The Catholic Hour (04-19-1942)

The National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with the National Council of Catholic Men presents the Catholic Hour. A group of the Polish choristers open the Catholic Hour singing Guno's Santamaria. The National Broadcasting Company is a group of the Polish choristers. The National Broadcasting Company is a group of the Polish choristers. The National Broadcasting Company is a group of the Polish choristers. The National Broadcasting Company is a group of the Polish choristers. The National Broadcasting Company is a group of the Polish choristers. Reverend Robert J. Sleven of the Order of Preachers of the Catholic University of America will now deliver the second in his series of six addresses on the General Subject Christian Heroism. His discourse today is entitled Christian Courage by present Father Sleven. Friends of the Catholic Hour Christ came to teach uncommon, common sense. When he fed hungry bodies with food, filled empty hearts with joy, or healed broken limbs with the function of his hand, the crowd swarmed about him. Teaching starved minds was another matter. Look at the scene the day after he fed 5,000 famished stomachs. The men and women pressed about him eager to catch every detail of what might take place. Christ rose to speak. Immediately he caught their fancy by mentioning the bread with which he had fed them the day before. Now he would instruct them. I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth in me shall live forever. The crowd grew restless. The Pharisees skirt in the edge of the group, muttered in their beards. One by one the people walked away. Christ read the minds of those whom fear froze in their tracks. Does this scandalize you? It is the spirit that quickeneth, and the words I have always spoken to you are spirit and life. Many of his disciples now frightened by the challenge turned away and walked no more with him. To the few who bore the taunts of the others he said, will you also go away? Overcoming their fear and challenging the crowd as of their companions they cried out, Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life. Today the hard things of Christ meet the same cowardice in the hearts of people. Fearful of the challenge of his doctrine they hug closer to themselves, the luxury ease and pleasures upon which they have stayed their all. Some of them adopt the tactics of the bully and shout and defiance that the leader of Christianity was a weak, milk and honey type of person throwing up a smoke screen to cover their own hypocrisy. They picture Christ as the meek Lamb of God, the man who spoke sweet parables and gave out airy platitudes on the poor and spirit, on those who are meek and humble of heart. The effeminate young man often found on holy picture cards with sunny locks and soft white hands. Christ, soft and weak. There was nothing soft nor weak about Christ. Christ was a real man. He was the lamb led quietly to slaughter, but he was also the lion of Judah of whom it is said it is awful to fall into the hands of the living God. When right and wrong were at issue, no ill-timed fear weakened his courage. It was his bravery which spread him on to cut through the hypocrisy of the evil men of his day. Well did Jesus know them? Under the porch of Solomon facing the sepulchers and the Mount of Olives he had told them, you see those tombs, you are like them, without they are white, but within they are full of dead men's bones and corruption. You do well to decorate and venerate them for you are like them. Christ hated evil with a hatred born out of his love for good, with a hatred that could make him be as fierce as the evil and furious as the lion while remaining the mild lamb of God. The mildness does not consist in refusing to hate anything, in straggling fences, in taking the side of wrong forsake of peace. That is in difference and colorless. Nowadays this trait is robbed of its weakness by the high-sounding names of pacifist and appeaser. Behind such deceptive words, there lurks the question God came, asked of God, and I, my brothers, keep earth. Christ answered that question. How could he look upon men who enslaved others by their laws so that the freedom of sons of God was denied them? How could he deal with the hypocrites who hid under the flag of the Roman Empire and were traitors to their native country? He did but one thing, he unmasked them, and when the time came he set his foot on this nest of vipers, even at the risk of meeting death. It was the righteousness of his cause that made him condemn those who were obstacles in his path. His courage derived its heat from the burning coals of the flaming furnace of love in his heart. It was the cry of that love, strong as death, and of that zeal, caught as hell, spoken of by Solomon. Love of justice and truth made that furnace within him boil, but Christ was in perfect possession of himself always. Rash boldness, the unleashing of his fury without the guidance of reason, the unrestrained use of his strength merely for show. These were far and to the teacher of mankind. He had a job to do, his father's business, and he would do it until his breath was stifled by his own blood. To carry out his work he had to be free. Free to teach his disciples the doctrine of love, free to heal wounded hearts with the ointment of his words, free to mend broken bodies by the touch of his hand, above all he must be free to enter into his father's