Sermon XI. Our Duty to the Heathen

At the Opening of the Church of St. Joseph's College of the Sacred Heart for Foreign Missions, March 19, 1868.

MY DEAR FATHER YAUGHAN,

While I am sending this book to press, you are on the Atlantic, conducting the first band of Missionary Fathers from St. Joseph's College to their work among the Negroes. I therefore cannot refrain from putting into this volume the three following sermons; not for any worth in them, but because they were preached at your request, and because they enable me to express what we owe to you for the founding of our first Seminary for missions to the heathen. They will be, I hope, a permanent appeal to the charity and alms of the Faithful in behalf of your great work; and perhaps some one who reads them may help to finish your church, or may found a burse for the education of a missionary. May God prosper you, and bring you home in safety.

Believe me always

Yours very affectionately in Christ,

Archbishop of Westminster.

November 23, 1871.¹

The charity of Christ presseth us. 2 COB. v. 14.

' The chanty of Christ urgeth us;' that is to say, the consciousness of the love of our Lord to us is our motive and our impulse to do His will. For, in their first and proper sense, these words do not signify the love that we bear to Him, but the love that He bears to us. The personal love of Jesus Christ our Lord is the motive, the impulse, and the source of our love to Him; it is, therefore, the constraining principle of our actions. For this cause you have consecrated yourselves and this sanctuary and the work of your future life to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is the Fountain of all Missions: of all pastoral and Apostolic zeal. The Sacred Heart is the true Seminary of all who evangelise the world. The chief thought, then, in our minds to-day is the love of our divine Redeemer for us; and our first question will be: Lord, what wouldst Thou have me do?

The spring of our service and of our sanctification through Jesus Christ may he expressed in these few words: the personal love of our Divine Master to us, and our personal relation to Him. They who are conscious of, and governed by, these two great mys-teries of Divine love are new creatures; old things are passed away, all things have, become new. The charity of God was poured in Baptism into our hearts hy the Holy Ghost; and hy the gift of the Holy Ghost we became living members of the mystical Body of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God is therefore the source of all our love, of all our inspirations, of all our actions. As the Apostle says: ' With Christ I am nailed to the Cross: and I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me; and that I live now in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and delivered Himself for me.'1 That is, He has made me a living member of His Body, and He is my Head: from Him descends.the light, the guidance, the inspiration, the impulse, the strength, which governs me. He lives in me. As my body lives by the soul that quickens it, so my soul lives by Christ.

Now, this is the one true motive which brings us here. We are met together for a special solemnity, and for a work which is very near to our hearts. I i Gal. ii. 19, 20.

will not say that we meet to-day for the foundation of this missionary college, because already two years are past since it began; but to-day is its more solemn and more public opening. Let us think a moment for what purpose we are here. We are a mere handful, in this rude chapel of wood, which, because rude, is more fitting for those who are set apart for the work of foreign missions, for the raising of altars in forests and on mountain-sides, where the lonely log-hut is the noblest structure men can build for the worship of the Word made Flesh. Our motive is the love of Christ, urging us on, and urging us whither? Out of ourselves, first, to care for the souls of others; next, out of our own land, to care for those that are far off; out of Christendom itself, to seek those for whom He shed His blood among the heathen nations of the world. It is a portion of that impulse from heaven, by which the Church of God has been carried onward and outward, always expanding, from the day of Pentecost. If we love Him, we shall desire the conversion of all mankind. We are bound as Christians, not only to pray for the conversion of the heathen, but, according as we may, to labour for it. You in your homes, in the narrow range of your daily life, and we, not only in our country, but, if He so wills, in distant lands. We are all bound to labour together, for so did the faithful with the Apostles and Evangelists of Jesus Christ: and so may you unite with us.

To this we are bound by many obligations. First, it is the eternal will of God that every creature He has made shall participate in the bliss and knowledge of His saving and eternal love. To that end, He desires that the knowledge of Himself, of His Incarnate Son, the Redeemer of the world, of His precious Blood, of the Seven Sacraments of grace, of all the mysteries of Christianity, shall be spread abroad, so that the Gospel may be known to all mankind. This, then, is His eternal will.

But again; we, as Christians, and partakers of His precious Blood, are nurtured and sustained by it day by day in the Sacrifice of the Altar. If we have partaken of the Body and Blood of Christ, the Sacred Heart dwells in our hearts; and if so, He has inscribed on our minds the precepts of charity, which are more deeply imprinted there than by the written letters of His command. He has said: ' Freely you have received, freely give.' A Christian with a closed heart and a narrow hand is faithless to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And again He has said: ' Give, and it shall be given to you.' As it hath been given, so give, and it shall be given to you again — full measure, pressed down, running over. This is the law of the Sacred Heart, written on our own.

