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CT> Dotre Dame Scholastic ^01 5Ce-9VA51 •5£ niPGR- \/IC1"VRV/S - •VIV£" 9\/ASI- CRAS- IMOieiTVRXj r5- VOL XXXIX. NOTRE DAME, INDIANA , MAY 12 , 1906. No. 29. The Sorin Monoment 482 NOTRn DAME SCHOLASTIC. said to them: "Gentlemen, it would IDC a Father Sorin. mockery to erect a statue to Father Mathew as long as we are neglecting his work. Go and start again Father Mathew's N this festival of the Finding work all over Ireland; that will be the of the Holy Cross, w^e are best centennial monument to his memory." gathered here in the presence The logic of this is unanswerable. Not of oiiir Divine Lord to do for the w^orld would we be guilty of such honor to Father Sorin We all an inconsistency. Here, then, at Father feel that it is a sacred duty Sorin's feet we will this morning take to to render all possible honor to the memory heart, more lovingly and earnestly than of such a man that so the influence of the ever before, that lesson of the Holj- Cross qualities which made him great may not which his whole life was spent in teaching. cease to act upon the generations that And, in the first place, it is a noteworthj^ follow him. The thirteen A^ears that have fact that the lesson." of the Cross was elapsed since his death, far irom dimming not entirely of his own choosing. It w^as our remembrance of him, have but served manifestly given to him and his associates to set forth in clearer light the splendid by the Providence of our Lord. For character w^hich, during the fifty-two years Providence gave them as the cradle of their of his priestly life and labors in America, Orderythe village of Holy Cross, a suburb rendered him colossal among his fellowmen. of Mans in France; and it was the simple It would be an injustice, not only to him peasantry among whom they first labored but to the Providence that made him what who called them Priests of the Holy Cross. he was, to permit such a life-example to Thus it was not by their choice but by pass into oblivion. In the spirit, -therefore, Providence that the title of the Holy Cross of dutifulness toward Providence, as well was given them as the name of their Con as toward Father Sorin and those who gregation, and the lesson of the Holy Cross are thankful, nay, proud, to be his disciples, as the perpetual theme of their teaching. we to-day -dedicate this statue to his Nor w^as it by his own choice, but by the memory. \ Providence of God, that Father Sorin's But it requires no stretch of imagination first Mass in America was offered up on to hear coming to us from the spirit world the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy the echo of that w^ell-known voice, exclaim Cross. His own intensely spiritual nature, ing: "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but ever sensitive to the touch of the divine, to Thy name give glory!" And w^hen w^e recognized clearly in these facts the point answer that it is for the glory of God that ing of the finger of God. His soul was filled we give glory to him, he replies, with a with the conviction that the lesson of the vehemence like to that of St. Paul: "God Cross of Christ was the lesson which he forbid that I should glory save in the Cross and his Order had to learn for their own of our Lord Jesus Christ!" And he goes sanctification, and which it was their special on to say to us: "My life is spent in teach duty to teach the world, for the world's ing the lesson of the Holy Cross. Teach greatest good. Hence during all his life, that now in my stead, yea, in= my name. his every word add act seemed to breathe Teach it now, and teach it always; for it that declaration of the great Apostle: "I is the only wisdom," consider myself to know nothing among Father Sorin is right. When Archbishop you but Christ Jesus and Him crucified." Walsh of Dublin was waited on by a com Some, remembering his chivalrous devoted- mittee in regard to the erection of a ness to our Blessed Ladj'-, may be prone to centennial statue to Father Mathew, the think that love for her was the special Apostle of Temperance, the Archbishop inspiration and lesson of his life. But let us call to mind that, word of St. John, which * Sermon preached by the" Most Rev. John J. Keane, D. D., Archbishop of Dubuque, on the occasion of Father Sorin nevtr forgot: "There stood the unveiling of the Sorin Monument, Thursda3% by the Cross of Jesus His Mother;" and Ma3' 3,.190'6. we see at once how the two thoughts v\rere NOTRE DAME SCHOLASTIC. 483 for him inseparable, and that what most ment to God, in the name of humanity, of all rendered his heart so tenderly devoted which thus acknowledges that it had chosen to Mar3', was that she stood nearest of all the things of this life, the things of earth, to the Cross of Jesus. We look up to him instead of God, and that it repents of then, and ask him to help us understand just the folly. That death He accepts and offers what the lesson of the Cross signifies, and up as an act of supreme love to humanity. what is its practical import for us and for Mankind were, says the poet, like "swine our generation. And he answers again in of Epicurus' pigstj^" seeing in one another the words of St. Paul: "We preach Christ only rivals and enemies; but Christ crucified crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumbling- proves the almost infinite worth and block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness; lovableness of humanity. That death He but unto them that are called, both Jews accepts as the penance for sin, when " God and Greeks, Christ the power of God and laid on Him the iniquities of us all." But the wdsdom of God. For the foolishness of He "lays down His life that He may take of God is wiser than men and the weakness it up again," flinging off the death of of God is stronger than men." iniquity, of self-seeking, of self-indulgence "Here, then," he saj'-s to us, "is the lesson and heartlessness, to take up, in the name w^hich 3^ou must try .to fathom, and to of all humanity, that new life which alone impress on the mind of your age, and espe is trulv- life, the life animated by those two cially of 3^our countr}'-,—the lesson that. supreme loves—^love of God and love of Christ crucified is the wisdom of God and humanity. In that death to evil and that the power of God; that in vain will the new^ life of love, is found the wisdom of intellect of your age and country seek God. and the power of God. wisdom elsewhere than in Christ crucified, Does not a glance at history show us that and in vain will its boundless energies seek this is the truth, that this is the summing power elsewhere; that the achievements up of all the philosophy of humanity ? For both of the intellect and of the energies of ages before our Lord taught that won the future will be great and beneficent drous lesson, mankind had been crying out and glorious, just in proportion as they despairingly: " Give me understanding that are inspired and moved and guided and I may^ know w^hat I am, and whence I come, controlled by Christ crucified."- and whither I am going, and wherefore I Turn we then to our blessed Lord, and am here, and what is expected of me during ask Him to unravel to us this mystery, to my brief span of j-ears!" teach us what is the inner meaning of this The philosophies, one after another, had assertion, that Christ crucified is the wis tried to answer these mighty questions of dom of God and the power of God unto humanit3^ And Cicero, reviewing them all, mankind. concludes hy saying: "It would take a god And our divine Lord answers us: "I lay to tell us which of these things is true, or down My life for My sheep. Therefore, doth whether anj^ of them is true;" and beneath the Father love Me, because I la^^ down My the written words we read the unwritten life that I may take it again. No man thought—"if indeed there be a god." Thus taketh it away from Me; but I lay it down life seemed to be a poor, struggling thing, of Myself; and I have power to lay it flung out of darkness, to be again soon down, and I have power to take it up swallowed up in darkness. No wonder then again." that the Epicureans ^exclaimed: "Let us Here then is what is meant by Christ squeeze out of life what we can of pleasure crucified. It means the voluntar}^ accept and of profit;" and no wonder that the ance of death b}-^ Him over whom death Stoics growled: " And then fling it back in had no dominion. That death He accepts the face of the gods, if there be any gods!" and offers up in His capacity as the Good And while it was thits with human Shepherd,—as the Head and Guide and thinking, so also was it with human Chief of mankind, as "the Second Adam." striving &nd endeavour.