3. What special meaning has the word "teach" in Matthew XXVIII, 16 to 20?

4. What sacred rite was here commanded by Christ?

5. Show that Christ designates "men," and not nations in general.

6. What is meant by "observe" Christ's doctrines?

7. Prove that an individual has no liberty to believe only some of Christ's doctrines.

8. Prove that the Apostles cannot teach anything of themselves independent of Christ's doctrines.

9. Show that Christ promised the Apostles continual and uninterrupted assistance.

10. Does the assistance of Christ prove that the teaching-body established by Him is perpetual?

11. Could the Apostles change the doctrines of Christ?

12. If there was no command to write, was this forbidden?

13. Why must other men listen to the teaching of the Apostles?

14. Why must the entire doctrine of Christ be preserved for all time? 15. Why cannot a man use his own personal judgment in what he is to believe and do in order to save his soul?

16. Why must this teaching-body of Christ be in existence today? 17. If I could find a teaching-body today that is the direct successor of the teaching-body established by Christ, could I be certain of what Christ taught?

18. How would you trace the direct successor of this teaching-body established by Christ?

19. If any modern religious teaching-body does not preserve and teach all that Christ taught, can I be certain that such a teaching-body is not the one established by Christ?

20. Must I know all the doctrines that Christ taught in order to find the direct successor to the teaching-body He established?

LESSON XXXVI

THE LIFE OF CHRIST

THE EIGHT BEATITUDES

Notes. Matthew IV, 25; V, 1-12; Luke VI, 17-26.

1. The Eight Beatitudes, which form an introduction to the wonderful Sermon on the Mount, are the great moral laws of Christ's Kingdom. Having selected His Apostles, Our Lord instructs them, together with the multitudes. Notice that the happiness spoken of in each beatitude is just the opposite to what the worldling would desire.

2. A man is "poor in spirit" who values his possessions, however great or small, only as a means of attaining heaven. Possessions are not to be loved for themselves; they are a means to an end, and the end is heaven. Neither wealth nor poverty is a key to heaven, but the right use of riches and the proper use of poverty will open heaven. In this beatitude Our Lord plainly shows that His Kingdom is not to be one of earthly greatness and splendor such as the Jews wrongly expected. The worldly man would distort this beatitude into something like this: "Happy are the rich and powerful, for theirs is every good thing." 3. A man is meek when he restrains his inclinations to violence, say, anger or revenge. Christian mildness and patient endurance are marks of Christ's Kingdom. There is, of course, a just anger, which may at times express itself outwardly in word and action, as when Our Lord, fired for the glory of His Father's house, drove out the buyers and sellers from the Temple. Here He urges His followers to use mild means rather than harsh whenever possible. The worldling would say: "Happy are the mighty in their violence, for the whole world will be afraid of them."

4. The "mourning" is not a sentimental mawkishness, an atmosphere of melancholic gloom. Nor does it mean the natural grief felt for the loss of dear ones. To mourn means to sorrow for sins, to accept adversity as penance, to abhor the unrestrained pleasures of the worldlings. In other words, this beatitude means that when a serious-minded man contemplates the life of man, he has reason to sigh for the future heaven, which he can gain only by hard conquests of self. The worldling would perhaps say: "Happy are the careless and light-minded who think the world a carnival of riotous fun, for they shall laugh aloud and long."

5. The hunger and thirst after justice means an earnest attempt to become a holy and perfect follower of Christ. The worldling might say:

"Happy are they who hunger and thirst after all they can get, for they shall spurn the rights of others."'

6. The merciful are those who have a Christlike compassion for the corporal and spiritual needs of man and do what they can to alleviate them. The motive is not mere philanthropy nor the desire to be a practical sociologist, but we are merciful in imitation of Christ. The worldling might say: "Happy are they who ignore the woes of men, for they shall not be horrified."

7. Cleanness of heart means cleanness from sin, especially from sins of the flesh. The worldling might say: "Happy are the sensualists, for man is only a brute."

8. Peace means peace with God, with our own souls, with our neighbor. To be a peacemaker does not mean to be a foolish intruder into other people's squabbles. The men who are at peace with God, with their souls and with their neighbor are the children of the Prince of peace. Notice that just wars are not condemned. A just war may be necessary for our own or our neighbor's peace, and, at times, for the glory of God. We must sometimes fight in order to be peacemakers; indeed, to be at peace with ourselves and with God is a continual struggle. The worldling might say: "Happy are the trouble-makers, for they shall be left to themselves."

