The Smoke of Satan by Philip F. Lawler

Author:Philip F. Lawler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: TAN Books

CHAPTER 6

A Patrimony Squandered

When I first visited Rome and entered St. Peter’s basilica, I was overwhelmed by two feelings, which hit me in quick succession. The first sensation was simple awe. The enormous scale of the Vatican basilica, the beauty of the architecture and the statuary, the sense of history embodied in structure, are all overwhelming, even to someone who has seen many pictures of the place. I was staggered.

As I regained my bearings, a second sensation hit me. Standing there just inside the door, at the gigantic yet graceful holy-water font, looking toward the Altar of Confession and the Bernini baldachin, I found myself thinking, with a burst of pride that caught me by surprise, “This is all mine!”

Not only mine, of course. The magnificent architecture of St. Peter’s, its history and heritage, belongs to every Catholic as part of an immense patrimony bequeathed to us by our forebears in the Faith. The riches of the Faith form a priceless heritage to be shared by every Catholic. We are heirs to a great legacy, which we are obligated, as good stewards, to pass along to our children and their children. But it is also possible to squander a great legacy and so leave our children in poverty.

Christian civilization, G. K. Chesterton wrote, is a sort of “democracy of the dead.” Everyone has a hand in making decisions, including the people long dead, whose actions have helped to frame the choices that we make today. One might also speak about an “economy of the dead,” because what we own today, we owe in large part to the work of our ancestors. We can build on the capital they accumulated, enrich it, and hand it on to future generations with its value enhanced. Or we can fritter it away and leave our children the poorer for our sloth.

On a visit to Rome, one eventually leaves St. Peter’s basilica and moves on to visit the Vatican Museums, to see some of the treasures of other civilizations. Moving through the Etruscan collection, or viewing the statues inspired by Greek mythology, one has a very different response. The artworks are beautiful, but the cultures that produced them are gone. They are memories of the past, not part of a living tradition.

Now visit the catacombs of Rome and think about the persecuted Christians who took refuge there. They are not merely historical figures for us; they are our brothers and sisters. They are the ones who have “gone before us marked with the sign of faith;” they are the martyrs we recall at every Mass, on whose prayerful help we rely to this day. They are our benefactors, whose donations—often paid in blood—support our current apostolic work.

Since we rely on the help of our fathers in faith, it is fair to say that we owe them a debt. In the Christian economy, however, we cannot satisfy the debt by repaying them. We meet our obligation by passing along the legacy of faith—enriched, ideally, but at least safely preserved—to future generations.

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