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_These sermons (which the following pages contain in a much abbreviatedform) were delivered, partly in England in various places and at varioustimes, partly in New York in the Lent of 1912, and finally, as acomplete course, in the church of S. Silvestro-in-Capite, in Rome, inthe Lent of 1913. Some of the ideas presented in this book have alreadybeen set out in a former volume entitled "Christ in the Church" and afew in the meditations upon the Seven Words, in another volume, but inaltogether other connexions. The author thought it better, therefore, torisk repetition rather than incoherency in the present set ofconsiderations. It is hoped that the repetitions are comparatively few.
Italics have been used for all quotations, whether verbal orsubstantial, from Holy Scripture and other literature_.
INTRODUCTORY (i) JESUS CHRIST, GOD AND MAN (ii) THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, DIVINE AND HUMAN
(i) JESUS CHRIST, GOD AND MAN
I and My Father are one.—JOHN X. 30.
My Father is greater than I.—JOHN XIV. 20.
The mysteries of the Church, a materialistic scientist once announced toan astonished world, are child's play compared with the mysteries ofnature.[1] He was completely wrong, of course, yet there was everyexcuse for his mistake. For, as he himself tells us in effect, he foundeverywhere in that created nature which he knew so well, anomaly piledon anomaly and paradox on paradox, and he knew no more of theology thanits simpler and more explicit statements.
[Footnote 1: Professor Huxley.]
We can be certain therefore—we who understand that the mysteries ofnature are, after all, within the limited circle of created life, whilethe mysteries of grace run up into the supreme Mystery of the eternaland uncreated Life of God—we can be certain that, if nature ismysterious and paradoxical, grace will be incalculably more mysterious.For every paradox in the world of matter, in whose environment ourbodies are confined, we shall find a hundred in that atmosphere ofspirit in which our spirits breathe and move—those spirits of ourswhich, themselves, paradoxically enough, are forced to energize undermaterial limitations.
We need look no further, then, to find these mysteries than to that tinymirror of the Supernatural which we call our self, to that little threadof experience which we name the "spiritual life." How is it, forexample, that while in one mood our religion is the lamp of our shadowyexistence, in another it is the single dark spot upon a world ofpleasure—in one mood th