Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion [1908]

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908


FIFTY-FIRST OBJECTION. ONE OUGHT NOT TO BE A BIGOT.

Answer. Certainly one ought not to be a bigot! Who says you should? Do those who rant most about bigotry really know what bigotry is? If so, it would be well to use the knowledge for their own improvement; for generally they are the most intensely bigoted bigots. They are so deeply immersed in their own little puddle of bigotry that they cannot see a whole ocean of fairness beyond them.

Bigotry is not religion, it is the abuse of it.

The defects of persons who are guilty of that abuse, generally from ignorance, ought not to be imputed to Religion.

Religion is abused, like every good thing in the world. We must reject the abuse, and retain the use. We must be pious, but we must not be bigots. God loves one, but He does not love the other. He desires to behold in our hearts devotion, that is, devotedness to His service, devotedness to the duties which He imposes, and love of His commandments; but He does not desire to see bigotry reigning in them, that is to say, those enthusiastic, those narrow-minded or superstitiously religious practices, which often replace the chief object by the accessories, and substitute the means for the end.

Nevertheless, these abuses of religion are not so universal or so heinous as they are generally said to be.

Generally speaking, they do not injure any one, and are only hurtful to those who commit them. Those who fall into these pitiable mistakes are unenlightened persons (usually women, for men are less liable to them), who surround and fatigue themselves with numerous external forms and practices of devotion, good in themselves, but carried to too great a length; who assume a certain strangeness of manner; who torment their consciences in the fear of doing wrong; and who become excited and angry, through misguided zeal, when it would be more prudent and wise to remain silent, etc.

This is bigotry. It is a great defect, but I should be glad to think there were no worse ones here on earth! Those who inveigh so loudly against bigotry, and are indignant at the absurdities it gives rise to, are too often persons who remind one of the criminal, who, sentenced to perpetual hard labor for a frightful murder he had committed, was indignant at having given him for his prison companion a thief!

They are often more worthy of censure than those whom they attack.

Their profligacy, bad conduct, neglect of the most sacred duties, religious ignorance, licentious conversation, evil example, etc., etc., are not these abuses? Are they not crimes?

Their whole life is an abuse; and the abuse of devotion is, I venture to say, the only one they never commit. Would it not be as well to exchange this one for the others, I ask?

Do not, then, be a bigot, but a Christian, and a good Christian. Love God, serve Him faithfully, observe all His commandments; fulfil all your duties, so as to be pleasing in the eyes of God, and listen with docility to the teaching of the ministers of Jesus Christ.

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908



FIFTY-SECOND OBJECTION. A CHRISTIAN LIFE IS TOO TIRESOME. IT IS TOO MELANCHOLY. TO DEPRIVE ONESELF OF EVERY THING, BE AFRAID OF EVERY THING, WHAT A LIFE!

Answer. Too tiresome, eh? What do you know about a Christian life? Gently, gently, my good friend! Do not be frightened before you are hurt. A Christian life does not oblige you to "deprive yourself of every thing, and be afraid of every thing." You exaggerate the thing; if the Gospel is a yoke, our Lord Jesus Christ, who imposed it on us, declared Himself that "this yoke is sweet, and this burden light."

You know, I dare say, some pious Christians? Do they look so very depressed, so very gloomy or unhappy?

All those whom I know, on the contrary, have a peculiar expression of peacefulness and joy on their countenances; the very sight of them is pleasant.

I do not, indeed, deny, that to be a really good Christian, it is necessary to keep strict watch over oneself, and shun certain evil or dangerous pleasures. I do not deny that the struggle of the will against evil passions is often a difficult one.

But find, if you can, a condition without sacrifices or struggles! To learn your trade, to make your living, must you not give yourself trouble, and a great deal of trouble?

Do not even our amusements compel us to impose some sacrifices on ourselves?

And yet we require that the chief, the most important, the only needful thing, namely, the work of our eternal salvation, should cost nothing! It is impossible.

The world beholds Christians praying, doing penance, imposing restraints on themselves, giving of their means to the poor, stifling their passions, depriving themselves of sensual gratifications, and doing such and such things which make this life rigorous and disagreeable in their eyes.

But this is only the outer rind. Look within, and you will see a heart generous and full of joy, which renders easy, even agreeable, these sacrifices so difficult in appearance.

A good son, who deprives himself of something for his mother's sake, is he not happy in his self-imposed privations?

Christian piety changes into sweetness what is bitter in the practice of duty; like the vital forces of plant life which change into honey some of the bitter juices which they extract from the earth.

Try, and you will find it so. We must experience these things, words cannot make them understood by those who have not experience.

For this, you have but to carry back your thoughts to the days of your childhood. There are few men who have not felt the happiness of the love of God at the great and solemn moment of their first communion. You were happy then! and why? Because you were pure and innocent, more given to good things; in a word, because you were a Christian.

Be one again, and you will be happy again. The God of your childhood is not changed, as you, alas! are; He still loves you, and awaits the return of the prodigal son. Be not afraid of Him; He is the good Saviour, the refuge of repentant sinners. "Never," he has said to us, "will I reject him that cometh to me."

Take this gentle and light yoke of a Christian life, and you will find rest, peace of mind, true joy in this world, and after your death eternal joy in Paradise.

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908


FIFTY-THIRD OBJECTION. I AM NOT WORTHY TO APPROACH THE SACRAMENTS: WE OUGHT NOT TO ABUSE HOLY THINGS.

Answer. True, indeed, you are not worthy, but will you become worthy by not approaching? No, we should not refuse the grace of the Sacraments, nor abuse it, but we should use it.

Next to sacrilege, the greatest insult we can offer to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is neglect of it.

There are two kinds of persons who should approach the Sacraments: the pious who desire to persevere in good; and the bad who desire to become good.

In abstaining from them, you fly from life. To heat water again, do you take it away from the fire? To cure a malady, do you leave off the remedy?

The Sacraments are like remedies to the sick. Approach them, then, not because you are worthy (no one is worthy of God), but to become less unworthy; not because you are strong, but to heal your weakness.

Go to Jesus Christ; without Him you cannot be saved. Go and seek Him where He is to be found; in confession, by which He purifies His temple of your heart; in the Holy Communion, where He enters in person into that dwelling which He has purified.

Do all that depends on yourself, and fear not. Only have a willing heart; you will always return better from it.