whom He was pleased to select for' His spouse in this world... Take her, I say, into your consideration, exalt her, that with her and in her you may be able to please God and reign with her in eternal bliss.' And especially when you chance to meet with some son who puffed up with earthly greatness lives unmindful of his mother, or hostile or rebellious to her, then remember that : 'It is for you to suggest frequently, in season out of season, these and

other admonitions, and to suggest "that he show himself not the master, but the 'advocate, not the step-son, but the real son of the Church.' It behoves us too, us especially, to inculcate that other saying so noble and so paternal cf Anselm : ' Whenever I hear anything of you displeasing to God and unbecoming to yourselves, and fail to admonish you, Ido not fear God nor love you as I ought.' And especially when it comes to our ears that you treat the churches in yoxir power in a manner unworthy of them and of your own soul, then we should imitate Anselm by renewing our prayers, counsels, admonitions ' that you think over these things carefully, and if your conscience warns you that there *is something to be corrected in them that you hasten to make the correction.' ' For nothing is to be neglected that can be corrected, since God demands an account from all, not only of the evil they do, but also of the correction of evil which they can correct. And the more power men have to make the necessary correction the more rigorously does He require them, according to the power mercifully communicated to them,, to think and act rightly... And if you cannot do everything all at once, you must not on that account cease your efforts to advance from better to better, because God in His goodness is wont lo bring to perfection good intentions and good, effort, and to reward them with blessed plenitude.' „ These and similar admonitions, most wise and holy, given by Auselm even to the lords and kings of the world may well be repeated by the pastors and princes of the Church, as the natural defenders of truth, justice, and religion in the world. In our times, indeed, the obstacles in the way of doing this have been enormously increased, so that there is, in truth, hardly room to stand without difficulty and danger. For while unbridled licence reigns supreme the Church is obstinately fettered, the very name of liberty is mocked, and new devices are constantly being invented to thwart the work of yourselves and your clergy, so that it is no wonder that 'you are not able to-do everything all at once ' for the correction of the erring, the suppression of abuses, the promotion of right ideas 4fcid - right living, and the mitigation of the evils which weigh on the Church. The Reason of the Church's Difficulties. But there is comfort for us : the Lord liveth and 'He will make all things work together unto good to them -that love God.' Even from these evils He will bring good, and, above all, the obstacles devised by human perversity He will make more splendid the triumph of His work and of His Church. Such is the wonderful design of the Divine Wisdom and such ' His unsearchable ways ' in the - present order of Providence, — ' for my thoughts are riot your thoughts, nor my ways your ways, saith the Lord ' — that the Church of Christ is destined ever to renew in herself the life of her Divine Founder who suffered so much, and in a manner to ' fill up what is wanting of the sufferings of Christ.' Hence her condition as militant on" earth divinely constrains her to live in the midst contentions, troubles, and difficulties, that thus ' through many tribulations she may enter into the kingdom of God ' and at last be united with the Church triumphant in heaven. Anselm's commentary on the passage of St. Matthew : ' Jesus constrained His disciples to enter the boat,' js directly to the point. ' The words in their mystical sense summarise the state of the Church from the coming of Jesus Christ to the end of the world. The ship, then, WAB BUFFETED BY THE WAVES IN THE MIDST OF THE SEA, while Jesus remained on the summit of the mountain; for ever since the Saviour ascended to heaven ,holy Church has been agitated by great tribulations in the world, buffeted by various storms of persecution, harassed by the divers perversities of the wicked, and in many ways assailed by vice. Because the wind was contrary, because the influence of malign spirits is constantly opposed to her to prevent her from reaching the port of salvation, striving to submerge her under the opposing waves of the world, stirring up against her all possible difficulties.' How They are to be Combated. They err greatly, therefore, who lose faith during the storm, wishing for themselves and the Church a permanent state of perfect tranquility, universal prosperity, and practical, unanimous, and uncontrasted recognition of he> sacred authority. , But the error is worse when men de-» ceive themselves with the idea of gaining an ephemeral peace by cloaking the rights and interests of the Church, by sacrificing them to private interests, by minimising them unjustly, by truckling to the world, ' the whole of which is seated in wickedness ' on the pretext of reconciling the followers of novelties and bringing them back to the Church, as though any composition were possible between light and darkness, between Christ and Belial. This hallucination is as old as the world, but 't is always modern and always present in the world so long

