Category: Book 5
Let’s Keep the Jews for Christ’s Sake
A Mystery
The Jews
are a mystery
to themselves.
They are not a nation,
although the Zionists
try to build up one
in Palestine.
They are not a race.
for they have intermarried
with many other races.
They are not a religion,
since their belief
calls for one Temple
and the Jewish Temple
has not been in existence
for nearly 2,000 years.
In Spain
St. Vincent Ferrer,
a Spanish Dominican,
succeeded in converting
25,000 Jews.
When the Spaniards decided
to drive the Moors out
they also decided
to drive the Jews out.
St. Vincent Ferrer
tried to convert the Jews;
he did not start a crusade
to drive them out.
Driven out of Spain,
the Jews found a refuge
in Salonika,
which was then
under the Turkish flag.
Spanish is still spoken
by Jewish workmen
in Salonika.
In the Papal States
The Popes never did
start a crusade
to drive the Jews
out of the Papal States.
Jews have lived in Rome
and the adjoining territory
since the Roman Empire.
The Roman Empire
protected the Jews
living under its rule,
and so did the Popes
in the Papal States.
The Jews themselves
admit the fairness
with which they were treated
in the Papal States.
In the Shadow of the Cross
While the Spaniards
refused to keep the Jews
the Popes consented
to keep the Jews.
The Jews
were the chosen people
and they are still,
for God does not change.
Because the Jews
did not recognize Christ
is not a good reason
for acting towards them
in a non-Christian manner.
The presence of the Jews
all over the world
is a reminder to the world
of the coming of Christ.
The Jews who refused
to accept the Cross
find their best protection
in the shadow
of the Cross.
In Germany
Under the shadow of the Cross
the Jews were protected;
under the Swastika
they are persecuted.
The Cross
stands for one thing,
the Swastika
for another thing.
The Cross stands
for race equality;
the Swastika stands
for race superiority.
The Catholic Church
stands for human brotherhood,
the Nazi regime
stands for the expansion
of one race
at the expense
of the other races.
In America
The English Puritans
found a refuge
in America.
The French Huguenots
found a refuge
in America.
The Irish Catholics
found a refuge
in America.
The German Liberals
found a refuge
in America.
America
is big enough
to find a refuge
for persecuted Jews
as well as
persecuted Christians.
In Palestine
America can produce
more than it can consume.
What America needs
is more consumers.
More Jews in America
means more consumers
for America.
It is said that the Jews
flock to the cities
and become middle men,
and that there are
too many middle men
in America.
But in Palestine
the Jews are building
both cities and country.
What the Jews are doing
in Palestine
they can do also
in America.
Logical and Practical
What is not logical
is not practical,
even if it is practiced.
What is logical
is practical
even if it is not practiced.
To practice
what is not logical
though it is practical
is to be a bourgeois.
A bourgeois is a fellow
who tries to be somebody
by trying to be
like everybody,
which makes him
nobody.
To practice
what is logical
even if it is not practiced
is to be a leader.
A leader is a fellow
who follows a cause.
The Sermon on the Mount
will be called practical
when Christians make up their mind
to practice it.
For A New Order
The Age of Reason
In the seventeenth century
a Frenchman
by the name of Descartes
discarded Thomistic philosophy
and formulated
a philosophy of his own.
St. Thomas’ philosophy
starts with Aristotle
and helps the reason
to accept revelation.
For St. Thomas Aquinas
reason is the handmaid of faith;
not so for Descartes.
The eighteenth century
became known
as the age of enlightenment
or the age of reason.
An American
by the name of Thomas Paine
wrote a book entitled
The Age of Reason.
The Age of Treason
The use of reason
was discarded
by the intellectuals
of the nineteenth century.
Romanticism,
positivism,
pragmatism,
one after another,
became the fashion
in the nineteenth century.
In a book entitled
The Treason of the Intellectuals
Julien Benda,
a French Jew,
says the intellectuals
gave up the search for truth
and consented to become
the paid propagandists
of nationalists
as well as capitalists.
So the age of reason
of the eighteenth century
was followed
by the age of treason
of the nineteenth century.
The Age of Chaos
And we are now
in the age of chaos.
In an age of chaos
people look
for a new order.
Because people are becoming aware
of this lack of order
they would like to be able
to create order
out of chaos.
The time
to create order
out of chaos
is now.
The germ of the present
was in the past
and the germ of the future
is in the present.
The thing to do
is to give up old tricks
and start to play new tricks.
The Age of Order
If we make
the right decisions
in the age of chaos
the effect of those decisions
will be a better order.
The new order
brought about
by right decisions
will be functional,
not acquisitive;
personalist,
not socialist;
communitarian,
not collectivist;
organismic,
not mechanistic.
The thing to do right now
is to create a new society
within the shell of the old
with the philosophy of the new.
which is not a new philosophy
but a very old philosophy.
a philosophy so old
that it looks like new.
True Stories
When I was in Spokane
a Catholic Sister
told me:
“I have a little story
to tell you
and I think
you will like it.
I met an Indian woman
who was carrying
what looked like
a white boy.
I said to her:
‘You don’t mean to tell me
that you married
a white man.’
‘Oh no,’ she said,
‘Just a Frenchman’.”
An Englishman
and an American
were flying over
the Egyptian Soudan.
Under them
was a stretch of houses
four miles long.
The American
asked the Englishman:
“What is the population
of this town?”
“Nine Englishmen,”
answered the Englishman.
A German
owned a fruit farm
in British Columbia.
He and his wife
were considered
as second-class citizens
by the British element.
His wife succeeded
in inducing him
to sell the fruit farm
and go back to Germany.