9. To suffer persecution for justice' sake means to be persecuted for the Christian faith or the Christian virtues. Of course, we should not deserve the persecution. To endure a sneer from a companion; to be refused an invitation to a dance because you are a Catholic; to be refused a nomination to the Presidency for the same reason, is to be persecuted for the Christian faith just as much, if not in the same degree, as if you were a Mexican under the laws of Calles. The worldling would say: "Happy are they who reject all faith and virtue, for Satan will not bother them."'

DOCTRINE

CHRIST MADE HIS TEACHING-BODY INFALLIBLE

206. When Christ commands the Apostles to teach, He solemnly and without any qualification promises: "And behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world." Christ is God. To be with the Apostles means that He gives them His assistance, the assistance of God. Therefore, the task of the Apostles will be accomplished with divine assistance, and certain success in their teaching must be the inevitable result.

207. Now, what could this success in teaching mean except

Christ without any error? Men are to be made disciples of Christ. They must be certain that the doctrine which is taught them is the doctrine of Christ. If the teaching-body could make only one mistake in teaching Christ's doctrine, then mankind could not be sure of anything that was taught them as the doctrine of Christ. They would always be afraid that the teaching-body was making mistakes, and there could be no successful teaching of Christ's doctrines if the Apostles were not immune from error through the divine assistance promised them by Christ Himself. Mankind must have some guarantee that what they are being taught is not some doctrine of man, but the doctrine of Christ; and this guarantee is given them in the promise of Christ that He will always assist the Apostles in teaching His doctrines.2

1 "Now the teaching authority of the Church is of its very essence, as Christ established it, like the revelation He commissioned it to preserve and preach. If the teaching authority which was once infallible should become liable to error; if the doctrines 'once delivered to the saints' should become corrupted in transmission; if the Church's faith to-day should be different from that of yesterday or of the day before; with what semblance of truth could it be said that the Church of Christ, the same Church founded by Him and built up by the Apostles, is with us still, and will remain with us forever? And how can identity of teaching and of consequent belief be secured, generation after generation, unless He makes His Church infallible? The argument, therefore, appears to be conclusive that, as the Apostles were, so their successors will be, beyond the reach of error in their teaching office until Christ comes again."-P. Finlay, S.J., lib. cit., p. 152.

"Her [the Church's] most important office, her fundamental duty, is, therefore, to announce and safeguard the revelation made by Christ. She fails in her mission if she neglects to make that revelation known; and she fails no less, if she corrupts the Divine message, or allows it to become corrupted in her keeping. How could her enemies more entirely 'prevail against her' than by effecting an admixture of falsehood with revealed truth in the Church's common faith, or by leading her to preach man's mere inventions as the revealed Gospel of Christ? She must not, under pain of failure, of ceasing to be the society of believers which Christ established, hold any doctrine as revealed which God has not revealed to her. She must not deny any doctrine which He has revealed. She may not contradict to-day what at any time she has ever taught. She can no more alter her creed than she can alter her Sacramental system or her form of government. And, if she is to preserve it unaltered, she must be safeguarded against error in belief and teaching, she must be protected by passive and active infallibility."-P. Finlay,

Therefore, Christ established the teaching-body as one which would teach His doctrine without any possibility of error, i.e., He made the teaching-body infallible.

208. The Apostles and their successors cannot make a mistake in teaching Christ's doctrines, not because of any natural powers which they possess as individual weak men subject as all men are to error, but simply because Christ assists them always in their task of teaching His doctrine to mankind. It is the assistance of Christ that makes His teaching-body immune from error in their teaching.

209. Christ explains this extraordinary assistance when He says:

"But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you." John XIV, 26.

And again in John XVI, 13, we read: "But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth."

And in Luke XXIV, 48-49, we read: "And you are witnesses of these things. And I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city till you be endued with power from on high."

And in Acts I, 8, we read: "But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and even to the uttermost parts of the earth."

210. Now, it is evident from the above passages that Christ promised to send the Apostles Someone who was to help them. This helper is called the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, the One promised by the Father, the Spirit of Truth.3

8

"But infallibility is a specific and singular privilege; and, both in its concept and by the usage of those who claim it for the Church, has no other purpose than to protect her authorized beliefs from doctrinal error. You may have seen a child engaged in writing down from memory a statement or a story received from a father's lips. Suppose the child to exercise a perfect freedom of choice as to the place and time and other circumstances of the writing; and even as to whether it will