Given from the Catholic Broadcasting Station 2SM Sydney Australia
Choose a topic from Vol 4:
The most constructive and practical problem of all, not only now but for the future, is that of restoring religion in the lives of men. Aware of the necessity of religion, multitudes have never been less aware of how to find it. Yet they cannot go on with a purposeless existence.
And those thus affected have been left utterly discontented. But remember that the denial of religion came only after men had forsaken it in practice. If men ignore moral and spiritual values, living as if they were mere animals - high-grade ones if you wish, but still mere animals - then they will soon try to persuade themselves that they are only animals. That saves them from self-reproach which would arise from the thought that something better is expected of them. A sense of guilt is uncomfortable, and as long as a man retains any religious belief his delinquencies leave a sense of guilt. To have the delinquencies without the sense of guilt men denied religious belief and responsibility to God. But it doesn't really work. And as men get tired at being animals in the jungle they will turn back to God and religion. It's better to turn back sooner than later.
Why are you worried instead of contented without religion? For the rest, the religious man will tell you that our fulfillment of our religious duties is as much included in the way God intends this universe to be run as our breathing or taking our meals.
God hasn't got a job. We have the job. God has rights. And all the rights are on God's side; all the duties on ours. But you talk as if you were on the same level as God-either dragging Him down to your own level on a fellow-worker basis, or lifting yourself to His level as if you too were Almighty God.
Genuine religion, in thought and in practice, is not merely religious dreaming. Nor, without religion, will people be happier. Their own disappointments, the sight of the suffering of others, the protests of conscience, and the thought of death putting an end to all their earthly plans compel the conviction that this world is not enough, that man is made for more than it can offer, and that religion alone can provide the answer to the whole problem of life.
Whatever other religions have imagined God to be, I deny that the God who has revealed Himself in the Christian religion is any merely imaginary God. And it is wisdom itself to follow the advice of Christ, seeking first the kingdom of God and of His justice, to whatever other lesser interests we may also devote some of our attention.
"THAT CATHOLIC CHURCH
A Radio Analysis"
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