The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1920. FATHER HECKER

New Zealand Tablet, 4 March 1920, Page 25

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1920. FATHER HECKER

HE American Catholic World fitly begins the year with a review of the life and work of its illustrious founder, the centenary of whose birth occurred on December 18, 1919. Father Flecker was a real modern apostle, full of faith and love and inspired with the zeal of a St. Paul. Indeed, he was the man in modern times who walked closest in the footsteps of the Apostle of the Gentiles, and when he founded a society to make the Gospel known on earth he gave it the name of the Paulist Fathers, Father Flecker was a man of no half-measures; he was consumed with love for the truth ; he was an aggressive apostle who wanted all men to realise the beauty and the saving beneficence of the Church. “Christ asked for all, and asked for it as FI is right,” was his motto, as his aim was to win all for Christ. He looked forth with keen vision on the hungry modern world, having no food, incapable of . feeding itself or others, drifting from high standards and from pure, ideals, beaten hither and thither

by every wind of passion, and hopelessly facing tragic misery and failure. Helpless, hopeless humanity appealed to him. He felt that only the restoration of religion, of the interior life of the individual, of prayer and union with the Holy Spirit, of interior peace and fortitude, could heal the sorrows of mankind and restore to order the welter of the world. He was a leader of his age. The lesson he preached and taught was that men must come back to God, live in His presence, seeking his guidance and grace by constant and abiding prayer.

In 1865, with seven priests, he set himself the gigantic task of converting America. One of them died almost immediately, and in a letter Father flecker wrote at the time is revealed the fearless soul of the man who knew he could do all things in the strength given by God to His apostles: “We are only six. Two of these quite broken down. A fine set of fellows we are to set afoot the conversion of the country. Don’t be alarmed. We have now taken root in eternity.” He believed in the perfection of exterior work, but he also believed that labor not inspired and fired by interior perfection and constant prayer would be fruitless. Pie saw what an army the Church would have if only individual Catholic men and women would become not only faithful children, but faithful missionaries of Christ, illustrating, explaining both by example and by word, in their lives and in their speech, the doctrines of the Church and the right social and ethical principles of questions of the day. Pie labored and toiled for a well-informed laity, and for an effective Catholic press. He would have the laity vigilant, tireless, and aggressive workers for the cause of Christ in the world. This earnest convert never tired of telling Catholics that the Church is the guide given us by God and that it is there we must go for the solution of all problems. What men the age wants if we are to win back the world, Father Hecker tells us in the following words of solemn importance “The age is superficial : it needs the gift of wisdom, which enables the soul to contemplate truth in its ultimate causes. The age is materialistic; it needs the gift of intelligence, by the light of which the intellect penetrates into the essence of things. The age is captivated by a false and one-sided science it needs the gift of science,, by the light of which is seen each order of truth in its true relation to other orders and in a divine unity. The age is in disorder and is ignorant of the. way to true progress : it needs the gift of counsel, which teaches how to choose the proper means to attain an object. The age is impious ; it needs the gift of jhet;/, which leads the sold to look up to God as the Heavenly Father, and to adore Him with feelings of filial affection and love. The age is sensual and effeminate; it needs the gift of fortitude, which imparts lo the will the strength to endure the greatest burdens, and to prosecute 'the greatest enterprises with ease and heroism. The age has lost and almost forgotten God; it needs the gift of fear 10 bring the soul again to God, and make it feel conscious of its responsibilities and destiny. Men endowed with these gifts are the men for whom, if it but knew, the age calls. Men whose minds are enlightened and whose wills are strengthened by an increased action of the Holy Spirit. Men whose souls are actuated by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Men whose countenances are lit up with a heavenly joy, who breathe an inward peace, and act with a holy liberty and a resistless energy. One such soul does more to advance the kingdom of God than tens of thousands without these gifts. These are the men and this is the way, if the age could be only made to see it and believe it, to universal restoration, universal reconciliation, and universal progress, as far as such boons are attainable.” Father Hecker realised that in the world there are two great forces arrayed against each other : the Church which stands for justice, truth, order,.and morality; and the revolutionary spirit—the logical off-

spring of Protestantism makes for godlessness, disorder, and ruin. “Only the universal principles of reason and revelation grasped and welded by such an organic world power as the Catholic Church can guide aright the tumultuous masses of mankind when the transition from one phase of civilisation to another has begun.” Pie saw clearly the need for religious education. Pie felt that secular schools were sowing' the seeds of personal irresponsibility, of ignorance of the moral law, of forgetfulness of God. He condemned vehemently the upholders of the secular system which was sapping in the souls of the youth of • America the foundations of religion and driving them into infidelity. Mindful of the work of women in the past, he emphasised their wonderful power for good in the present age. He would have them become active apostles, ready and willing to bear the message of Catholic truth and Catholic love and to extend the kingdom of God on earth. No man knew better what a power for good is mother, sister, wife, or friend, and how love for a good woman can influence men when perhaps nothing else can.

Father Hecker is dead and gone to his reward. His spiritual children carry on nobly and fruitfully the work to which he called them. In the pulpit and in the press, the Paulist Fathers are doing real apostolic work for the kingdom of God to-day, following faithfully in the footsteps of their great founder, and teaching men and women to find in the Church the secret of peace and strength, through prayer and union with the Holy Spirit of God. Pie is long dead, but his message remains. May the burning words of this zealous convert lead our readers to see the Church as he saw it, to love it as he did, and to find in it all the happiness that he found. May they lead us all to cultivate within ourselves the gifts of the Holy Spirit which can reform the —Wisdom, Understanding, Fortitude. Knowledge, Piety, and the Fear of the Lord, in which are the true remedies for all the social and national evils of humanity to-day.