Christ is God, and Christ is the Founder of the Christian religion. These two facts are proved by arguments so convincing that no unbiased person can reasonably set them aside. Now from these same two facts it would seem to follow with inexorable logic that all men are in conscience bound to profess a supernatural religion. For when Christ said to His Apostles: "Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be condemned,"{1} He laid upon all nations and upon each single individual the solemn obligation to profess the religion which He had established, and that religion is in its essence and aims purely supernatural. It proposes to its adherents an end that lies beyond the reach of their natural powers; it offers for the attainment of that end means which nature cannot provide, and it requires the practice of virtue for which man, left to himself, has no aptitude. It is in the strictest sense of the term a supernatural religion.
If you will, there is also a natural element in Christianity, even as there was a human nature in Christ; but this is pervaded by the supernatural spirit within, and depends upon the same for all that gives it grace of form and beauty of feature. Christianity is indeed in the world, but it is not of the world, even as Christ's kingdom also was not of the world. It was meant to regenerate society, to change the earth, once accursed of its Maker, into a paradise of delight; yet to accomplish this, its Divine Founder gave it no other means than those which He Himself made use of when He came down from heaven to save that which was lost. "As the Father hath sent me, He said to His Apostles, "I also send you."{2} "Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."{3}
The Saviour's mission was not to promote the cultivation of the arts and sciences, to suggest new industries, to open up new avenues of wealth and luxury, to establish philanthropic associations and social clubs; but to show men the way to heaven by teaching them how to lead lives of faith and hope and charity. The keynote of all His teaching was: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things," that is, whatever is needful for your bodily well-being, "shall be added unto you."{4} It is true, He did not discourage thrift and industry, He did not put a ban upon the cultivation of the arts and sciences, He did not condemn reasonable social enjoyments; but He made it clearly understood that all these things must be subordinated to the service of God and the salvation of souls. "Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God." "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his immortal soul?"{5}
With this object in view, He established, not a commonwealth for which He enacted wise laws, but a Church to which He gave authority to teach supernatural truths, and to administer the sacraments unto the sanctification of all for whom He poured out His heart's best blood. Upon that Church He conferred His own divine authority, for He said: "He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me."{6} To it He conceded His own powers as Saviour of man kind, saying: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained."{7} In it He would abide forever, not only as a sure guide to truth, but as a perennial source of sanctification, as He clearly indicated when He said: "Little children, I will not leave you orphans."{8} "Come to me all ye that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you."{9} "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath life everlasting, and I will raise him up on the last day."{10}
Hence the believing Christian, according to Christ's clearly expressed intention, lives in a divine atmosphere from his birth even till his death. Scarcely has the child of Christian parents been ushered into existence, when its infant soul is regenerated by the cleansing layer of Baptism in a second and spiritual birth, whereby it is sealed with the ineffaceable character of Christian, to become, as the Fathers of the early Church were wont to express it, another Christ. A few years of unconscious existence glide swiftly by, and then reason unfolds its wondrous powers. Yet before the mind reaches out in conscious thought to the surrounding world, its eyes have been opened through a mother's influence to the light of God's love, even as the eyes of the body rest in childish admiration upon the splendors of the earthly sun. In virtue of this influence, the child learns without effort to fold his hands in prayer, and with pure and innocent lips he lisps the sweet names of Jesus and Mary. As day follows day, consciousness fully awakens, and then life's struggles begin; for the perils of the world encompass every man's path through life. But lo, Christ has made provision against these dangers. Through the sacrament of Confirmation He bestows the Unction of the Holy Spirit, thereby rendering the soul strong and brave in the broad arena of Christian warfare. In that warfare there is many a sharp encounter, many a fierce conflict; for "the wrestling is not alone against flesh and blood; but against principalities, against the rulers of the world of. this darkness, against the spirit of wickedness in high places."{11} Yet if unhappily the Christian warrior succumbs, his God awaits him in the tribunal of mercy, in the sacrament of Penance, where consecrated ministers, not only by powers divine heal the unsightly wounds inflicted by sin, but also infuse into the soul fresh courage for future combats. Nay, the same God invites him to a heavenly banquet, where the God-Man Christ becomes the very food of his soul, and thus endues him with his own strength and endurance. Thus is he constantly upheld by a power from on high, until his course be run; and then at the last moment, when kindred and friends stand helpless at his side, the same loving Providence enfolds him in its protecting arms, anointing his body with the Oil of the Infirm, refreshing his soul with the Viaticum of Christ's Body and Blood, and thus comforted and strengthened and shielded from harm, leads him into the presence of his Maker.
