Life of Father Hecker Part 31

"How much that is good and n.o.ble in the soul is smothered by unwise restraint! The whole object of restraint is to reject that which is false and to correct the preference given to a lower good instead of to a higher one. As for the rest--_freedom!_

"I know a man who thinks he don't know anything--who every day knows that he knows less; and who hopes to know nothing before he dies. O blessed emptiness which fills us with all! O happy poverty which possesses all! O beatified nothingness which can exclaim, _Deus meus et omnia!"_

It will have been seen by this time that Father Hecker's first and fundamental rule of direction was to have as little of it as possible. His method started out with the purpose to do away with method at the earliest moment it could safely be done. To be Father Hecker's penitent meant the privilege of sooner or later being n.o.body's penitent but the Holy Ghost's. The following rules of direction he printed in 1887:

"The work of the priesthood is to help to guide the Christian people, understanding that G.o.d is always guiding them interiorly.

"An innocent soul we must guide, fully understanding that G.o.d is dwelling within him; not as a subst.i.tute for G.o.d.

"A repentant sinner we must guide, understanding that we are but restoring him to G.o.d's guidance.

"The best that we can do for any Christian is to quicken his sense of fidelity to G.o.d speaking to him in an enlightened conscience.

"Now, G.o.d's guidance is of two kinds: one is that of His external providence in the circ.u.mstances of life; the other is interior, and is the direct action of the Holy Spirit on the human soul. There is great danger in separating these two.

"The key to many spiritual problems is found in this truth: The direct action of G.o.d upon the soul, which is interior, is in harmony with his external providence. Sanct.i.ty consists in making them identical as motives for every thought, word, and deed of our lives.

The external and the internal (and the same must be said of the natural and supernatural) are one in G.o.d, and the consciousness of them both is to be made one divine whole in man. To do this requires an heroic life-sanct.i.ty.

"All the sacraments of the Church, her authority, prayer both mental and vocal, spiritual reading, exercises of mortification and of devotion, have for their end and purpose to lead the soul to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. St. Alphonsus says in his letters that the first director of the soul is the Holy Ghost Himself.

"It is never to be forgotten that one man can never be a guide to another except as leading him to his only Divine Guide.

"The guide of the soul is the Holy Spirit Himself, and the criterion or test of possessing that guide is the Divine authority of the Church."

What follows was published by Father Hecker in _The Catholic World_ in 1887. It throws new light on the questions we have been considering, abounding in practical rules of direction, and therefore, though somewhat long, we venture to close the chapter with it:

"'If any one shall say that without the previous inspiration of the Holy Spirit and His aid, a man can believe, hope, love, or repent as he should, so that the grace of justification may be conferred upon him, let him be anathema.'

"These are the words of the holy Council of Trent, in which the Catholic Church infallibly teaches that without an interior movement of the indwelling Holy Spirit no act of the soul can be meritorious of heaven. This doctrine, embodying the plain sense of Holy Scripture and the unbroken teaching of the Church in all ages, bases human justification on an interior impulse of the Third Person of the Divine Trinity. This impulse precedes the soul's acts of faith, hope, and love, and of sorrow for sin: the first stage in the supernatural career, then, is the entering of the Holy Spirit into the inner life of the soul. The process of justification begins by the divine life of the indwelling Spirit taking up into itself the human life of the soul.

"Nor is this to the detriment of man's liberty, but rather to its increase. The infinite independence of G.o.d and his divine liberty are shared by man exactly in proportion as he partakes of G.o.d's life in the communication of the Holy Spirit.

"If it be asked how the Holy Spirit is received, the answer is, Sacramentally. 'Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of G.o.d.' As man by nature is a being of both outer and inner life, so, when made a new man by the Spirit of G.o.d and elevated into a supernatural state, G.o.d deals with him by both outer and inner methods. The Holy Spirit is received by the sacramental grace of baptism and renewed by the other sacraments; also in prayer, vocal or mental, hearing sermons, reading the Scriptures or devout books, and on occasions, extraordinary or ordinary, in the course of daily life; and when once received every act of the soul that merits heaven is done by the inspiration of that Divine Guide dwelling within us. Even though unperceived, though indistinguishable from impulses of natural virtue, though imperceptibly multiplied as often as the instants are, yet each movement of heaven-winning virtue, and especially love, hope, faith, and repentance, is made because the Holy Spirit has acted upon the soul in an efficacious manner.

