Given from the Catholic Broadcasting Station 2SM Sydney Australia
Choose a topic from Vol 4:
I do. Until the end of time the Catholic Church will ever exist in this world. In different localities enemies may succeed in liquidating its Bishops and Priests, and in destroying, banishing or perverting its laity. But the Catholic Church will still continue somewhere in this world as a living institution.
In Matt., XVI, 18, we have the words of Christ: "I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." Again, in Matt., XXVIII, 20, we have His words: "Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." In Jn., XIV, 16, we read: "I will ask the Father and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever." St. Paul, speaking of the Last Supper, says, in I Cor., XI, 26: "As often as you do this you shall show the death of the Lord until He come." The Church Christ founded, therefore, despite all hostile forces, will continue till the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ.
Surely one would have to be blind not to see some force in that belief. The establishing of the Catholic Church, her expansion without loss of unity in herself however many have broken away from her, her preservation with unbroken succession from the Apostles, and her fruitfulness in virtue and good works�these are striking facts; and they are facts the more difficult to explain when one realizes the poor humanity, so liable to frailties, of which the Church is composed. No merely human society, without divine help and protection, would last through 2000 years under the same conditions,,and spread through the whole world with the same results.
They have not. They have catalogued the natural causes that have contributed towards the survival of the Catholic Church; but those natural causes, whilst contributing towards her survival, do not explain it. What needs explaining and cannot be naturally explained is how the factors making for the survival of the Catholic Church were always at hand at the opportune moment, and were always successful against other forces bent on destroying her. During the first three centuries the Church had to get established in the midst of continued persecution. Later ages brought the barbarian invasions; the desertion of schismatics and heretics; efforts by political power to absorb the Church; the frailties and crimes of Catholics themselves, even of Popes and Bishops and Priests; revolutions and civil disorders; the Protestant reformation; the hostility of materialistic philosophers; and the printing presses of the world, with their flood of books and periodicals propagating so much antipathy against her. These are only some of the forces pitted against her. But they alone make it impossible to explain the survival of the Catholic Church as the greatest single united body in the world today.
Our reliance is upon the promise of Christ. The survival of the Church until today merely confirms us in our reliance upon that promise.
The Jews were chosen by God to preserve the true religion until the coming of the Messiah, who would establish a universal religion of righteousness to which all nations would be invited. When Christ came, even though He amply proved His claim to be the promised Messiah, the Jews rejected Him. From then on, they have survived rather as a race than as a religion. Their priesthood, sacrifice and temple are no more. They are divided religiously into Orthodox, Reform and Conservative Judaism, where they have not drifted to neglect of religion altogether. The Jews have survived racially, though scattered throughout the world. But the integrity of their religion has not been preserved.
The present state of the world has nothing to do with the matter. Christ promised that the "gates of hell" would not prevail against His Church. If not all the forces of hell, certainly not all the forces of this world will succeed in prevailing against the Catholic Church. No fluctuating conditions of human society can upset the confidence of Catholics, a confidence based on the promise of Christ. He is God; and can and will fulfil His promise.
For other Churches I do not speak. I admit that they show no signs which would warrant a prediction of their indefinite survival. But with the Catholic Church it is different. That Church has a guarantee of divine protection. In 1874, but four years after Pope Pius IX was made a prisoner in the Vatican, and when the world could be expected to discount the prospects of the Catholic Church, Disraeli said in the British Parliament: "I cannot disguise the fact. The Catholic religion is a powerful organiza^ tion; and, if I may say so, the most powerful today." Yet the position of the Catholic Church is immensely stronger now than when Disraeli spoke. All that, of course, is from the merely human point of view. Those who have the Catholic faith know that God Himself has guaranteed to preserve the Church till the end of time.
What of it? Such things have come and gone all through history. The Catholic Church can scarcely have worse things to survive in the future than she has survived in the past 2,000 years. Her enemies have come and gone. They are but a memory; but she is a living fact and a reality. There are no reasons based on either past or present conditions why the irreligious should hope, or Catholics should fear, that the Catholic Church will not continue till the world itself comes to an end.
"THAT CATHOLIC CHURCH
A Radio Analysis"
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