In the foregoing chapters it has been shown to evidence, that God has proposed to the world a definite form of religion. He has manifested through His own Son what men must believe and what they must do. "Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you,"{1} was Christ's commission to His Apostles. So solemn did He make the obligation of receiving said teaching, that: He threatened eternal damnation to every one who should turn a deaf ear to the same. "He that believeth not shall be condemned."{2} Nor did He leave room for any exception, whereby men might consider themselves exempt from this obligation. He clearly foresaw all the difficulties that might bar men's way to true religion, yet these difficulties He set entirely aside. "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me."{3} Whoso, in matters of religion, is influenced by temporal considerations, even though they be of so sacred a character as the love of father and mother, can have no part with Christ -- cannot belong to the household of God. Conversion to the true faith may involve financial ruin, loss of social prestige, yea the sacrifice of life itself, yet it matters not; the moment a person recognizes the true religion, his course lies clearly before him -- he must leave all and follow Christ. In this matter Christ knows of no compromise. "If thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee,"{4} is a direction that applies no less to obstacles standing in the way of conversion than to the proximate occasions to sin. The one and the other, if yielded to, makes a man "guilty of hell-fire." The obligation, therefore, of embracing the true religion is absolute -- it is identical with the obligation of obeying God rather than man.
Again, as it has been shown in the preceding chapter that the one true religion, established by Christ, is found in the Catholic Church alone, it necessarily follows that all are in duty bound to profess the Catholic religion. This is an unavoidable conclusion of the foregoing discussion. We may look at the matter from what view-point we please, we can never get rid of the fact that the Catholic Church alone corresponds to the portrait which the God-Man has left us of His own Church as recorded in the Gospel. She alone has that unity of faith and oneness of doctrine which Christ Himself has made the proof of His own divine mission. Hence if there rests upon all the solemn duty to embrace the true faith, they must needs, in order to comply with this duty, become members of the Catholic Church.
Of course, it will be objected that this is all more or less theoretical. Taking men as they are, it is safe to say that the majority of them never advert to the claims of the one true religion, and so the obligation of embracing it is practically non-existent. There is some truth in this objection, yet it fails of its purpose. In many instances the principal reason why people do not advert to the claims of the one true religion is their culpable indifference to these claims. They are so immersed in the things of sense that they have lost sight of the supersensible and the supernatural. Against their better judgment they busy themselves exclusively with temporal interests, and hence they are "of the earth earthy." The light of faith is withheld from their minds because they refuse to follow the light of reason. In many cases this may, indeed, be owing to the unconscious influence of early prejudices, but in many more it has its final explanation in that religious indifference of which the world to-day is sick unto death; and this indifference does not cancel men's responsibility. In their own hearts they know well enough that they must "seek first the kingdom of heaven and its justice": they know well enough that the God of truth cannot be indifferent to the religious beliefs and practices of His own creatures. Hence if they do not advert to the claims of the true religion, that want of advertence must in large measure be laid at their own door.
That it is chiefly indifference which keeps men from finding and embracing the true faith, may perhaps be more clearly inferred from a few practical considerations. It may be that for one reason or another a person has not as yet proceeded farther in his religious views than simply to admit the existence of a personal God, to whom he is responsible; yet if he take a reasonable interest in the matter of religion, he will not long remain in this vague and undefined mental condition. There is always present in his heart a secret longing to know more about God, and this longing soon gives rise to the thought that God may have manifested Himself more fully and clearly than is possible through the creatures of His hands. He begins to suspect that a special revelation may have taken place, which brings man nearer to his God. This suspicion gains in force when he considers that vast multitudes of the world's wisest and best men positively affirm and defend such a revelation, and are ready at any moment to seal their faith with their heart's best blood. And that not only men of the present day, but men belonging to every age, reaching back as far as history can unseal the distant past. Here reason steps in and points to the fact that God does not reveal Himself to mankind without implying the positive command that all endeavor, to the best of their power, to attain to a full knowledge of that revelation. If at this juncture he be sincere and earnest in his search after the truth, he will humbly ask for light and guidance, and will seek instruction from books and persons, who are able to solve the doubts that have arisen in his mind. As a result of this inquiry, he will sooner or later become convinced of the truth, and through God's grace join the Church out of which there is no salvation. On the other hand, if he be indifferent, he will, like Pilate of old, ask flippantly: "What is truth? " and then go his way without waiting for an answer and the last state of that man will be worse than the first, because, like his prototype, he will in the end condemn the Just One without a hearing.
Similarly, if the person in question were indeed a believing Christian, yet belonged to one of the numerous sects which took their rise in the sixteenth century or later, he would, if earnestly solicitous about the truth, become in course of time a member of the one true Church. It may be that for some time he is in perfectly good faith about the truth of his religion, but if he considers the matter carefully, sooner or later doubts will arise in his mind. The very fact that his religion can by no manner of explanation be traced back to the time of Christ, is alone reason enough to condemn it as an innovation. Then if he considers the persons who started it, and reflects how little they had in common with the Apostles, whom Christ commissioned to preach the Gospel to every creature, his misgivings only gather additional force. Finally, if he realizes, as he certainly will, that there are scarcely two of his own denomination who believe precisely the same points of doctrine, in spite of the evident fact that truth is one and cannot be at variance with itself, he must, and with the grace of God he will, recognize it as his solemn duty to inquire seriously, whether his religion is the true one; or whether perhaps the one true religion is not found in the Church where all are one in faith, even as were the Apostles when the Pentecostal fires were showered down upon the earth. Once arrived at this state of mind, he is bound in conscience to seek further enlightenment. If he is sincerely desirous of learning the truth, as he needs must be, he will consult those whose position enables them to point the way to the true Church; he will have recourse to fervent prayer for light, and in the end he will return to the true fold from which his forefathers strayed in an evil hour. On the contrary, if he be indifferent about the matter, he will endeavor to quiet his conscience by maintaining that "one religion is about as good as another," that "it matters not what a man believes, provided he be a good man after his own fashion;" and so he will shut out the light of truth, until on the great day of universal revelation it will finally break in upon him in all its terrible brightness, but only to show him the magnitude of the guilt which he incurred, when he hardened his heart against the voice of God.
The theory, therefore, that the obligation of embracing the true religion, which is so clear in the abstract, finds but little application in the concrete, is wholly without foundation. It can, indeed, not be denied that many non-Catholics are in good faith about the truth of their own religion; but neither can it be denied that there are many more with whom this good faith is impossible. There are still men and women whom deep-rooted prejudices, resulting from nearly four centuries of the grossest calumnies against the true Church, have so effectually blinded to the light of truth, that they are not responsible before God: yet the number of such persons is daily diminishing; prejudice is fast making room for indifference, and the indifferent "stand condemned out of their own mouth."
{1} Mark XXVIII, 20.
{2} Mark XVI, 16.
{3} Matth. X, 37.
{4} Matth. V, 29.