But He has also laid on us an explicit command. He has said: * Go into the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.' ' All power is given to Me; go ye, therefore, and teach all nations.' 'You shall he witnesses unto Me... even to the uttermost part of the earth.' A command is here laid on us; a necessity to teach all nations.

It is the love of our Lord, then, which constrains us to the work of foreign missions. Upon us, as Catholics who have inherited the only faith, is laid the necessity of spreading His saving Name. To stimulate our zeal, and to put us to shame, those who have only a broken Christianity are labouring, giving alms, and denying themselves, for the purpose of spreading the truths they know throughout the world. To us ahove all this duty is imperative; to us, as Catholic Christians, who have inherited the perfect faith, and the only Name whereby men may be saved, who know the one only Baptism for the remission of sins, the one only fold, under the one only Shepherd — the narrow and only gate, the only path, besides which no other is revealed, to the eternal kingdom. Woe to us, if we preach not the Gospel. Is it possible that we can rest, if we have not at least prayed for the conversion of those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death? It has heen well said, that the man who does not daily pray for the conversion of Israel can have little desire for the glory of the Church. The light of the heavenly kingdom has fallen upon us, while darkness is spread over His ancient people; but there is a day coming when the light will fall again on them, and we who are in the light are bound to pray, to strive, to labour that we may hasten its coming. How can a man have the love of our Lord and of the salvation of souls, who does not pray every day that the light of salvation may be spread throughout the world among the nations now in darkness? If this be true of all men, we more than all others are bound to pray and to labour for the heathen. Every motive of faith, of charity, of gratitude, binds us to this work.

There is also another motive which I may add, though I admit that it is inferior altogether to those already spoken of. It chiefly appeals to us, if I may so say, as a reproof and a reproach to us. I know that the greatest missionaries of the world have been those who have partaken least in worldly power: and yet to possess worldly power, to reign over the earth, and to overshadow the nations of mankind, is a providential call, as it is a providential means to spread the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Though we are one people, we are of a race mingled with the blood of many nations; we belong to a vast empire; to an empire which has succeeded to a sway and a dominion like that of Imperial Rome in other days. On us, therefore, lies the duty which God in His providence lays upon those who have such power in trust: and although nations and empires cannot stand at the bar of Judgment, we, one by one, who share this power, have responsibilities, and we shall have to answer for them. God gives reward and punishment to empires in this life; in the next, they have no personality and no retribution. Nevertheless, those who belong to them, and therefore partake of their gifts, will have a great account to give. England, great in empire, unhappy in its heresies and schisms, knows not the time of its visitation. It has spread abroad the poisons of a corrupt civilisation. Its heresies and schisms have been carried, not only into our own colonies, but into other lands. The result has been, ruin and extermination to those whom we ought to have converted to the Kingdom of God. The evils of a corrupt civilisation have spread, and are still spreading, like a deadly pestilence. The Catholic Church, in these kingdoms beat down, martyred, and reduced to a remnant, had in past days little power to send missions to heathen lands. But God's ways are wonderful. In Eome of old, for three hundred years, the Church suffered persecution. Had it heen possible for the power of man to extinguish the Church of God, it would have been extinguished. For three hundred years it was persecuted, for three hundred years it became vigorous and strong: and after those three hundred years were passed, when, wearied with slaying, emperors ceased to persecute, Christianity on the great imperial roads traversed far and wide; took possession of the lines which Home had prepared; and the Church of God expanded its organisation through the world. So is it with us. Three hundred years of penal laws and persecution have swept over England, Scotland, and Ireland. If it had been possible to extinguish the Church of God, it would have been extinguished long ago: but its imperishable life has strengthened, expanded, and is more vigorous and mightier than ever. After three hundred years of persecution, the persecutor is weary. He will do nothing for the Church of God; but he must set it free — he must give it liberty: the limbs have grown too strong for bonds, and throughout the British empire the Catholic Church has spread itself. There are more Bishops united to the Holy See under the shadow of the British empire than are to be found united to the civil supremacy of any other crown. The Catholic Church has used it as the material preparation for its expansion, has taken possession of its world-wide unity, has worked under the shelter of its civil laws, making ready for a future of which we see only the beginning.

But this Seminary is not for missions in the colonies. Its work is not to be confined to the limits of our possessions, nor of our empire. Its express intention is to go to those heathen lands for which England has no provision.

