Father John Conoley Preaches Dedicatory Sermon; Many Attend

NEW CATHOLIC CHURCH IN SPRINGFIELD DEDICATED

FATHER JOHN CONOLEY PREACHES DEDICATORY SERMON; MANY ATTEND

RAW, RAINY WEATHER FAILS TO CUT DOWN ATTENDANCE AT OPENING SERVICES

IMPRESSIVE CEREMONY ATTENDS DEDICATION

Divinity of Christ is Subject of Discourse By Father Conoley; Pontifical Blessing.

Despite the inclement weather throngs gathered for the impressive ceremonies which marked the dedication of the church of the Holy Rosary by Rt. Rev. Patrick Barry, bishop Florida, yesterday afternoon. The day broke gloomy and with rain in the air with occasional glimpses of the sun during the morning. However, the morning services were crowded and the receiving of their first communion by sixty children of the parish at the hands of Bishop Barry at the 8 o’clock was very impressive.

High mass was sung by Father William J. Mullally of Daytona at 10 o’clock with special music arranged for this occasion by Mrs. James J Moran, leader of the choir. Father Mullally is one of the younger priests of the diocese and himself a talented singer.

Promptly at 3:30 in the afternoon, Bishop Barry accompanied visiting priests with the altar boys from the church at St. Paul and the Holy Rosary, one hundred in number, approached the entrance of the church. Robed in the vestments of his office and carrying his crosier, Bishop Barry made an impressive appearance as he paused at the entrance to the edifice surrounded by the clergy.

Reading the ritual prescribed by the church for the occasion, the bishop showed deep emotion as he invoked the divine blessing upon the new church. Turning, the procession with the local council of Knights of Columbus acting as a body guard marched around the entire outside of the church with the bishop reading the service and blessing the church. On entering the church the choir greeted the procession singing the hymn “Queen of the Holy Rosary.” Proceeding down the main aisle the clergy entered the sanctuary of the church while the bishop and his assistant paused as the at the foot of the altar. The Litany of the saints was read by Father Mullally who served as assistant to the bishop and was answered by the clergy in the sanctuary. Following the reading of the litany the procession again formed and the blessing of the

[editorial mistake. Duplicate of a line from the sermon below] sign of insincerity or selflessness.

This concluded the services of dedication. The Veni-Creator was sung by W. B. Stephen, followed by a sermon by Father John F. Connolly, D. D.

Fr. Connolly’s Sermon.

My Lord Right Reverend and Reverend fathers, my brethren:

The Divinity of Christ may be proved from the claims which He Himself put forward and consideration of the whole trend and the context of the Gospels is ponderative of the most convincing evidence that He deliberately and persistently claimed to be more than man. A man of His intellectual greatness and power- a man who, as is evident from all accounts of him, was neither fool nor knave nor enthusiast- never have advanced a claim to such transcendent greatness unless that claim was true. In all the New Testament record of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ was no sign of insincerity or or selfseeking but, on the contrary, there is plentiful evidence of His humanity, His unselfishness, His truth. Moreover, the whole civilized world, however, divergent may be its views in the matters theological and their their ____ is quite agreed that Jesus Christ in the absolutely perfect type and pattern of our race and that He is most unlikely to have been either a victim or the author of what, under such circumstances, would have been the most stupendous and especially wicked deception to be found in the history of mankind. And from these considerations founded on the New Testament records of His life, we justly conclude that the claims of Jesus Christ were warranted and that He is more than mere man- that He is the truth. What the Creed declares him to be: "God of God. Light of light. Very God of very God - being of one substance over with the father by

whom all things were made. 

Now, my brethren, the New Testament records are authentic history, and they give clear and concise data of the personality of Christ written by men who were not only His followers and friends, but His contemporaries also…

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The New Testament was written as Saint John says "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." We may then, without question, accept the gospel. The Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles of Saint Paul as historical documents of the first order and both importance and authority and in them study the personality of Christ. 

New Testament Christ 

The New Testament paints for us word pictures of many of rare intelligence, whose learning is of the highest order, a man of unusual strength and character, religious minded, and of preeminent moral worth. We have before us the picture of this man in every conceivable circumstance of life and not once does His life display anything but the most absolute perfection. And the most important of all, this perfect man deliberately proclaims Himself to be more than man. For He claims to be God Himself. He advances this claim of Divinity openly and continuously. 

