The Church and Persecution

from 'Crossways' by +Abp. Fulton J. Sheen, p. 33, Image Books. c. 1967.

     Be not cast down because the persecutors of religion, having laid the Church, like its Founder, in the tomb, utter the boast: "Behold the place where we laid it."  The law of progress of the Church is the reverse of the law of progress of the world.  We are most progressive when we are most hated.

     Whence shall come our hope for the Church?  It will not come from the world, for if the world loved the Church, the Church would be no salvation to the world.  If it were not hated, it would be weak.  It is only because the fires of its Truth are blinding evil eyes and convicting them of sin and judgment, that the world vainly tried to put them out.  And though the world is tearing up all the photographs and blueprints of a society and a family based on the moral law of God, be not disheartened.  The Church has kept the negatives.