CANONISATION OF JOAN OF ARC

New Zealand Tablet, 17 July 1919, Page 17

CANONISATION OF JOAN OF ARC

(By Archbishop v Redwood.)

f Amid the woes? and trials of the Catholic Church in France to-day, a great and deep' consolation has been granted 'by Divine Providence to all Catholic . hearts. A grand event marks the year 1919. The news that Pope (Benedict XY. has canonised Joan of Arc thrills the. whole Catholic world, and raises a vast acclamation of joy and gratitude to the memory of ; the Warrior Maid of Orleans and the Martyr of Rouen. • This Providential eventlike so many others that history records in behalf ,: of 'France—clearly shows once more that, at all times, France has been (in the words of Pope Alexander III.) the cherished and blessed nation of God, and that, in her most awful crises, God has vouchsafed to help her by means alike wonderful and unexpected. In the 15th century Heaven sent Joan of Arc to deliver France from foreign oppression. Let us recall, in this connection, some preliminary truths too apt to bo forgotten or gainsaid.' There are in the life of .nations, as in the life of individuals, critical hours, when, under the influence of manifold causes, the belief of eternal truth: undergoes an eclipse., From this lessening of the supernatural? sense, and the weakening of religious influence, there results a disorder in the social organism which recoils in general and particular events. In proportion as nations and individuals lose sight of God, darkness shrouds their minds and immorality corrupts their hearts. History records again and again, by startling and awful examples, how nations have fallen from the height of grandeur and prosperity into the depths of misery and shame, because they forsook the ways of the Lord. It is the Divine oracle: “Justice exalts a nation ; but sin maketh nations miserable.” (Prov. xiv., 34.) Sin, which brought evil into the world, always stands against the merciful designs of Providence, and calls" down condign punishments. Nevertheless, before sorely smiting ungrateful and rebellious peoples, God lavishly bestows timely warnings and kindly intimations of His readiness to forgive His repentant children. Such has been His action in France. After granting her, in the course of ages, the unmistakable tokens of His predilection, God, instead of immediately striking her obstinacy and blindness, never failed to multiply His benefits upon her, and open for her the treasury of His miracles. To her are applicable the Psalmist’s words; “He hath not done in like manner to every nation.” (Ps. cxlvii.) Yes, history marks out France as a privileged nation. Her past presents a long series of extraordinary providential interventions, in the darkest and saddest hours, of her history, so that it is no exaggeration to say that many of its pages bear the signature of God Himself. Were we to examine her glorious annals-we

should find > them teeming with": supernatural- favors. To-day we shall contemplate them only in the life and deeds of the Maid of »Orleans. l Oh the threshold of our subject we are met by an objection constantly repeated by false k science and unbelief— Is "■■ a miracle possible ? So -silly is the' objection that it exasperated one of : the most famous infidels, Jean Jacques Rousseau. V "This question," says he, "seriously treated were impious,' if npt absurd the man who would solve it negatively would be too honored by punishment":' he ought to be put in a madhouse— il faudrdit' Venfermer." ! ) ''"'■'■ Let us examine it, however. Those who deny the possibility of a miracle start from the principle that the laws which regulate the harmonious course of Nature obey a uniform force necessarily invariable. Any modification of these laws would subvert the general order. But these pretended scientific arguments are dashed to atoms against the simple consideration of God's omnipotence. God created these laws, God is master of these laws, and He can, by an effort of the same will which established them, suspend their course or "modify their manifestations. Can He Who alone and freely determined these laws be Himself their prisoner Surely net. Such an assertion is the rankest absurdity. Both in the physical order and in the moral order, a miracle is possible, since it is the effect of an infinite power, which commands and governs with sovereign'and unlimited authority. Not only is a miracle possible, but it essentially befits Divine government, for it stamps with a solemn and indisputable character its providential action in sublunary events. No doubt, God's power is splendidly exhibited in the wondrous work of creation ; yet men grow accustomed to the grand spectacle of the universe and cease to be affected thereby. But, let an extraordinary fact happen outside the laws of Nature, instantly they are stricken with wonder, and are compelled to acknowledge the hand of the Most High. Still (mark it well), these extraordinary strokes of Providence disturb not the general order, but concur in it most admirably; for the immutable designs of God are fulfilled in the exception'as well as in the law. When God intervenes in the government of the world, or in the life of the Church, it belongs to His wisdom to so stamp His action as to reveal its origin. Thus Our Lord Jesus Christ proved His Divine mission by His holiness and by the splendor of His miracles. And when He uses certain chosen creatures here below as the intermediaries of His power, and the executors of His designs. He gifts them with a supernatural force lie marks them with Divine tokens which clearly exhibit them as the envoys and the instruments of His providence. -