Human experience testifies to the fact that as men grow in moral worth and holiness. And seek the while to impose this on the minds of others, they gradually, but nonetheless, surely acquire a more acute and profound consciousness of their own weakness. With this fact, consider the moral standard which Christ professed and taught. “Be perfect,” He says, “as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” And there is no single trace of consciousness that He has fallen short of what He preaches. On the contrary, He asserts His own sinlessness in these words "I do always the things that please Him that sent me." He goes further and flings down the gauntlet to any who would question His holiness and says "which of you shall convince me of sin?" More than this, He consistently and continuously preaches Himself. He preaches not only abstract truths, sublime, and singularly beautiful, He preaches Himself as their visible embodiment." 

“I am the light of the world. He that believeth me walketh not in darkness."

“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father but by me.

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread he shall have life forever. 

“I am the door: by me if any enter in, he shall be saved. 

"I am the vine and you are the branches: if any abide not in me, he shall be cast forth and wither.

“I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me although he be dead, shall live."

Truths Uncontradicted 

Has any merely human teacher ever dared to use such language of Himself? He treats men as though these belong to Him, as though actually bound to obey His will. To Peter and Andrew, He says: "come ye after me." To another, He says simply: "Follow Me." To the rich young man He says: "go sell what thou hast. Give to the poor and come follow Me." If He is merely man, such demands are intolerable, even unintelligible.

Again, He accepts, as His due, the worship offered to God alone, for we meet again and again the expression "and falling down he adored him." The woman of Cana "came and adored him." Had He been merely man, would He have dared to accept the divine homage?

Consider, I beg of you, what must have been the conviction of him who said: "whatsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound also in heaven." “Receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose sins ye shall forgive, they are forgiven." If Christ were merely man, how startling is His statement that He shall one day sit in judgment upon all mankind. "The Son of man shall come in majesty, and all nations shall be gathered before Him and He shall separate them one from another." To the Jews gathered about him. He says" I came forth from the father and am come into the world, again I leave the world and I go unto the Father. " To these who would argue with Him? He says "Before Abraham was I am.” And the fact that His statement was taken as a claim to something more than humanity is to be found in the simple statement “they took up stones to cast at Him." “And the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He said that God was His own Father making Himself equal with God."

When He stands before the High Priest after His betrayal, He is asked "art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed God?" and He answers simply: "I am." There is no doubting the meaning of this answer, for the high priest rents his garments and says "He hath blasphemed."  How, if He did not claim Divinity as His proper attribution?

Now all this the New Testament record makes clear. The man Jesus Christ discourses upon sin and condemns it, challenging those opposed to Him to prove him or guilty of it. He declares that He does always the will of God, He proposes Himself as the subject of adoration and accepts it. He claims His right to the service of men. He declares that He can forgive sin, and commissions authority to do so. Finally, He answers that He will one day come to judge the universe and apportion unto every man his place. None of these is a human prerogative of power. There is but one conclusion, Christ claiming to be God. 

Died for World 

But let us apply the last test. Was he an imposter? Were His claims merely pretensions of a charlatan? The sure is proof lies and the fact that He willingly suffered the horrid torture of the cross- that He died for us. We need say no more. Many make pretensions- none are willing to die for them. 

Was He a madman? Look into His teachings and see the sheer impossibilities of attempting to attribute such admirable teachings, such Noble actions to one who is mentally distraught.

There remains but one conclusion, He is what He claims to be. "God blessed forever.”

It is just here that we might appeal to His wondrous works as further proof of His divinity. He not only claimed to be divine but He proved it by a series of the most astounding miracles which He Himself offers. And substantiations of His claims “Go" He says "and relate to John what you have heard and seen: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed. And dead rise again…”

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…His real and bodily existence after what had been real death. And so we again conclude that He has proved His claim to be more than man, and that He is God, with power over life and death.

Now, my brethren, with so much admitted, it follows necessarily that the teachings of Christ, His precepts, His institutions, are all Divine. They rest upon the authority of God Himself. What Jesus Christ teaches. We must believe since

it is God who teaches : what He commands we must obey, for. It is God who commands. What He institutes we must accept, because it is God who urges its acceptance upon us. If He established a society, that society is divine: if He entrusted to that society and body doctrines to be taught, they are divine: if He bestowed upon that society a constitution and authority, both constitution and authority are divine. And so we come upon that question with which we are more particularly concerned today, did He establish such a society? Did He leave behind Him an institution which was to persevere and propagate His teachings to minister special means of sanctification, to live and work among men and to have its being within a well-developed constitution and an authority which He Himself painstakingly defined? 

