News Item: : Let us Turn to St. Thomas More
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Sunday 16 November 2014 - 12:43:35

G.K. Chesterton wrote that St. Thomas More was becoming more important than at any moment since his martyrdom. He added that More's importance would increase further around a century later. As with so many other themes, time has proved the accuracy of Chesterton's foresight.

Closer to our own time, in 1961 to be exact, Fr. Germain Marc'hadour, one of the most widely respected scholars of St. Thomas More, wrote a similarly insightful article. There follows an extract which readers may find helpful today:-

'It may be that the near future will face all of us with the problem of harmonizing, or simply reconciling, our loyalty to Ceasar with our loyalty to God... Ceasar, moreover, is no longer a monarch; he is a cabinet, or a party... he is public opinion, which shapes - and is shaped by - the newspapers, the broadcasts, the schools...

If we may bring a few examples, there are today fields of conduct, such as divorce, sexual behaviour and education, the use of artificial contraceptives, abortion, mercy-killing, nationalization, film censorship, and a few more, in which a Catholic, especially if he is a lawyer, a doctor, a nurse, or a teacher, will find himself alone against practically everyone else in his profession...

As in penal days, the Catholic will sometimes be alone of his species in the whole street... He will even find fellow Catholics ready to taunt him... In extreme cases fidelity to the doctrine of Mother Church will mean worse than corporal death: it will alienate from a man the trust and esteem of the people he likes, or even loves, best... The prospect of this social disqualification, of this civic annihiliation so to speak, is as strong and effective a pressure as the old forms of physical duress... thousands will apostasize simply because they see no rational justification for the Church's position on a number of points, and they have not enough faith, on the other hand, to cling to Her through sheer obedience...

... If ever we lack wisdom to decide where the golden measure of Christian obedience lies, or grace and energy to carry out its implications when we are bleakly isolated in a hostile environment, let us turn to St. Thomas More. The obedience of one man redeems the sins of many. The fervent intercession of one saint can remedy the sickly reluctance of many tepid Christians. He is a dangerous patron and a dangerous friend, ''a nuisance of a saint,'' who never believed in being carried to Heaven on a featherbed. He will not teach us an easy way, but he will show us where we can find the comfort we need to suffer our freely accepted discomforts.'

We hope these words provide encouragement to our readers as we each join in the weekly celebration of Christ's Resurrection on this Sunday. St. Thomas More - Pray for us! 

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