So it was with Joan of Arc. At what time was Divine, intervention more opportune, nay, more necessary, than at the moment our heavenly messenger made her appearance? Recall to mind the sad plight of France: "la grande. pilic. qui. 11 ait an royaume deFrance" — at the time when Joan of Arc, prior to becoming the heroic warrior of many battlefields, was the lowly and gentle village-girl assiduous in prayer, at the spinning-wheel, or minding her flock. ■ What dark days then fell on Franco! After the civil discord, which had reddened her soil with her blood, after the Great Schism of the West which for a while threatened the break-up of the unity of the Church, a dreadful plague devastated the land. The English, already masters of a part of French territory, extended their conquests and their victories far and wide. Tn vain did: French traditional valor oppose the conquerors; it gradually yielded every inch of the sacred'soil of fatherland, after strewing with its myriad corpses the battlefields of Crecy, Poitiers, and Aoincourt. ; ' . ■■ To the. invasion was added the fratricidal struggle between the Armagnacs and . the Burgundians, the King's insanity, degrading treaties, and the proclamation of Henry V. of England as Regent of France. '"" M '"L When Charles VII. succeeded his unhappy father, his whole kingdom was reduced to a few provinces south of the Loire, to the remnants of an army, to discouraged counsellors, and ruined' populations; and he himself, disheartened by misfortune, had begun, to. despair.

Was it, then, the end of [ France, the end ; of ■"/« douce et noble, France,' '■ the end of the fairest T realm barring; that of Heaven ? Human wisdom' might have so thought. But God decreed its' salvation : the : most' Christian nation could not perish. Joan was destined by God, not only to free" France from the" stranger's yoke, but to save the faith of the French people. But for Joan and her victories, and her triumphant but tragic .martyrdom, Henry VIII. of England about' one hundred years later (in virtue of the iniquitous" Treaty of Troyes, 1420, which betrayed the rights of the legitimate Kings of France and sold them to England); would have been master and King of France. With him schism,, and with his successors heresy, would have ascended the throne of Charlemagne and St. Louis. Had they driven Catholic France, the Eldest; Daughter of the Church, into apostasy, as England was driven, .one of the strongest bulwarks of Home and Catholicism against the rising tide of the Reformation would have been swept away, and Western- Europe would surely have been covered with the flood. The splendid Catholic life of France during the 16th and 17th centuries would have beeen impossible. Joan of Arc saved France from the grasp of the foe she kept France as a distinct nation upon the map of Europe. That solemn fact France can never forget. Undoubtedly the Maid of Domremy was the saviour of French nationality.. But Joan did more. She preserved France for the fold of Peter. She kept it for the Catholic Church. But consider the qualities of this instrument of the national resurrection. No great general no diplomatist of genius. No, but a young girl almost- a child; a lowly peasant, simple, upright, pure, obedient to her parents, gentle with her companions, charitable to the poor, the pride and edification of her —Joan of Arc, now so known in history. Observe her well she was called to bring into vivid light the role of France, her vocation to be ever the good soldier of Jesus Christ, "fc bo/I sergent de Jesus Christ," as St. Louis used to say, thus in one word indicating the true glory of his country. In the eves of Joan of Arc, Jesus Christ was the true King of France: Charles VII. only His lieutenant. If she was called to remake the national unity by the expulsion of the foreigner, and by constituting the provinces under the sceptre of Charles VII., her final aim was to insure the authority of Jesus Christ, and she constantly repeated that such was her mission. At Vaucoulours she said to the Sire de Baudricourt:

"The Kingdom belongs, not to the Dauphin; it belongs to my Lord. But my Lord, wills that the Dauphin be a King and hold his Kingdom in commission en comma tide." At Chinon she said to the King himself: "Gentil Dauphin, I am called Joan the Maid—la Pucette — and the King of Kings requires through me that you be anointed at Rheims, and you shall be the lieutenant of the King of Heaven, Who is the King of France." Joan was at the service of Christ before she was at the service of Charles VII. She wrote to the inhabitants of Troyes: "Joan the Maid informs and apprises you by the King of Heaven, her rightful and sovereign Lord, in whose royal service she daily lives." To live in union with Jesus Christ, to serve Him daily, to insure His royalty over France, to proclaim and set in honor for all times and countries this vital principle: that time authority comes from God, and that it alone avails in regard to human conscience by the stability of that origin—such was the main object (too often forgotten by historians) of Joan's mission. _, ' ■ ' ■'-' •'- ."■"■ : -\