Promise of Life Everlasting 

We know, as Saint Paul says: that “God sent His Son made of a woman, made under the law - that He might redeem them who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" and St. Luke makes known at least some part of the design on our behalf, when He records the fact that Christ was to be called Jesus "for He shall save the people from their sins." St. John said of him: "Whoso believeth in Him shall not perish but have life everlasting.” And Jesus said of Himself: “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly." And brief, the purpose of the incarnation is that we may have life through the passion and death of Jesus Christ and may have it more abundantly through the sacred channels or means He has established to that end. His purpose is to sanctify and to save mankind.

To this end, we maintain that Christ founded here on earth, a kingdom which was to have distinct characteristics and a definitive purpose. It was not to be merely a school of new thought or the source of vague and meaningless humanitarianism, Plato and Aristotle had already done this, producing what we may call an accidental grouping of disciples, neither fitted nor originally intended for a persistent existence, and their nearest aim was the acquisition of Truth through appeal to the human reason. Christ indeed taught, but He did a great deal more than teach, for He [had] prophetic utterance to found here on Earth a well defined kingdom.

We find proof of our contention clearly and persistently set forth in the gospel narrative where there are many, explicit and recurrent references to “the kingdom.” Even St. John, the Baptist began his preparatory preaching with the statement "due penance for the kingdom of God is at hand" as St. Mark records "after John was delivered, Jesus Himself came into Galilee preaching the kingdom of God." St. Matthew adds that He went about all Galilee preaching the gospel of the Kingdom and Christ Himself when He sends the Apostles forth on their mission: "go and preach, saying the kingdom of God is at hand." To Peter. He clearly says "And I will give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven." Moreover, when His enemies sought to encompass His downfall by proving him guilty of intrigue against the Roman government, their charge was explicit. "We found this man perverting our nation - saying that "He Himself is Christ, a king." Finally, let it be borne in mind that when the Roman soldiers made a crown of thorns and placed it about His head, they taunted him, saying "Hail, King of the Jews." And Pilate Himself caused to be affixed to the cross, His title: "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”

Kingdom of God 

Evidently the determination of Jesus Christ was to found a kingdom- but of what nature? It is clear to the most casual reader of the New Testament that the Apostles had at first looked upon the kingdom founded by Christ as the long expected fulfillment of the old Jewish idea of Messianic kingdom. Indeed, it is quite evident that those who hailed him as the son of David on Palm Sunday, cried out against him on Good Friday for that He had utterly failed to accomplish material and political ideals in which they so tenaciously clung. But Christ had fixed for all time the nature of His kingdom when He said: “My kingdom is not of this world" and when He fled into the mountains because as St. John tells us, He knew that "they were about to come and take him by force to make Him king." He was indeed resolved to establish His kingdom, but it was to be a purely spiritual kingdom. 

Thus far we are in agreement with those who, while admitting the foundation of the kingdom by Christ, would deny its external visibility. We go forward however and assert that the kingdom was and first intention to be upon earth, in the world but not of it, existing at one and the same time with the kingdom of the earth, and composed of the same members, and coexisting very plainly set forth by our Lord Himself. We find Him sending forth the seventy-two disciples “into every city and place" to say "the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." Pharisees He says that the kingdom cometh not with observations”...

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…persecuted for His sake. Those who believe him are to be baptized - and external visible, right. He leaves a distinct and definite ritual of the Holy Eucharist which is, at His command, to be continued as a commemoration of Him. He institutes and trains a body of men to whom He says "He who receiveth you, receiveth Me,” and invests in one of their number, St. Peter, with a very clearly defined authority over the rest,

centralizing, if you will, the authority that is to be at once the source and the means of unity in the further propagation of His kingdom. Herein lies clear, significant, and sufficient evidence for the fact that Christ's kingdom on earth, while spiritual in object, means, and motives, is at one and the same time an external and visible organization.