"It is not to induce a strained outlook for the particular cases of the action of the Spirit of G.o.d on us, or the signs of it, that these words are written. The sacraments, prayer and holy reading, and hearing sermons and instructions, are the plain, external instruments and accompaniments of the visitations of G.o.d, and are sufficient landmarks for the journey of the soul, unless it be led in a way altogether extraordinary. And apart from these external marks, no matter how you watch for G.o.d, his visitations are best known by their effects; it is after the cause has been placed, perhaps some considerable time after, that the faith, hope, love, or sorrow becomes perceptibly increased--always excepting extraordinary cases.

Not to 'resist the Spirit' is the first duty. Fidelity to the divine guidance, yielding one's self up lovingly to the impulses of virtue as they gently claim control of our thoughts--this is the simple duty.

"Having laid down in broad terms the fundamental doctrine of the supernatural life, it is proper to say a word of the natural virtues and of their relation to the supernatural. It has been already intimated that the goodness of nature is often indistinguishable from the holiness of the supernatural life; and, indeed, as a rule, impulses of the Holy Spirit first pour their floods into the channels of natural virtue, thus rendering them supernatural. These are mainly the cardinal virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fort.i.tude, and Temperance.

Practised in a state of nature, these place us in our true relations with our nature and with G.o.d's providence in all created nature around us; these are the virtues which choice souls among the heathen practised. They are not enough. When they have done their utmost they leave a void in the heart that still yearns for more. It is the purpose of the Spirit of G.o.d to raise our virtue to a grade far above nature. The practice of the virtues of faith hope, and love, which bring the soul into direct communication with G.o.d, and which, when practised under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, are supernatural, following upon the practice of the cardinal virtues under the same guidance, place the soul in its true and perfect relation with G.o.d--a state which is more than natural.

"Let us, if we would see things clearly, keep in sight the difference between the natural and supernatural. In the natural order a certain union with G.o.d was possessed by man in all ages in common with every creature. The union of the creature with the divine creative power is something which man can neither escape from nor be robbed of. But in the case of rational creatures this union is, even in a state of nature, made far closer and its enjoyment increased by a virtuous life--one in which reason is superior to appet.i.te; a life only to be led by one a.s.sisted, if not by the indwelling Holy Spirit peculiar to the grace of Christ, yet by the helps necessary to natural virtue and called medicinal graces. The practice of the four cardinal virtues--Prudence, Justice, Fort.i.tude, and Temperance--in the ordinary natural state gave to guileless men and women in every age a natural union with their Creator. Although we maintain that such natural union with G.o.d is not enough for man, yet we insist that the part the natural virtues play in man's sanctification be recognized.

In considering a holy life natural virtues are too often pa.s.sed over, either because the men who practised them in heathen times were perhaps few in number, or because of the Calvinistic error that nature and man are totally corrupt.

"And we further insist on the natural virtues because they tend to place man in true relations with himself and with nature, thus bringing him into more perfect relation or union with G.o.d than he was by means of the creative act--a proper preliminary to his supernatural relation. Who will deny that there were men not a few among the heathen in whom Prudence, Justice, Fort.i.tude, and Temperance were highly exemplified? They knew well enough what right reason demanded. Such men as Socrates, Plato, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius had by the natural light of reason a knowledge of what their nature required of them. They had faults, great ones if you please; at the same time they knew them to be faults, and they had the natural virtues in greater or less degrees. Thus the union between G.o.d and the soul, due to the creative act, though not sufficient, never was interrupted. The Creator and the Mediator are one."

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CHAPTER XXVIII

THE PAULIST PARISH AND MISSIONS

IN serving the parish, the Paulists, led by Father Hecker, endeavored to utilize the individual qualities of each member, as well as the advantages of a community, so as to bring them to bear as distinct forces upon the people. What George Miles had said of them as missionaries, as quoted in a previous chapter, applied to them as parish priests, and told accordingly in result. Their personal excellences found free room for activity, without any lack of oneness of spirit and without interfering with harmony of action.

The missionary makes an efficient parish priest. Accustomed to severe labor as well as to very moderate recreation, he pours the energy of apostolic zeal into parochial channels. A high order of preaching is often the result, combined with tireless application to visiting the sick, hunting up sinners, and hearing confessions. On the other hand, the experience of regular parish duty is of a.s.sistance to the missionary when he returns to his "apostolic expeditions," as Pius IX. called them; he is all the better fitted to plan and execute his proper enterprises from having obtained a fuller knowledge of the ordinary state of things in a parish.