How did she fulfil that mission ? " What first strikes us in the achievement of her great work is the weakness and the nothingness of the instrument chosen by God : "God chose the weak things of this world to confound the strong.''■ (I. Cor. 27.) Joan, a, poor daughter of the people, without education, without support, without credit, forsaken of all, contradicted by her kindred, hampered in her first steps by everyone in . authority over her. At her first appearance she was i jeered at .by the unbelief of her day as an over-excited girl, hallucinated, hgpnuiised. Absurd imputations'! Joan an over-excited girl! She whose innocent life,delighted —. .-.-..._.--.,. ju....... — ...... — a- - (k fc arsis***

in the simple joys and affections of home! Look at her: she loves the meadows, the fields, the woods, the

birds singing : with her the "praises of "God she ■ fulfils simply, joyously her every-day duties. You will vainly seek in the uniform and hardworking life of the Lorraine peasant girl the slightest trace of an imagination given to dreaming and foolish "fancies. She received from God a sound and upright judgment. Her robust good sense will one day confound the learning and perfidy of her accusers. Her virtues, sweet and lovely as her person, were attested by all the witnesses of her childhood and youth, and protest against the disloyal suspicions of her detractors. Besides, the Church took care to shut the mouths of her detractors by her severe and solemn inquiries. Joan was subjected at Poitiers to the strictest theological examinations, ingenious to put subtle questions to a girl of 17 and ignorant of her A.B.C. And the court charged with judging her mission passed this sentence: "There is nothing in Joan the Maid but goodness, humility, virginity, devotion, and probity." The judges declared her to be "a fervent Catholic, and that they found in her nothing contrary to Christian faith and morality ; that she answered wisely the most difficult questions, that they deemed her inspired of God, and that, considering the desperate condition of the realm, they thought, that God could or should fearlessly employ her against her enemies." God stamped with miracles His approval of the work achieved by Joan of Arc. Miracles ! Surely miracles shone out in all her life. A lowly peasant girl, happy in her condition, Joan never dreamt of warlike adven-

tures. ' She loved her family, lier cottage, her church. But lo! One day she is surrounded with a mysterious brightness. An angel, accompanied by saints, relates to her the sad plight of the fair realm of France. The voices, which every week for five years she constantly heard, became at last more pressing, more imperative, and said to her; “Child of God, go, go, go!” “I

have heard them," she said, "and I cannot stay here. Let us start away, let us start. To-day rather than to-morrow : rather to-morrow than afterwards. Even

had I a hundred fathers and a hundred mothers, I must

start, even were I to wear out my legs to my knees." The transparent fact of the supernatural overcame the timidity and fear of her age and sex; overcame the raillery of Sire de Baudricourt, who first thought her mad; overcame the contempt of military leaders towards this peasant girl transformed into a general ; overcame the jealousy and intrigue of the Court, as well as the indecision and anguish of the heir of the French throne: The supernatural! It blazes out in the illumination of her intelligence, which penetrated the future. "GenDauphin, the King of Kings through me- informs you that. you shall be anointed at Rheims to be His lieutenant in the Realm of France." She foretold the

raising of the siege of Orleans, and the expulsion of the English from France. , But why recall all this ? The young warrior maid’s exploits still more proclaim the evidence of miracles. Her knowledge of battles amazed the most famous generals. Victory faithfully followed her footsteps. Tier succession of triumphs at Orleans, Jargeau, Baugency, Patay, Auxerre, Troyes, Chalons, the coronation of the king at Bheims, were events so stupendous and extraordinary that they astounded all Christendom. “Omnia Ghristianomm regna strip chant,” as John Nieder, professor at the Vienna University, fitly said. Was it the end of the prodigies? No, then captivity, long days of suffering and torment, the odious tribunal, the iniquitous sentence, the burning at the stake. Never did Joan appear greater, , more superhuman, more sublime. Trials endured with martyr-like constancy encircled her brow with, a more brilliant aureole than her most renowned victories. She was indeed a daughter of God, and in this cry which sums up her mission: “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,” she consummated her sacrifice. ; No, her celestial voices did not deceive her. The child of . Domremy . overcame the Dauphin’s hesitation by revealing to him a secret known to him alone. Her solemn canonisation ; proclaimed by the Vicar of Christ, Pop e Benedict XV., sets the final seal of Divine appro-

hation on her, workthe re-establishment of Christ's reign over France and the world. " ■ &^& We hasten "to conclude. What lessons are we taught by this heavenly messenger? Joan appeared on earth as.a heavenly vision, a messenger, of hope: and salvation; What she did here r below she will-continue in the bosom of God. She intercedes for the : world and extends her protection over mankind. Her example, in I the present trials of France and :r in the hour of her - victory: over scientific barbarism, forbids v despair and inspires the liveliest hopes. . All seemed .lost, after, a hundred years,\ war, when Joan of Arc was given to France, and all was saved. Everything to-day is assailed, everything shakena thousand woes menace the Church, the fatherland, liberty,.family, society. The Maid of Domremy's mission is not yet ended. No longer with the sword of battle, but with, the irresistible influence which comes from the depths of her pure heart, she must rescue her beloved France from the cruel hands of those unnatural children, aliens in ideals and aspirations, who have sold it into the power of falsehood, license, atheism, and infidelity. She must gather again around her noble standard the brave, the pure, and the true. Her silver armor must once more flash like a meteor in the fray, and her war-cry, "Jesu, Jesu," find an echo in every heart. If so, under her standard the hosts of evil' will melt away and again the Warrior-Saint will deliver France. .-