
Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
NATIONS do not have eternal souls. Whole societies don’t go to heaven or hell. Then how can it be that social organisms have any spiritual obligations whatsoever?
The following dialogue between a hypothetical teacher and student, taken from The Social Rights of Our Divine Lord Jesus Christ the King by the Rev. Denis Fahey, D.D., is a most logical and lucid explanation for why the modern notion that religion is purely an individual matter is fatally wrong. This is a great little book, available in its entirety online. Here is Chapter I and part of Chapter II.
Chapter I: The Supreme Authority of God Over All Society
T. You know, of course, the first articles of the Apostles’ Creed. “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.” The Church expresses the same truth in the Creed at Mass. ” I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages.”
S. Yes, but what do you mean by the words “Creator (Maker) of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible”?
T. By those words I mean that everything that exists other than God has been made by God, and that all things visible and invisible have been created by Him.
S. What distinction do you make between visible and invisible things?
T. On the one hand, there are things which fall under the sense of sight, of hearing, or of the other senses, which are in some way tangible: these are the visible things. There are, on the other hand, things which really exist, of which one can have knowledge, but which cannot be perceived by the senses.
S. Would you kindly give some examples of invisible things.
T. The angels, the human soul, human thought and will, human power and authority—these are all examples of invisible things.
S. But is not human society also an invisible thing? Read More »