It will not be expected that a detailed account of the parish work of St. Paul's will here be given, or more than a brief summary of that of the missions. These latter were kept up with vigorous energy from 1858 till the close of the war in the spring of 1865. On April 4 of that year Father Baker died, and the missions, which had been a grievous burden to the little band, now became an impossibility. They were suspended till 1872, excepting an occasional one, given not so much as part of the current labor of the community, as to retain their sweet savor in the memory and as an earnest of their future resumption. But up to Father Baker's death this small body of men had preached almost everywhere throughout the country, getting away from the South just before the war blocked the road. Eighty-one missions had been given, hundreds of converts had been received into the Church and many scores of thousands of confessions heard. Numerous applications for missions were refused for want of men to preach them. Scarcely a city of any size in the United States and Canada but knew the Paulists and thanked G.o.d for their missions.

The Fathers conducted them in the same spirit as when they were Redemptorists, and followed, as the community still continues to do, substantially the same method. It is not easy to improve on St.

Alphonsus. But they did not fail to bring out the qualities and call for the peculiar virtues demanded by Divine Providence in these times. Their preaching was distinguished by appeals to manliness and intelligence, as well as to the virtues distinctly supernatural. The people were not only edified by their zeal and religious discipline, but the more observant were attracted by the Paulists' freedom of spirit, and by their constant insistence on the use of the reasoning faculties to guide the emotions aroused by the sermons. The missionaries were men of native independence, and their religious influence was productive of the same quality. Great attention was paid to the doctrinal instructions. As to special devotions, the Paulists have never had any to propagate, though competent and willing to a.s.sist the pastor in his own choice of such subsidiary religious aids. Non-Catholics of all cla.s.ses were drawn to hear the convert missionaries, and the exercises usually received flattering notices from the secular press. An unrelenting warfare was carried on against the dangerous occasions of sin peculiar to our country and people, and the Fathers were from the beginning, and their community is yet well known for particular hostility to drunkenness, and to the most fruitful source of that detestable and widespread vice, the saloon. Their antagonism to drunkenness showed their appreciation of its evil supremacy among the ma.s.ses, and the condemnation of the saloon was a necessary result.

This att.i.tude of the missionaries was often a bitter-sweet morsel to the pastors, nearly all of whom at that time had been trained in the Old World. They were glad of the good done, yet sorry to see their liquor-dealers put to public shame. One pastor is recorded as saying: "The only people that have looked sad at this mission are the first men in my parish, the rum-sellers." The following is a piece of evidence worth publis.h.i.+ng, though it is but one of very many which could be produced. It is found in the Mission Record in Father Baker's handwriting:

"A Catholic one evening, on his way to the mission, stopped in a grog-shop and took a gla.s.s with the proprietor. 'Won't you go with me to hear the Fathers?' said the guest. 'No,' said the other, 'these men are too hard on us. They want all of us liquor-dealers to shut up our shops. If we were rich we could do it; but we an't--we are poor.

These men are too high and independent; Father wouldn't dare to speak as they do. But after all,' continued he, 'they are good fellows; see the effect of their labors.' Then, taking out of his pocket a crumpled letter which he had received through the post-office, and which was badly spelled and badly written, he read as follows: 'SIR: I send you three dollars which I received by mistake three years ago from your clerk. And now I hope that you will stop _selling d.a.m.nation,_ and that G.o.d may give you grace to stop it.

Yours: A Sinner.'"

Whatever may have been the misgivings of some, the opposition of the Paulists to the liquor-traffic was approved by the most enlightened and influential prelates and priests of the country, as is shown by the number of cathedrals and other prominent churches in which the missions were preached. It should be added that this antagonism to drunkenness, to convivial drinking, and to saloon-keeping, not only received the unanimous applause of the Catholic laity, but edified the non-Catholic public, and brought out many commendations from the secular press as well as from the police authorities of our crowded cities. A mission is a terror to obstinate evil-doers of all kinds, but to habitual drunkards and saloon-keepers it is especially so. The att.i.tude of the Church in America on this entire subject, as officially expressed by the decrees of the Third Plenary Council and by its pastoral letter, fully justifies the action of Father Hecker and his companions.

As soon as the church in Fifty-ninth Street was opened the community exerted itself to make the surroundings attractive. The building occupied but a small part of the property, the rest of which was laid out in gra.s.s-plats and gravel walks; many shade-trees and some fruit-trees were set out, and a flower and vegetable garden planted.

It was Father Hecker's delight to superintend this work, and to partic.i.p.ate actively in it when his duties allowed. The grounds soon became an attractive spot, to which in a few years church-goers from all parts of the city began to make Sunday pilgrimages. They came in considerable numbers every Sunday to a.s.sist at Ma.s.s or Vespers in St.

