"Dominus Jesus": Christ Preached in Any Way a Cause of Joy

What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.

PHILIPPIANS 1:18

THE GREAT HEAD OF THE CHURCH has two chief ways of spreading the knowledge of the faith—the preaching of His pastors, and the contradiction of the world. And this seems to be the plain meaning of St. Paul. Some preached Christ out of envy of the Apostles, and in strife against them; in "contention" and contradiction, or by pretended and rival commission from Christ Himself. These were gainsayers. Others preached "of good will" and in truth, as His true pastors and their brethren. Both were united in one work, that is, in making Christ's name rise more loudly above the din and turmoil of the world. The truth of the Gospel was heard in articulate and thrilling tones through all the noise and uproar of Rome. The enemies of the Gospel helped to fill the forum, the circus, and the palace of the Cæsars with the unwelcome "tidings of good." And in all this the Apostle rejoiced. In his bonds, and in the deep prison underneath the rock, his heart beat gladly at the thought that even enemies were preachers of Christ's name, and that gainsayers were evangelists.

Such is the manifold wisdom of God. "Surely," when the enmity of man preaches the cross of Christ, "the wrath of man shall praise Thee." The wise and the incredulous, the scorner and the fearful, the envious and the contentious, were all one in persecuting the holy Name; but He that sitteth in heaven laughed them to scorn. He poured upon them, as it were, the spirit of prophecy, and made them publish abroad the Name they were striving to destroy.

We see here a great law of Christ's providence over His Church. He furthers His own ends, not by affirmations only, but by negations; by faith and by unbelief, by truth and by heresy, by unity and by schism. It is a transcendent and intricate mystery, far beyond our intelligence. All things conspire to His purpose, and His will ruleth over all; not, it may be, to the purpose we imagine for Him, nor to our idea of His will, but to His own, not as yet revealed. These are thoughts very full of comfort in the present state of the Church on earth.

Besides the contention and strife of which St. Paul speaks, we have now a trial of a more perplexing kind. I mean, the multiplication of Christian sects, shading off almost into agreement with the Catholic faith; and, more than all, division and opposition in the Church itself. What, then, may we believe, would St. Paul have said at the sight of Christendom as we see it now? Would he have said, "Notwithstanding, every way Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice?" Certainly he would have rebuked us, "even weeping," for our heresies and schisms, for our bitter and irreconcilable tempers. He would have even desired to be anathema, "accursed from Christ," ¹ that the East and the West might again be one, and the West united in itself. He would have been "ready to spend and be spent," that all sects which have issued from the Church might be brought home again to its altars, and only enemies of the cross of Christ cast out. He would have condemned all separations, sects, and schisms, with a keen and indignant sorrow. But the question comes back again, Would he still have rejoiced that, though perfect unity in truth and love were impossible, yet "every way Christ is preached?" Would the publication of truth even in contention, strife, rivalry, and pretence, have given him cause of joy? Would he have said, "Rather so...