house, to pray. Never could he stoop to that false freedom which consists in judging without the right to judge, in condemning without authority, in speaking rashly merely to stir the passions of the people. Never could he abuse freedom in the name of broad-mindedness. His conduct was prudent, and well did he show to all that he was master of his actions, his work, and himself. Fear never made him a slave to things beneath him. He prized too highly the human nature which was his to allow the nightmare of terror or panic to overthrow reason and destroy the confidence he had in himself. One incident shows this clearly. Christ was in Galilee, which was then under the rule of the puppet king set up by Rome. While he was preaching, the Pharisees pretending to be anxious about his personal safety came to him and said, Depart and get the hints for hell it has a mind to kill thee. Oh, what a hearty and courageous words he hurled at him. Go and tell that fox, behold, I cast out devils and do cures. Nevertheless, I must walk today and tomorrow and the day following. Is Christ not giving us an example of bravery in attacking him who would shackle his freedom? Go tell that fox. He does not hedge, nor squirm, nor compromise. This crowned imposter, coward and murderer, this tyrant, grinding under his heels, free children of God, this quizzly of another century, scheming to play the Jews against the Romans. Christ is openly challenged by Christ. What a glorious pattern. Christ sets for those today who in weakness and to pitted of soul think they can serve God by being cowards. What a thrilling example to those who are now fighting for freedom as though truth can set men free when it is hidden under a bushel. As though one could show love for one's brother by abandoning him to the clutches and enslavery of his enemies. Indeed, we are our brothers keeper. The valiant man is brave not only in attack, but what is more courageous under attack. It is harder to stand fast than to act, more difficult to sustain the fears that spring from dangers, especially the danger of death than to accomplish things. In action there is the excitement and stimulation of the emotions. In accepting dangers and trials there is a constant conflict with feeling. The mind is weighed down, not excited and is depressed by enforced inactivity. The crowd does not applaud, but often condemns what appears to be cowardice. Christ, our leader, does not expect his soldiers to undergo any danger he himself has not experienced. To be courageous in any matter in which he has not been the model, to bear with the sadness that comes from opposition, desertion of friends, loss of health, to feel sharply internal agony, discouragement and loneliness that strive to weaken the will and at the same time to keep the will firm. This is the perfection of courage. To bear with mental and physical suffering in the face of death, why this is the task of that virtue which only the brave may claim. When we look to the dark, cloud-swept types of Calvary and place ourselves in spirit among the mocking, taunting, blasphemous rabble, and gaze to the gloom at Jesus' stretched in agony upon the wooden altar of the cross, our hearts are stunned at the greatness of his courage. When we watch the sacred blood pouring forth from a thousand gaping wounds, from the gashes made by the sturgers and from the lacerations on his sacred brow pierced by thorns. When we feel our souls shrink within us as we see the drops of blood gather and then fall on the rock of Calvary, when we shamefully look up into that tearful, disfigured face, we catch the full meaning of the words. The courageous man is better than he that taketh cities. At no other period in our national life have our people felt the need of something that will bolster their strength against those who are attacking the freedom of man. This fundamental threat to the freedom which men must have in order to be human has staggered us. Nations have become marionettes or bayoness-srightest wish of the Axis powers. Countries have been cruirysacked by the violence in Rackin, not only of the Hiorito and Hitler hordes, but also of the double crosses within those countries. Men made free by God have been reduced to slavery and even that freedom of spirit which no man or devil can take from them has been surrendered to fear. Then there is the threat presented to the humanity of man by sin. When fear plunges men and women into the dull round of the passions they throw away the last vestige of humanity for sin chains the man to things beneath him held by the bonds of sin. Such a man is afraid to enter the house of his own soul afraid to know the heights to which he can climb. Instead of stretching for the stars he is condemned to the awful terror of struggling in the quicksand. The virtue which beats off all such threats is courage. The coward either lives in constant fear or supinely shakes off his humanity by waving a white flag of submission. Throughout human history it is the man of courage who has won the accolade prized by all. There stands a man. Courage strengthens the will to withstand and attack difficulties and dangers for a good end. A man may act with great boldness overcoming all kinds of opposition but if it is not for a good end he is not exercising the virtue of courage. A tyrant may equip his army into a mad frenzy his soul just may display physical stamina in their fight against freedom but what shred of human virtue, what