PAGE 263. From the unjust appropriation or damnification of our neighbor's temporal goods, and from co-operation to injustice arises the duty of restitution, 264. The rights of our neighbor are likewise violated by detrac- B. SPECIAL DUTIES. 476 478 479 480 266. God has ordained a certain diversity of states and conditions of life, which gives rise to various special duties, 267. Children owe to their parents, and inferiors to their superiors, the duties of reverence, love and gratitude, and obedience, 481 268. Parents also have certain duties towards their children, and masters and mistresses towards their servants, 269. Man has also certain obligations towards the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, . 483 484 CHAPTER III. WORKS OF SUPEREROGATION, OR CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 270. All are called to, but not all are bound to embrace, a life of perfection, 486 271. The counsels of the Gospel--poverty, chastity, and obedience --have been recommended by Christ in particular as means of perfection, 487 272. Christian perfection, however, may be attained in any state of life, 273. The seven gifts of the Holy Ghost are communicated to us to render us more obedient to the inspirations of grace, 274. The eight beatitudes have been proclaimed by Christ as the special reward for the exercise of virtue and the motive for the practice of Christian perfection, 275. The fruits of the Holy Ghost, or the spiritual sweetness resulting from the practice of virtue in this life, likewise facilitate the work of Christian perfection, 491 APPENDIX II. Professions of Faith. APPENDIX III. The Syllabus of Pius IX., 495 . 496 501 HANDBOOK OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. PART I. TRUTH OF THE CATHOLIO RELIGION. SECTION I. CHRISTIANITY A REVEALED RELIGION. INTRODUCTION. 1. Religion implies man's union with God. 1. RELIGION (from religare), taken in its widest sense, signifies a living union of man with God; or the homage paid to God by man's acknowledgment of, and submission, obedience and love towards His infinite majesty. We call this union a living one, because it is effected by the vital acts of man, i.e., by his thoughts, desires, and actions. Religion is called, by way of excellence, a bond or union (religio); because, on the one hand, there is no other tie so noble, so powerful, so necessary; and, on the other hand, this bond is the foundation of every other human tie (S. Aug. de vera relig. c. 55, n. 111; Lactant. div. inst. IV. 28). 2. Religion may be considered either objectively (in its substance) or subjectively (in its exercise). Objectively. considered, it consists in that assemblage of truths, laws, and precepts by which the living union of man with God is effected, and by which man's thoughts, desires, and actions in regard to God are actuated and governed. When a man rules his intellect and will-his thoughts, desires, and actions -according to these dictates, he is said to exercise religion. We speak of a true religion, and of false religions. The true religion is that which pays to the true God that homage sanctioned by Himself or dictated by reason. Those religions are false in which either a false god is worshipped or a false worship is paid to the true God. Thus idolatry is false, because it worships false gods; Mohammedanism is false, because it offers to the true God a false worship. The true religion alone deserves to bear the name of religion, because it puts man in the proper relation to God. 2. Religion is a strict obligation incumbent on man. I. That man has the obligation, by submission, obedience, and love, to enter into a living union with God, that is, to practise religion, becomes evident on a little reflection. 1. God exacts man's homage and, consequently, his submission and love. God in His infinite wisdom and sanctity must demand right order in all things. Now, order requires that the inferior beings should be subordinate to the Supreme, the creatures subservient to their Creator and Lord, each in accordance with its nature. But while irrational beings do the will of their Maker unconsciously and of necessity, man, endowed with reason and free will, then only subjects himself to God in a manner conformable to his nature when he uses God's gifts for the Giver-when with his intellect he acknowledges God's supremacy, and with his free will he fulfils God's law; when he loves God and seeks Him as his last end, and thus enters into living communion with Him. 2. Man owes this homage to God. For man knows that God necessarily requires it. He knows that homage is due to the Infinite Being, submission to the Lord of lords, thanks to his supreme Benefactor, and love to the Sovereign Good. He knows, moreover, that in finite things he cannot find that happiness for which he is created, but only in the Infinite, and that this happiness is to be obtained only by submission to God and obedience to His holy will-in other words, by practising religion. I. The whole human race bears testimony to the obligation worshipping God. All nations, both