Hence from the cradle to the grave, the true Christian necessarily leads a supernatural life, being ever in vital union with Christ, even as the branches that bear the empurpled grape are in vital union with the vine, whence they draw their life-giving sap. If, therefore, we study the Christian religion as it was established by Christ, we are forced to say that it is purely supernatural in character.
Furthermore, if we cast but a cursory glance at the origin and rapid spread of Christianity, we shall find that it was precisely the emphasis which Christ placed upon the supernatural that made the world Christian. He proposed Himself to young and old as a model, an ideal, compelling by His strong and sublime personality both their love and imitation; yet He always remained on a supernatural plane, lifting up earth to heaven rather than bringing down heaven to earth. "Be ye holy as I am holy," was the battle cry that went forth from the obscure country of Judea, and gathered around the Standard of the Cross the sons and daughters of all nations. From the moment that his creative spirit, all radiant with the light of heaven, moved over the polluted waters of pagan corruption, there sprang up on all sides those rare flowers of Christian holiness which shine like gems upon every page of modern history; and it was because of the same spirit, working with divine efficacy in the hearts of countless men and women, that Christian society rose from its very beginning so far superior to that of the ancient world. Thus "the purest among the strong, and the strongest among the pure, Christ lifted with His wounded hands empires from their hinges, and changed the course of the stream of ages."
It has been very aptly said, that Christ remade the world to His own image and likeness, and so regenerated it. As an ideal at once human and divine, He entered into the very hearts and souls of men, and created in them an all pervading desire to rise above the things of sense, and to make their lives godlike. Scarcely had He risen in triumph from the grave, when love awoke upon His empty tomb, and inspired whole nations to put into practice His sublime teaching, which fell like refreshing dew upon the arid wastes of pagan selfishness. The Spirit of God went forth and renewed the face of the earth. Men, who of the earth had become earthly, lifted up their eyes to heaven, and beheld in glorious vision the City of Peace, which was to be their home, if they would but dare to fight the good fight and stretch forth their hand to the eternal crown of justice. Firmly established in the conscious possession of truth, through the teaching of Christ's infallible Church, they gathered strength from their Saviour's consoling words: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all else shall be added unto you;{12} and in that strength they found courage to follow the footsteps of Him whose earthly career ended upon the cross.
Then sprang into existence the Christian home, modeled upon the little home at Nazareth, where Christ Himself was the guardian spirit of the hearthstone. From that home went forth men and women all radiant with the light of godlike purity and possessed of hearts that pulsated with a love of God and neighbor all but divine. Thus the Gospel of peace brought sunshine into a world that had for ages been encompassed by the shadows of death. Churches and schools and charitable institutions arose everywhere as so many manifestations of the spirit of Christ, slowly regenerating the world by fashioning it into His own image and likeness. Human nature, indeed, remained what it had ever been, weak, inconstant, fickle, inclined to evil; but from the Church, which Christ had built upon the mountain top, there flowed without ceasing a sevenfold stream of grace, which lifted men and women above the weaknesses of their fallen nature, and enabled them to enjoy the sweets of life and endure its ills in such a manner as to perfect in themselves evermore the image of the Godhead.
And as it was in the beginning, so it has been throughout the Christian past, so it is even now wherever the religion of Christ is looked upon, not merely as a beautiful dream, a poetic fiction, but as a practical rule of life, such as the God-Man Himself has ordained it for all times. It is a religion that receives man with the love of a mother at his birth; accompanies him as a guardian spirit along all the devious paths of life, and enables him to look with steady eye into the bright effulgence of eternity at the moment of death. Born in heaven, it leads to heaven, and makes of man's life on earth but a preparation for eternity.
{1} Mark XVI, 16.
{2} XX, 20.
{3} Matth. XXVIII, 19, 20.
{4} Matth. VI, 33.
{5} Matth. XVI, 26.
{6} Luke X, 16.
{7} John XX, 22, 23.
{8} John XIV, 18.
{9} Matth. XI, 28.
{10} John VI, 57.
{11} Eph. VI, 12.
{12} Matth. VI, 33.