She could not stand
to be considered inferior
by the British element.
The English think
that they are superior
to the Germans
and the Germans think
they are superior
to the English.
They cannot stand
to be considered
inferiors.
They can give it
but cannot take it.
Let’s Be Fair to the Negroes for Christ’s Sake
The anthropologists say
that the western world
is anthropologically divided
into four kinds of people.
They are:
a) the Nordics,
b) the Alpines,
c) the Mediterraneans,
d) the Negroes.
Anthropologists add
that there is nothing
in science
to prove
that one race
is superior
to another race.
Science cannot prove
that the Nordics
are superior
to another race.
Theologians say
that Christ died
for the redemption
of the Negroes
as well as
the Nordics.
The Nordics
were created
by the same Creator
and redeemed
by the same Redeemer
as the Negroes.
The redeemed Nordics
will enjoy
the beatific vision
in the same Heaven
as the Negroes.
The redeemed Nordics
receive the same Christ
at the altar rail
as the Negroes.
The redeemed Nordics
belong to the same
Mystical Body
as the Negroes.
The Holy Father
has recently selected
African Negro priests
and made them Bishops.
The Negro Bishops
of Africa
have the same powers
as the Nordic Bishops
of Germany.
Nordic Bishops
are all right
for Nordic people
and Negro Bishops
are all right
for Negro people.
The Catholic Church
wants Nordic Bishops
to lead Nordic people
and Negro Bishops
to lead Negro people.
The Catholic Church
does not differentiate
between Nordic Bishops
and Negro Bishops.
The Stuff and the Push
I was in a cafeteria
in Greenwich Village.
Two young fellows
were talking.
One said to the other,
“Your father has the stuff,
but he hasn’t the push.”
And the other said:
“And I have the push,
but not the stuff.”
The father had the stuff,
but he could not push it,
and the son had the push,
but he had nothing to push.
Catholic journalists
have the stuff,
but do not have the push,
and non-Catholic journalists
have the push,
but do not have the stuff.
On American Traits
“I have lived
in all the major dictatorships–
Russia, Italy, Germany.
My experience teaches me
that democracy
with all its faults
is better
than any of these.
My experience teaches me
that the maintenance
of personal freedom
should be
the primary consideration
of every human being.
It is never a choice
between freedom
and a full stomach.
No dictatorship
has given either.”
LOUIS FISHER
At the base
of the American spirit
is the functionalism
of frontier life,
not the acquisitivism
of the Chamber of Commerce.
The American spirit
is characterized
by the love of freedom,
the spirit of initiative
and the will to co-operate.
The American
does not like
to be pushed about
and to be sent
where he does not want
to go.
Even the business man
likes to talk about
the spirit of initiative,
which he calls
free enterprise.
When in America
some one is busy
doing something
for the Common Good
he finds people
willing to co-operate.
Freedom is a duty
more than a right.
Man has a duty
to be intelligent.
Man has a duty
to choose intelligently
between two alternatives.
Man has a duty
to act intelligently,
using pure means
to reach pure aims.
To use impure means
to reach pure aims
is to take the wrong road.
You cannot go
where you want to go
by taking a road
which does not lead you there.
Having pure aims
and using pure means
is making the right use
of freedom.
The spirit of initiative
is what business men call
free enterprise.
A private enterprise
must be carried out
for the common good.
If a private enterprise
is not carried out
for the Common Good
it turns out to be
a public nuisance.
A public nuisance
produces grievances.
Personal grievances
against public nuisances
produces demagogues
who promise to wipe out
public nuisances.
The spirit of initiative
of social-minded people
brings into existence
social institutions
that make for the welfare
of the common people.
When someone
has something
considered by the common man
to be beneficial
to the Common Good
he is admired
by the common man.
The admiration
of unselfish men
who are not afraid
to take the initiative
creates a desire
among the admirers
to climb on the bandwagon
of men of initiative.
They want to be part
of an unselfish movement.
They are willing
to make sacrifices
for the common cause.
So the will to co-operate
is the result
of the daring
of unselfish men
who are not afraid
to take the initiative.
Christianity and Democracy
The Common Good
is not common,
because common sense
does not prevail.
In a good autocracy
the Common Good
is incarnated
in a good autocrat.
In a good aristocracy
the Common Good
is incarnated
in the good aristocrats.
In a good democracy
the Common Good
is incarnated
in the good democrats.
The good democrats
are democrats
with the democratic spirit.
They are the elite
in a democracy.
Jules Beranger
followed Jusserand
as French Ambassador
in Washington.
Beranger was an agnostic
who could not conceive
of a democracy
without a cultural elite.
The elite in a democracy
is imbued
with what we call
the right spirit.
The democratic elite
is the spearhead
of a democratic society.
The democratic elite
is recruited
from all classes
of a democratic society.
The democratic elite
is not moved
by greed for wealth
or greed for power.
It is moved
by clear thinking.
Agnostic intellectuals
lack faith
in Christ the Redeemer
as well as
in God the Omnipotent.
And now
they are losing faith
in the power of man
to pull himself up
by his own bootstraps.
Faith in Christ the Redeemer,
hope in the life to come,
and charity toward all men
are motivating forces
in the fostering
of a democratic elite–
without which
a democratic society
becomes the laughing-stock
of totalitarian societies.
What a fine place
this world would be
if Dualist Humanists
tried to be human
to men.
What a fine place
this world would be
if Personalist Theists
tried to be
their brother’s keeper
as God
wants them to be.
What a fine place
this world would be
if Fundamentalist Protestants
tried to exemplify
the Sermon on the Mount.
What a floe place
this world would be
if Roman Catholics
tried to keep up
with St. Francis of Assisi.