ancient and modern, whether savage or civilized, by their altars and temples testify their conviction that homage is due to the Deity. This truth was too plain not to be recognized by all men. By the voice of conscience God Himself speaks so audibly that He cannot be overheard. Nor did it escape the notice of philosophers that without the knowledge and worship of God society itself could not subsist, and that religion, though chiefly a union between man and God, is at the same time the strongest bond of human society, and the basis of all social virtues. They all plainly perceived that justice could not exist without religion. "Without justice," in the words of St. Augustine, "states are nothing else than large bands of robbers, as bands of robbers are nothing else but little states" (de Civ. Dei, IV. 4). Hence the universally acknowledged principle that religion should claim the foremost place in our attention; hence the conviction that he who undermines religion brings ruin upon society at large and is an enemy of his country. It follows, therefore, that religion is a necessary result of our rational nature, or that man from the very fact of his being endowed with reason owes to God the tribute of homage. Religion does not, as a matter of fact, rest upon reason alone, since God from the beginning vouchsafed to man a special revelation, traces of which are to be found in the religious systems of all nations. As religion is the outcome of rational nature, it cannot be regarded as a result or prejudice of education. It would be rather singular that the same prejudice should exist among all nations. Moreover, prejudices of education, particularly if they do not appeai to the passions, are laid aside in maturer life, and are not shared by the more enlightened. Nor can we attribute the origin of religion to the imposition of law-givers, who might recognize in it a salutary restraint for subjects. For, that all legislators should happen to hit upon the same expedient, unless it were founded in the nature of things, is in itself improbable; still more improbable is it that such a measure could have obtained such universality and permanence. Besides, we find religion even among savage tribes, with whom there is, properly speaking, no trace of legislation. We find it before all political institutions, at the very cradle of the human race. And where revolutions have destroyed political institutions, religion still maintains its footing. Nor can a vague and groundless fear on the part of man have given rise to religion; for it has been practised not merely by timid minds. Religion is not only the expression of fear, but of joy and gratitude as well. We love to call God the All-bountiful (Deus Optimus Maximus). We fear Him, it is true, as the just Judge, because rational nature recognizes Him as such. It is the knowledge of God, thus urged upon us by reason, which is the source of religion in general, as well as the cause of the fear of God's justice. 3. Religion may be natural or supernatural. Religion, objectively considered, may be natural or supernatural, according as its substance and the manner in which it is communicated are natural or supernatural. 1. If religion embraced only such truths and obligations as rest on the fact that God is an infinite being, the Creator of the universe, and of man in particular, endowed as he is with reason and free will, it would be natural in substance; for man would, in that case, acknowledge, honor, and imitate God's perfections only in as far as God would have revealed them to him through creation. Natural religion would teach, for instance, that God is our Creator and our last end; that He is wise, powerful, bountiful; that there is a difference between good and evil; that we owe God homage; that murder and theft are wrong; etc. A man who reflects on himself and on nature around him may gain such truths by the light of reason; and, therefore, we may say that the substance of natural religion consists of those truths and obligations which may be arrived at merely by the light of reason. 2. If the truths and precepts which form the contents of natural religion were manifested only through creation, religion would be natural both in substance and in the manner of communication. But if God makes known those truths and obligations by other means than by creation, namely, by speaking to us directly Himself, or indirectly through His messengers-in short, by a special positive revelation,—that religion which is natural in substance becomes, owing to the manner in which it is communicated, supernatural in form. 3. If a religion contains truths regarding God which cannot be arrived at by the consideration of created things, or institutions and precepts which depend upon God's free will, it is, owing to these contents, which transcend the natural order, supernatural in substance. God can, for instance, reveal Himself as the Trinity-a truth which He has not manifested through nature. He can impose upon us certain obligations which are not founded alone upon our relations |