as there are soldiers who are timid or treacherous and at the first onset ready- to throw down their arms or open negotiations with the enemy, who is the irreconcilable enemy of God and man. It is for you, therefore, Venerable Brothers, whom Divine Providence has constituted to be the Pastors and leaders of 'the Christian people, to resist with all your strength this most fatal tendency of modern society to lull itself in a shameful indolence while Avar is being waged against religion, seeking a cowardly neutrality made up of weak schemes and compromises to the injury of divine and human rights, to the oblivion of Christ's clear sentence: 'He _ that is not with me is against me.' Not, mdecd, that it is not well at times to waive our' rights as far as' may lawfully be done and as the good of souls requires. And certainly this defect can never be charged to you who are spurred on by the charity of Christ. But this is only a reasonable condescension, which can be made without the slightest detriment to duty and which does nob at all affect the eternal principles of truth and justice. The Necessity of Gentleness for Bishops. Thus we read how it was verified in the cause of Anselm, or rather in the cause of God and the Church, for which Anselm had to undergo such long and bitter conflicts. And when he had settled at last the long contest Our Predecessor Paschal 11. wrote to him : 'We believe that it has been through your charity and through your persistent prayers that the Divine mercy has. been persuaded to turn to the people entrusted to your care.' And referring to the paternal indulgence shown by the Supreme Pontiff to the guilty, he adds : 'As regards the great indulgence We have shown, know that it is the fruit of our great affection and compassion in order that We might be able to lift up those who were down. For if the one standing erect merely holds out his hand to a fallen man, he will never lift him, unless he too bends down a little. Besides, although this act of stooping may seem like the act. of falling, it never goes so far as to lose the equilibrium of rectitude.' In making our own these words of O,ur most pious Predecessor, written for the consolation of Anselm, We would not hide Our very keen sense of the danger which confronts the very best among the pastors of the -Church of passing the just limits either of indulgence or resistance. How they have realised this danger is easily to be seen in the anxieties, trepidations, and tears of most holy men who have had borne in upon them the terrible responsibility of the government of souls and the greatness of the danger to which they are exposed, but it is to be seen most strikingly in the life of Anselm. When he was torn from the solitude of the studious life of the cloister, to be raised to a lofty dignity in most difficult times, he found himself a prey to the most tormenting solicitude and anxiety, and chief of .all the fear that he might not do enough for the salvation of his own soul and the souJs of his people, for the honor of God and of His Church. But amid all these anxieties and in the grief he felt at seeing himself abandoned culpably by many, even including his brethren in the episcopate, his one great comfort was his trust in God and- in the Apostolic See. Threatened with -shipwreck, and while the storm raged round him, he took refuge in the bosom of the Church, his Mother, invoking from the Roman Pontiff pitiful and prompt aid and comfort; God, perhaps, permitted that this great man, full of wisdom and sanctity as he was, should suffer such heavy tribulation, in order that he might be a comfort and an example to us' in the greatest difficulties and trials of the pastoral ministry, and that the sentence of Paul might be realised in each one. of us : ' Gladly will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may dwell in me. For which cause I please myself in my infirmities... for when lam weak then am I powerful.' Such,, indeed, are the sentiments which Anselm expressed to Urban II. : ' Holy Father, I am grieved that I am not what I was, grieved to be a bishop, because by reason of my sins I do not perform the office of a bishop. While I was in a lowly position I seemed to be doing something; set in a lofty place, burdened by an immense weight, I gain """no fruit for myself, and am of no use to anybody. I give way beneath the burden because I am incredibly poor in the strength, virtue, zeal, and knowledge necessary for go great an office. I would fain flee from the insupportable anxiety and leave the burden behind me, but on the other hand I fear to offend God. The fear of God obliged me to accept it, the same, fear of God constrains me to retain the same burden. Now, since God's will is hidden from me and I know not what to do, I wander about in sighs, and know not how to put an end to it all.' The Reward of Obedience. Thus does God bring home even to saintly men their natural weakness, in order the better to make manifest in them the power of strength from above, and by a humble and real sense of their individual insufficiency to pre-

serve with greater force their obedience to the authority of the Church. We see it in the case of Anselm and of other contemporaries of, his who fought for the liberty and doctrine of the Church under the guidance of the Apostolic See. The fruit of their obedience was victory in the strife, and their example confirmed the Divine sentence that ' the obedient man will sing victory.' The hope of the same reward shines out for all those who obey Christ in His Vicar in all that concerns the guidance of Souls, or the government of the Church, or that is in any Way connected with these objects : since ' upon the authority of the Holy See depend the directions and the counsels of the sons of the Church.' How Anselm excelled in this virtue, with what warmth and fidelity he ever maintained perfect union with the Apostolic See, may be seen in the words he wrote to Pope Paschal : ' How earnestly my mind, according to the measure of its power, clings in reverence and obedience to the Apostolic See, is proved by the many and most painful tribulations of my heart, which are known only to God and ■ myself. . . From this union I hope in God that there is nothing which could ever separate me. Therefore do I desire, as far as this is possible, to put all my acts at the disposition of this same authority in order that it may direct and when necessary correct them.' The same strong constancy is shown in all his actions and writings, and especially in his letters which Our Predecessor Paschal describes as ' written with the pen of charity.' But in his letters to the Pontiff he does not content himself with imploring pitiful aid and comfort; he also promises assiduous prayers, in most tender words of filial affection and unswerving faith, as when, while still Abbot of Bee, he wrote to Urban II. : ' For your tribulation and that of the Roman Church, Avhich is our tribulation and that of all the true faithful, we never cease praying God assiduously to mitigate your evil days, till the pit be dug for the sinner. And although He seems to delay, we are certain that the Lord will not leave the sceptre of sinners over the heritage of the just, that He will never abandon His heritage and that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.' In this and other similar letters of Anselm We find wonderful comfort not only in the renewal of the memory of a Saint so devoted to the Apostolic See, but because they serve to fecall your own letters and your other innumerable proofs of devotion, Venerable Brothers, in similar conflicts and similar sorrows. (To be continued.)