Paul's quiet, country-like church. Meantime the residents of the parish, not very numerous and nearly all of the laboring cla.s.s, formed deep attachments for their pastors, and an almost ideal state of unity and affection bound priests and people together.

Nearly the entire region was covered with market gardens, varied with huge ma.s.ses of rock, and groups of shanties. Very many of the paris.h.i.+oners of that early period lived in these nondescript dwellings, of which they were themselves both the architects and builders, a fact which added not a little to their quaint and picturesque appearance. The sites upon which these "squatters'" homes were placed, and over which roamed and sported their mingled goats, dogs, and children, are now occupied in great part by blocks of stately residences and apartment houses; but we know not whether the grace of G.o.d abounds more plentifully now than it did then. At any rate, whoever heard Father Hecker in those primitive days call his parish "Shantyopolis," could see no sign of regret on his part that he had a poor and simple people as the bulk of his paris.h.i.+oners.

Much attention was given to the preparation and preaching of sermons, with the result of a full attendance at High Ma.s.s on Sundays.

Beginning with 1861, a volume of these discourses was published under Father Hecker's direction each year, till a series of seven volumes had been completed. These were very well received by the Catholic public, and were bought in considerable numbers by non-Catholic clergymen. They had an extensive sale, though when their publication was first proposed it was feared that they would not succeed. They are almost wholly of a strictly parochial character, brief, direct in style, abounding in examples from every-day life, and plentifully ill.u.s.trated with Scripture quotations. Although Father Hecker preached regularly in his turn, only a few of his sermons were contributed to these volumes, but his suggestions and encouragement greatly a.s.sisted the other Fathers in preparing theirs, as indeed in all their duties, parochial and missionary. Some years after the series was ended two volumes of Five-Minute Sermons were published, providing short instructions for Low Ma.s.ses on Sundays.

The Paulist Church also became well known for the attention paid to the public offices of religion, as well as for rubrical exactness in ceremonies, the greater feasts of the year being celebrated with all the splendor which a simple church-building and limited pecuniary means allowed.

Father Hecker was from first to last strongly in favor of congregational singing, and a.s.sisted to the best of his power in introducing it. It began in our church in modest fas.h.i.+on back in those early days, and was fostered zealously at the Lenten devotions and society meetings. It never failed of some good results, and has finally attained a flouris.h.i.+ng state of success in this parish. His attention to the children was constant. No matter who had charge of the Sunday-school, as long as his health permitted Father Hecker was there every Sunday that he was at home, asking questions, talking to the teachers and children, enlivening all by his encouragement and cheerfulness. He was a martinet on one question, and that was cleanliness, and its kindred virtue, orderliness. He was never above working with mop, broom and duster indoors, and shovel and rake in the garden; and this trait added much to the appearance of things as well as to the comfort of all concerned in the use of the convent and the church.

Though a.s.siduous in every parish duty, his favorite task was the relief of the poor. They multiplied in number in undue proportion to the increase of the parish, drifting out this way from the overcrowded quarters down town. Father Hecker enlisted the best men and women in the congregation in the work of caring for them, organizing a conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, in whose labors he joyfully and energetically partic.i.p.ated.

The death of Father Baker was, humanly speaking, a loss to the community beyond all calculation, and was the great event of the first period of the Paulist community. Father Hecker had the very highest estimate of his holiness, and mourned him with the mingled sorrow and joy with which saints are mourned. The reader should get Father Hewit's Memoir of Father Baker if he would know his virtues.

Father Hecker was often heard to say that few men understood his ideas so clearly as did Father Baker and had so much sympathy with them. And his death was the signal for an impulse whose power plainly indicated its supernatural origin. Up to that time there had been but two priests added to the community, and those who had offered themselves as novices and been rejected were, as a rule, little calculated to inspire hope. But from 1865 onwards good subjects, mostly converts, applied in sufficient numbers, and in a few years the missions were resumed. But what was of even more importance, the apostolate of the press, started in the publication of THE CATHOLIC WORLD the month in which Father Baker's death occurred, a.s.sumed a national prominence, and together with the Catholic Tracts and the Catholic Publication Society set the Paulists at work in their primary vocation, the conversion of non-Catholics to the true religion. To this, and to Father Hecker's lectures, we now turn. Of course we might dwell longer on the parish and the missions, about which there are many things of interest left untold, but only the lapse of time can sufficiently dissociate them from living persons to allow of their being made public.

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CHAPTER XXIX

FATHER HECKER'S LECTURES