trace of manly courage can be found in the frenzy of such a leader or the brutal response of such an army. Courage that is human, real courage directs its spurs not at an empty triumph, courage aims at a good. A soldier warring in defense of his country is fighting the good fight and his days are shot through with the natural virtue of courage. If behind his patriotism there is the love of God and the desire to serve him if he acts with courage because he knows the defense of his country is demanded by religion. Then his courage is supernatural. The quickly aroused passions of men easily respond to fear and daring. Fear can paralyze a man while darey makes him rash but courage releases the fear and curves the rashness. Courage is concerned first of all with the threats to life in a public or private war. At the same time lesser threats are seen to be insignificant when compared to the imminent threat of death. When we reflect that the harder work of courage is to enable us to bear with difficulties and hardships rather than to give us strength to attack, is it hard to see which act of courage we need today? A glorious offensive carries itself along in its own momentum but it be done without sufficient men or tanks or planes if be done without reliance on God. What will its rashness bring about but a bitter defeat? Was the attack of the Japs who far outnumbered our forces on that pamphlet insular more worthy of our admiration than the solid courage of our American fighting men? When prudence dictates the time of our offensive the courage needed will not be wanting. But until that time we must withstand all fears, fears of privation and want, fears of food shortage of air raids of propaganda sown by the enemy, fears of death, fears that may send men and women in distraction to taste our sin. The path ahead will be rough. The ground hilly and the boldest that lie in the way may have every appearance of being too huge for our weak frame to push aside. At another day and in another country holy women asked the same question, who shall roll us back the stone? When they came upon the scene the stone was already pushed aside. Are we to be shrunken by fear of the obstacles that lie ahead? Are we to listen to the challenging rebuke of Christ? Will you also go away? With the conviction that strength is perfected in weakness we know to whom we shall go. Prayer is the powerful instrument which will gird our loins with courage, push that stones in our path, and the encouragement of Christ will bring new strength to our souls. He and He alone will lead us out of the night of depression and fear to victory, victory over ourselves, victory over our enemies. Among the visions which St. John was given to see, one was that of Christ as the commander and leader of Christian armies. I saw a fight horse and he that sat on him had a bow and there was a crown given him and he went forth conquering. He that sat upon the fight horse was called faith and courageous and he was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood and the armies followed him likewise clothed. Those that fight with Christ ride on white horses for their cause is right. Their enemies wage war on God but the soldiers of God fight the good fight against the world, the flesh and the devil. When we purge ourselves of sin and with young horse accept the challenge of the future the seal of the courage of Christ will enable us to do all things, to dare all things, to suffer all things. All lion of the tribe of Judah who fights us the good fight and has called on all men to join me. Give thy courage and thy strength to all thy soldiers, give grace to every one of his own place to fight thy battle, give the grace of wisdom to those in high station that they may need a yield to fear nor be seduced by daring. Make them prudent as servants and simple as dogs teach us one and all to live in thy presence and to see thee as our leader, my cross as the foundation for the new battle cry with your victory made possible. Peace be to you. All Lord Jesus Christ who in I mercy hear at the prayers of sinners, poor forth we beseech thee all grace and blessing upon our country and its citizens. We pray in particular for the president, for our Congress, for all our soldiers, for all who defend us in ships, whether on the seas or in the skies, for all who are suffering the hardships of war. We pray for all who are in peril are in danger. Bring us all after the troubles of this life into the haven of peace and reunite us all together forever, O dear Lord, in thy glorious heavenly kingdom. The address you have just heard was entitled Christian Courage and was delivered by Father Robert Sleven of the Order of Preachers of the Catholic University of America. This was the second in Father Sleven series of six addresses on Christian heroism. A copy of today's talk may be obtained by writing to the National Council of Catholic Men, Washington, D.C., or to the station to which you are now listening. The Catholic Hour continues with Ave Maria, the Alvregion and Mother, my Tosary. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Next Sunday at this time, Father Slaven will deliver another address in this series entitled Courage of Heroes. Your announcer is John Patrick Costello. The Catholic R has been presented by NBC in cooperation with the National Council of Catholic Men as a public service and came to you from New York. This is the National Broadcasting Company.