St. Alphonsus Exhortation to Catholics Against Heretics
(Taken from: The History of Heresies, 1847, pg. 352.)
EXHORTATION TO CATHOLICS.
DEAR READER Leave heretics in their wilful blindness I mean wilful when
they wish to live deceived and pay no attention to the fallacies by
which they would deceive you. Hold on by the sure and firm anchor of the
Catholic Church, through which God has promised to teach us the true
faith. We should place all our hope of eternal salvation in the mercy of
God and the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour, but still we should
co-operate, our selves, by the observance of the Divine Commandments,
and the practice of virtue, and not follow the opinion of the
Innovators, who say that faith alone in the merits of Jesus Christ will
save us, without works; that God is the author both of all the good and
all the evil we do; that salvation or damnation has been decreed for us
from all eternity, and, consequently, we can do nothing to obtain the
one or avoid the other. God tells us that he wishes all to be saved, and
gives to all grace to obtain eternal salvation; he has promised to
listen to those who pray to him, so that if we are lost, it is solely
through our own fault. He also tells us that if we are saved it must be
by those means of salvation which he has given us, the fulfilment of his
holy law, the Sacraments by which the merits of Christ are communicated
to us, prayer, by which we obtain the grace we stand in need of; and
this is the order of the decree of God’s predestination or reprobation,
to give eternal life to those who correspond to his grace, and to punish
those who despise it.
The devil always strives to deceive heretics, by suggesting to them that
they can be saved in their belief. This was what Theodore Beza said to
St. Francis de Sales, when hard pressed by him on the importance of
salvation : " I hope to be saved in my own religion." Unhappy hope !
which only keeps them in error here, and exposes them to eternal
perdition hereafter, when the error cannot be remedied, I think the
danger of eternal perdition, by dying separated from the Church, should
be a sufficient motive to onvert every heretic. It was this that made
Henry IV. forsake Calvinism, and become a Catholic. He assembled a
conference of Catholics and Calvinists, and after listening for a time
to their arguments, he asked the Calvinistic Doctors if it was possible a
person could be saved in the Catholic faith; they answered that it was;
" then, said the king, if the faith of the Roman Church secures
salvation, and the Reformed faith is at least doubtful, I will take the
safe side, and become a Catholic."
All the misfortunes of unbelievers spring from too great an attachment
to the things of this life. This sickness of heart weakens and darkens
the understanding, and leads many to eternal ruin. If they would try to
heal their hearts by purging them of their vices, they would soon
receive light, which would show them the necessity of joining the
Catholic Church, where alone is salvation. My dear Catholics, let us
thank the Divine goodness, who, among so many infidels and heretics has
given us the grace to be born and live in the bosom of the Holy Roman
Catholic Church, and let us take heed and not be ungrateful for so great
a benefit. Let us take care and correspond to the Divine Grace, for if
we should be lost (which God forbid), this very benefit of Grace
conferred on us would be one of our greatest torments in hell.
No comments:
Post a Comment