Table Of Content(If
and man
God
CON FERENCES
DELIVERED AT
NOTRE DAME IN PARIS,
REV. PERE LACORDAIRE.
OF THE ORDEK OF FUIAR-PBEAf'HEBS
Tw»jsla.ted feom the Feench, ^VITH THE Authors Permissioh,
BY A TeKTIAKT of THE SAME OkDEE.
NEW YOKK:
> P O'r. H E A , PUBLISHER,
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Enteredaccoi-ain-toArtofOougress,Intheyear1879, Ur
P. OSHKA,
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TO
THE CHEVALIER TELLES JOKDAO,
A TKIBUTK (>w ESTKKM >N1) >\Kl''KCTiOX
FROM
THF. TRANSLATOR,
H. D. L.
ADD inno
<-7
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
Encouraged by tlie reception given to the Con-
ferences on Jesus Christ and God, tlie translatDr
offers another vohnne of the great Dominican's
works, anticipating" the pleasnre of publishing the
whole series in the same form.
Faster WecJc, 1872.
CONTENTS.
The Bapernatural Intercourse between God and Man 9
Two Objections against the Supernatural Intercourse
between God and Man 45
The Need of Supernatural Intercourse between God and
Man 86
Prophecy 116
Mystery as the Object oi" Prophecy J51
The Hnman Act corresponding to Prophe<5y: 180
Sacrament 214
God and Man.
THE SUPERNATURAL INTERCOURSE BETWEEN
GOD AND MAN.
—
My Lord,' Gentlemen,
We
will begin by establishing tlie point we
have reached in expounding the mystery of des-
tinies, as it is professed by Catholic doctrine.
According to that doctrine, there exists an infinite,
eternal Being, subsisting of himself, who is one
without being alone; for he finds in his own
essence relations whence, with the necessary
movement of his life, results the absolute plenitude
of his perfection and his happiness. A Being
unique and complete, God suffices to himself.
No necessity, no utility called him out of himself;
he saw in his intelligence the inexhaustible imasre
of a multitude of beings variously limited he felt
;
his power to cause them to pass from the possible
'MoNSEiGNEUR SiBOUR, Arclibishop of Paris.
10
to tlie real state but being perfect and bappy in
;
tbe inner development of bis triple personality, be
was free not to exercise bis power, and, in tbe
deptb of bis mind, to leave in repose tbe eternal
spectacle of tbe worlds wbicb were not. Goodness
alone incited bim gratuitously to communicate
life; and tberefore, on tbe day wben it pleased
bim, or ratber in tliat indivisible day wbicb lias
no distinct moments save for tbe passing- being-s
wbo bebold it, God created tbe universe. He
created it so as to realize tbe indefinite perspective
of tbe possible, as be bebeld it in bis intelligence,
and man, wlio in bis double nature drew togetber
all its elements and all its features, was placed in
tbe centre of tbat work, as its connecting link, and
its most complete representation. God is tbus tlie
principle of tbing-s. But by tbe same reason wbicb
determined bim to be tbe principle of tbings, be is
—
also tbeir end tliat is to say, tbeir term or object.
For, liaving created from goodness, be willed to
communicate bis own perfection and beatitude to
bis creatures, and tins can be accomplisbed only by
ihe intimate union of tbeir life witb bis own.
Wbence it follows tbat tbe general law of all
—
created beings is to aspire towards God minds,
by a free and direct effort bodies, by tbeir asso-
;
;
11
ciation with minds in the person of man. And in
order for that ascension of the finite towards the
infinite to be possible, on the very day of their
creation, God, the author of intelHgent beings,
—
gave to them truth and love truth, to know him
—
love, to love him and the Father of beings became
altogether and at the same moment their principle,
their means, and their end.
Such is the first plan of Catholic doctrine, and
the first plan of our destinies.
But is this all! Has God, in order to attract us
towardshim, limited himselfto spreadingoutbefore
us the spectacle of nature, and to lighting up in
our intelligence the sun of reason? Is all other
—
communicationbetween himselfand us communi-
—
cation more direct, nearer, more profound impos-
sible'? Have we notliing more to hope for or
pretend to, until the day when the mystery of our
creation will be consummated in eternity I Ration-
—
alism affirms this it declares and this it is which
;
separates it from us in the very fount of its essence
—
that there is no communication between God
and ourselves, save by the intermediary of reason,
that every other mode is chimerical, all other inter-
course an imposture or an illusion. Catholic
—
doctrine does not accept this decision it believes,
—
12
it teaches that nature and reason form but the
peristyle of truth, the first porch of the temple, and
that man, with this help alone, however great he
may be, is an incomplete being-, who would be
incapable of attaining the term of hisdestinies
that is to say, God. Behold the formidable ques-
tion now before us. All that I said to you last
year of the Christian dogmas contains in itself
only a spiritualist philosophy there are sages who
;
bend with respect before that portion of religious
truth, and if we did not advance further, we should
remain within the limits of human wisdom. Cath-
olic doctrine does not permit us to do this ; it con-
strains us to pass these narrow limits, and to show
you that beyond and besides the creating act to
which we owe the elements of life, knowledge, and
love, which are within us, there exists in regard to
us an action of God more penetrating and more
profound. What is that action1 Does it exist in
reality 1 This is what we must now endeavor to
learn.
My Lord,
You are the third archbishop of Paris before
whom I have here announced the word of God.
Your last two predecessors were both struck by
13
the thunderbolt; tliey both prematurely carried
to God the accountfull and yet incomplete of their
episcopacy. One of them saw his palace rased to
the ground by the hands of the multitude, and,
after having responded to that act of violence by
ten years of good deeds, he died without having
obtained from thejustice of men the reparation due
to his piety, his courage, and his goodness. The
other offered himself as a holocaust he fell in dis-
;
arming civil war, and the people, moved by that
victim who had become their peacemaker, brought
him back into this temple, and made liere for him
a sepulchre greaterthan his throne, and a resurrec-
tion as glorious as his death. God has chosen you,
my
Lord, to succeed these two men, and to con-
tinue the history of the See of St. Denis he has
;
considered you worthy to occupy a place which
henceforth can only be filled by the charity that
makes the martyr, and the greatness of soul that
makes the citizen. I wish you happier days than
theirs, a glory less agitated, and an end less
—
tragical not that I doubt of your heart, should
God call you to equal them in the peril and honor
of tribulations, but because it belongs only to God
to desire for men, and send to them, tribulations
as great as their virtues.