France, in the seventeenth century, founded a humble society for foreign missions. It was the work of a few secular priests. It has at this time I know not how many missionaries — how many martyrs. Among the youth of France there is a fervent and devoted vocation for this work. Many are always gathered together in that lowly house in Paris, awaiting their call to fill some martyr's place. If you would see the true glory of France, go to that seminary. Go into the room in which are laid up the relics of those martyrs. Around the walls are the vestments, the stoles, the office- books, the manuscripts, the little personal memorials which record the name, the history, the characters of those who

AA have laid down their lives for Jesus Christ. With these are to he seen the instruments of torture, the very weapons hy which their lives were taken. All these are cherished as sacred admonitions. In that hall I have seen the young candidates for martyrdom preparing for their missionary work; it may he for their crown; kneeling before these relics, commending themselves to the prayers of those whose memories are there in veneration. There is among them a beautiful and touching ceremony, whenever one of their comrades is to go forth to other lands. The missionary who is about to depart, after the holy Mass is celebrated, stands upon the step of the altar; while the choir sings the words of the prophet Isaias: ' How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who preach the glad tidings of peace,' his companions, one by one, kneel and kiss his feet. Such is their farewell. The missionary goes forth, perhaps to be seen no more; and when in after years the tidings of his martyrdom come home, there is a contest, a rivalry of charity, which of them shall have the grace and the glory to fill his place. Such a work was begun by a humble priest in France; why may not we in England do the same?

Ireland has already done likewise. The Holy Sacrifice to-day will be offered by one who has long been a member, and for some time was the head, of the first missionary college in Ireland. Out of its walls have come forth true apostles and evangelists, now labouring in foreign lands. About twenty or thirty years ago, there was a humble priest, born not far from Tara, in the very land where St. Patrick began his mission. This humble youth became first a student, then a member of a college, with hardly any prospect before him; at last he became a priest. He then thought to offer himself as a son of St. Yin-cent of Paul: but God's Holy Spirit, Who guided him, gave him to know that he had another work, and that his work was the foundation of the College of All Hallows. In that college the work began; it opened with one student. After three years, the founder died, at the early age of thirty -six; but he lived to see sixty students gathered under its roof. The work was founded, and since then it has sent out no fewer than three hundred priests. Fifty Bishops are in communication with All Hallows, from all parts of the world, and their dioceses are continually helped by that seminary.

And we also are not idle. Two years ago, the priest to whom my predecessor committed the foundation of this work, with one student and five or six of the Oblates of St. Charles, were gathered together in this house. After two years we meet again. This Seminary has not indeed sixty students, hut the numher is growing and giving promise, and some are already in holy orders. This is the beginning of a work, which, as in Ireland and in Paris, depends upon God and upon your fidelity. I feel that upon me rests, I will not say the responsibility of assisting in it, but the happiness and the grace of having had to share in its commencement. One of my first acts of public duty was, to accept in full this work of Foreign Missions, bequeathed by my predecessor to my trust; and, while I have life, I hope to promote it to the utmost of my strength.

And now what can we do for its promotion? As yet, it has had no expansion among us; but it is my intention' to invite the faithful who shall be in the diocese next Easter to meet together, and to lay the foundation of a society, which, I trust, under God, may spread throughout England, and of which this college may be the centre. We have as yet no society or association for the propagation of the faith among the heathen. In England, there is not as yet that which France possesses, and even Ireland has formed; and we are debtors to our divine Lord, to bear our part likewise in this missionary work. Next Easter, then, the feast on which the power, the unity, and the universality of the Church will be in all our hearts, I hope we may lay the foundation of such an expansion of this work as shall secure its solidity and its strength for ever.

I will now only ask two things from you: first, to give and to gather what alms you can for the increase and maintenance of students in this place.

Look over the world; there are some eight or nine hundred millions of souls, of whom not more than one -third at most are Christians. The harvest, indeed, is plenteous. Would to God I could say, the fields are white for the reaping. They are not white: they are blackened and blighted. Out of this world -wide field of human misery and sin there go streaming multitudes of eternal souls, hour by hour — souls that can never die, created in the image and likeness of God, redeemed in the precious Blood of the Son of God Incarnate, who never yet have heard His saving Name. Is it possible that we can refuse, or even be insensible to, such a claim as this? Give of your alms to multiply the number of these few labourers. This little handful of students will go and join themselves to the bands of missionaries who from other lands are going forth to labour among the perishing heathen.

The other thing I have to ask of you is easier to give than alms, but more powerful with God. Say every day at least one Hail Mary, in honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Ask in faith, that through the prayers of our Immaculate Mother to the Sacred Heart of our dear Lord, this little work may, like a seed which is imperishable, be for ever and abundantly multiplied; that the grace of the Holy Ghost may come down upon it; and that what we begin today in our weakness may be prospered by the power of God.

Footnotes

1. HENKY EDWAKD, ↩