The Lone Star Catholic (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 46, No. 47, Ed. 1 Sunday, March 23, 1958 Page: 1 of 24
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To Calvary with Christ
8
VISITOR
Zhe national Catholic Action weekly
VOL. XLVI
MARCH 23, 1958
NO. 47
2
• 8 , 9
REV. RICHARD GINDER
Science unveils mystery of matter
Helps us to appreciate real presence in Holy Eucharist
REV. JOHN A. O’BRIEN
Magdalen, and the pious women, so
we are only following in their foot-
steps.
One can be sure, too, that after
her Son’s ascension into heaven, the
Blessed Mother went over that hal-
lowed ground again and again, re-
calling the love and the blood that
had been poured out for our salva-
tion.
J
S we enter upon Passiontide
today, the Church veils her images
in purple, perhaps to symbolize the
events of today’s Gospel in which
the Jews wanted to kill Christ. But
He hid Himself, for His time was not
yet at hand. You will also notice
that the Psalm “Judge me, O God”
is omitted at the foot of the altar,
54
Way of the Cross urged during Passiontide
for increase of love, faith and sorrow for sin
SciENCE asks us to believe as literal facts
statements which no amount of reasoning could
have induced previous generations to accept.
What a world of almost infinite potentialities
are locked up in a small particle of matter,
awaiting the skillful hand to release them from
their thralldom! Consider the energy stored up
in a piece of coal smaller than a pea.
Jeans states it as scientific fact that if all
the atomic energy locked up in so tiny a piece
of coal could be released, it would be sufficient
to take the Maurentania, once the largest ship
afloat, across the Atlantic and back again! “If
the energy in a single pound of coal could be
completely utilized, it would be sufficient to
keep the whole British nation going for a fort-
night, domestic fires, factories, trains, power
stations, ships and all.”
Indeed the traditional conception of matter
has been revolutionized by the discoveries of
modern science. “When we compare the universe
as it is now supposed to be,” observes the dis-
tinguished scientist, A. S. Eddington of the
University of Cambridge, “with the universe
as we had ordinarily preconceived it, the most
arresting change is not the rearrangement of
space and time by Einstein but the dissolution
of all that we regard as most solid into tiny
specks floating in void.
“That gives an abrupt jar to those who
The Lone Star Catholic
MAGAZINE SECTION
“Jesus is condemned to death.” The first Way of the Cross statue at
St. Joseph’s Oratory, Montreal, Canada. Photo by H. Armstrong Roberts.
OUR
means of supplementing the liturgy:
Stations of the Cross. We can make
them with the congregation led by
a priest, or we can make them pri-
vately. In that case, there is no spe-
cial method to be followed, no set
prayers to be said. We just move
from station to station and ponder
the mystery depicted. At the end,
we say six Our Father’s, Hail
Mary’s, and Glory Be’s for the in-
tentions of the Holy Father.
Each time we make the Sta-
tions, we gain a plenary indulgence
— we free a soul from purgatory if
we form our intention that way, and
we can gain this indulgence several
times a day, as often as we make
the Stations. If we are interrupted
before we have finished the Sta-
tions, we get a ten-year indulgence
for each completed Station.
You can see that the Church
wants us to make the Stations. She
has immense respect for this devo-
tion. After all, it was our Savior who
made the first Way of the Cross,
together with His mother, St. John,
I
n
think that things are more or less what they
seem. The revelation by modern physics of the
void within the atom is more disturbing than
the revelation by astronomy of the immense
void of interstellar space. The atom is as porous
as the solar system. If we eliminated all the
unfilled space in a man’s body and collected
his protons and electrons into one mass, the man
would be reduced to a speck just visible with
a magnifying glass.”
This means that the human body which we
naively imagine is a solid mass of matter mea-
suring about six feet in height and weighing
about 175 pounds consists in sober scientific
reality chiefly of gaps, crevices and fields of
force, empty save for infinitesimal particles
which, if packed all together, would consti-
tute so small a speck of matter as to be invisi-
ble to the naked eye. This, I hasten to add, is
not a selection from “Alice in Wonderland,” but
a page from one of the universally accepted
texts in modern physics.
These discoveries of modern science shove
back the frontiers of the possible far beyond the
horizon glimpsed by any previous generation.
They open a doorway to a world of almost lim-
itless possibilities; they show, too, what a truly
mysterious thing substance really is. Science to-
day regards protons and electrons as the ulti-
mate material of all the universe; but these are
only names for positive and negative electricity.
And we are forced then to ask, What is elec-
tricity? Science gives no answer.
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together with all Gloria Patri’s.
This is most likely a throwback to
the earliest centuries of the Church
before that Psalm had come into the
Mass and when the Gloria Patri was
unknown.
The Passion of Our Lord should
be the theme of our prayer and
meditation during these coming
weeks. If we follow the liturgy
faithfully, all of these historical
events will come alive for us.
There is, however, an effective
To the scientists and the philosophers of to-
day, the ultimate nature of substance presents
as baffling a mystery as it did to. their predeces-
sors of previous centuries. The investigations of
modern science and the studies of modern phil-
osophers on this problem serve but to reen-
force with new emphasis the conclusion of that
profound thinker of the nineteenth century,
Cardinal Newman. After a lifetime of study
and reflection, he said: “What do I know of
substance and matter? Just as much as the
greatest philosopher; and that is nothing at all.”
Last week we offered an analogy between
the change of elements effected by Almighty
God through the words of consecration pronounc-
ed by His ambassador, and the kind of transub-
stantiation effected by the physicist in his lab-
oratory, with a view of showing the rashness
of those who would prematurely close the door
to such occurrences on the grounds of stark im-
possibility. May we ask our non-Catholic read-
ers to consider one further analogy which we
consider not less striking?
During the course of a chemistry lecture in
a public high school some years ago, the in-
structors was stressing the permanence and im-
mutability of the chemical elements — which
incidentally we have just seen are now thorough-
ly discarded by the leaders in modern science.
“You can change the form and the appear-
ances of the elements through various combi-
nations,” said the instructor, “but you can never
change their nature as distinct and immutable
elements.” Then he digressed from his lecture.
“Catholics,” he continued, “have a curious doc-
trine known as the Eucharist. They believe that
bread and wine are changed into the body and
blood of the Lord. But this is impossible. It
is contrary to the laws of chemistry. Bread always
remains bread and wine remains wine. They can-
not be changed into (Continued on page 9)
SUNDAY
F ROM the earliest times,
Christians journeyed to the Holy
Land — to Bethlehem, Nazareth,
and Calvary. In the course of time,
the authorities there erected pic-
tures along the half-mile from Pi-
late’s house to Calvary, commemor-
ating the mysteries that occurred
during that first sad journey. As
they walked along the way, the pil-
grims would pause at each picture
and study the mystery represented.
They were trying, in a sense, to ful-
fill Our Lord’s injunction: “If any
man will come after Me, let him
deny himself, (Continued on page 9)
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Francis, Dale. The Lone Star Catholic (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 46, No. 47, Ed. 1 Sunday, March 23, 1958, newspaper, March 23, 1958; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1528492/m1/1/: accessed July 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting St. Edward’s University.