Possessing the truth prepares the faithful for Doomsday
The faithful can be shielded from end-times deception by two securities: Christ’s forewarning, and the Church’s unextinguishable light across all ages – even if more or less bright at times.
The faithful can be shielded from end-times deception by two securities: Christ’s forewarning, and the Church’s unextinguishable light across all ages – even if more or less bright at times.
Editor’s Notes
In this part, Fr Coleridge tells us…
How the faithful are protected from false prophets by internal conviction and the Church’s visible unity.
That possession of truth satisfies the mind so completely that error finds no foothold within.
Why Christ’s presence shines as openly as lightning, making claims of hidden Messiahs plainly false.
He shows us that humble faith brings contentment which is itself a shield against deception.
For more context, see Part I.
We have addressed some of the reasons for this below:
The Doom of the World
Passiontide—Part I
Chapter XIV
St. Matt. xxiv. 29–36; St. Mark xiii. 24–34; St. Luke xxi. 25, 26;
Story of the Gospels, § 144, 5.
Burns and Oates, 1889
Sung on the First Sunday of Advent
Two securities for Christians
Our minds should be so fully possessed by intelligent conviction of the truth which we believe that we have no need of the former process. All the false evidences do not touch us, because we have a clear hold of the truth and are satisfied with it. There cannot be two Christs, two Gods, two revelations, two ways of salvation.
‘There is one Body, one Spirit, one God, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all.’
And as a matter of fact, this possession of the truth is enough, and is the ordinary safeguard of the faithful against error.
The children of the Church have no obligation to examine for themselves the doctrines or the teachers of the day, new philosophies, new theories of the world, religion, and the like. The great majority of Christians live in peace under the guidance of the Church, and feel no necessity for examination of the details of her doctrine, knowing that her faithfulness to her office in teaching them is guaranteed by our Lord’s own promise.
Persons in such a disposition are not kept from listening to delusions simply by the authority of a command like that expressed in the text, ‘Go not after them, nor follow them.’
If they had no satisfaction in the truths they possess, no enjoyment, no repose, they might be caught by the attractiveness of novelty, and curiosity might lead them to the foolish and incautious examination of doctrines which are far above them, and which ought to be received with rejoicing faith.
But by the mercy of God it is with Catholics, to some extent, as our Lord said to the Samaritan woman, ‘We adore that which we know.’ Her fellow-townsmen told her, after our Lord had been with them but two days, ‘We now believe not for thy saying, for we ourselves have heard Him, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.’1 Our faith rests on the witness of the Church, but the truth to which she witnesses feeds and satisfies and enriches and elevates and enlarges our minds.
Satisfaction in possessing the truth
The mind of man cannot live without truth. It is perpetually gnawed by what a modern writer has called…
‘The hungry thought, which must be fed.’
Falsehood can never satisfy it—and this is the history of the immense and restless curiosity by which the minds of men outside the Church are continually devoured.
The children of the Church are not a prey to this insatiable curiosity. Nothing but truth can appease the craving of the mind, but truth can, and when truth is received by faith, we have a light of God within to keep quiet the flutterings of curiosity, and the mind is at peace. It is the mercy of God which makes the act of faith the same in the learned as in the unlearned, in the man of highest genius and culture as in the most unlettered peasant and child.
And the truths of faith are not only true, they bring with them an assurance of their truth which nothing else possesses, but they are also rich and satisfying and sweet and consoling. The more men live in and on them, the more are their minds freed from the slavery of restlessness and uncertainty, and rise to the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
A mind perpetually occupied on heavenly things has no room for earthly. A mind fed on the pure contemplations of virgin souls has no room for images of defilement. A mind filled with charity, the love of God, and of its neighbour, has no room for anger, resentment, suspicion, and other evil passions. So a mind habitually fed on the truths of the Christian religion has no room for the fantastic dreams of false creeds or false prophets.
It is thus a kind of disloyalty for the children of truth to entertain the sophistries of error, which ought to fall off from the minds of Christians without tainting them. The security which is thus furnished against the cries, ‘Lo here, lo there,’ is internal, and is part of the contentment which is the reward and the fruit of humble faith. As St. Paul says, ‘We know whom we have believed,’ or trusted.
Double image of the lightning
But there is another and external security, in the world-wide Church, always the same, always one in charity and in faith. And it seems to be this that our Lord alludes to when He says that the great signs and wonders wrought by the false prophets might seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. For the elect are His chosen children, and their union with Him is so perfect in mind as well as in heart, that no errors can seduce them, and in the second place, they will have so firm a grasp on the truth secured by their loyalty to the Church, as to be again secured by that against all seduction.
It has been already said that the image of the lightning seems to contain two features.2 One feature is the extreme brilliancy of the lightning, which is seen at once everywhere. The other is the suddenness of the flash, which startles everyone.
There are also two senses to the Greek word which we translate ‘coming,’ when we speak of our Lord’s coming at the end of the world, and at other times. The one, and the etymological sense, is what answers to our English word ‘presence,’ and the other answers to the word ‘coming,’ or becoming present.
Thus if the lightning flash were permanent as well as brilliant, it would answer to the presence of our Lord in the Church always, and His coming at any particular time, as at the Last Day, would answer to the lightning flash breaking in for a moment upon the darkness. It may perhaps be understood in this passage in both senses, as has been said before. In any case this interpretation represents a signal truth.
Catholics are secured against the delusions which our Lord foretells by the fact that they live habitually in the light of the Church, which shines from ‘one end of heaven to the other.’ And when our Lord does really come, His coming will be as manifest and unmistakeable as the lightning flash. Men do not say, ‘Lo, here, or Lo, there,’ of a light which everyone can see and which no one can help seeing.
The Doom of the World
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St. John iv. 42.
The Preaching of the Cross, Vol. III, p 84.
Blessings and appreciation from Sydney Australia.