Commission of Apostles 

This Kingdom, the nature of which we have now fixed, was to be universal also. It is compared to a grain of mustard seed, which is smaller than all the seeds that are sown in the earth, but which when grown, shelters the birds of the air. And so repentance and remission of sins are to be preached unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. The Apostles will be witnesses of Him “even until the uttermost parts of the earth," and, finally, comes the command: "Go ye, therefrom into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature." Men are to be saved by membership in the kingdom, and so the kingdom must be co-extensive with their need - in a word, universal. 

The kingdom was also to be independent. It is founded by God, who Himself, defines its objects. He fixes the bonds which unite its members, and appoints those who are to rule over it, established the limits of their authority and the principles by which they are to govern. It is the Apostles who are sent to preach, and to the Apostles alone is given the power to forgive sins and to reproduce the Holy Eucharist. These same Apostles are to preach the kingdom without the slightest reference to earthly authority. The kingdom cannot therefore, be identified or subject to any local state. And the independence of this Kingdom is the more apparent when we consider the words of Our Lord when He tells the Apostles that they will be brought before governors and kings for His sake. How well the Apostles themselves understood this Independence is clearly set forth in the words of Peter and the other Apostles when they made answer to the princes and the ancients and scribes who had questioned their authority to teach saying: "we must obey God rather than men." And this independence of the kingdom of God has been since its beginning provocative of that spirit of persecution which manifests itself in the martyrdom of the Apostles and of the countless thousands who died in the persecutions of the earthly church.

Beyond peradventure, then, Christ intended to establish a kingdom, which was to be the salvation of all men who might come to dwell therein, a kingdom universal and independent of earthly kingdoms in the midst of which it was formed and of whose citizenry it is constituted. But did He put this design into execution? The New Testament answer is clear, concise, and definite. He preached His doctrines to the people. He formed a chosen body of men to carry on the work He thus begun. He sent these forth to preach and to heal in His name, bidding them to baptize "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," teaching them to observe all things whatsoever. I have commanded you."  He declares that those who despise messengers despise Himself, and pronounces their mission to be one and the same with His own: "As the Father hath sent Me, so I also send you.” His authority is to be the measure of apostolic authority: “Whatsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound also in heaven.” Finally, there comes the sanction which implies complete domination over the souls of men: "If he will not hear the church, then let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican." The Apostles were to continue Christ's mission on earth and were to teach all men what Christ has taught themselves. They are to grant admittance to this kingdom by the right of baptism; they were empowered to forgive sins, committed after baptism, a power given first to Peter and afterward to the whole body of the apostles; they were to reproduce the Holy Eucharist in virtue of the express command: "Do this in commemoration of Me." and so to feed, strengthen, and sanctify the souls committed to their charge.

Work of the Apostles 

Now in the Acts of the Apostles, we have a narrative of the corporate efforts of the Apostles in establishing and development of this kingdom, the infant church. On the day of the first Pentecost, there were, as the text has it, about three thousand souls added. Some days later there are another five thousand added, and presently it is said “Behold you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine." Philip goes to Samaria, and presently Paul is converted and begins his great missionary journeys which are to add a long roll to the already numerous thousands of adherence to the kingdom. So rapid is its spread that Paul can soon write to the distant Romans: "I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is spoken of in the whole world." And all this within twenty-five years of our Lord's death on the cross! The parable of the mustard seed is fulfilled.

 

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…by His own laborers and by the labors of His Apostles actually founded and built up for Himself a kingdom upon earth, and that this kingdom is the church, a title which He Himself gave when he said to one of His Apostles: "Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my church." And this kingdom, this church, is a divine institution. For Christ is God, and the very conception and foundation of this church are in themselves conclusive proofs of His divinity. It could not have been the work of mere man, and we know it for what it is, "the house of God and gate of heaven," the foundations of

which are laid in a stable and Bethlehem, whose Windows open toward the throne of grace on which is seated Christ the Lord, God of God, Light of Light, Very God a Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, in Whom as St. Paul says," dwelleth the fulness of Godhead bodily." These are unmistakable terms expressive of the faith of the Christian world "as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,” then thousand[s of] denials of Him and of His divinity and of His Virgin Birth and of His resurrection shall not shake us in our belief nor take from us our faith in Him, the Deathless, Holy One, “the propitiation of our sins," in Him "who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood."

Exaltations of the Mother 

Now, my brethren, it is at once our pride and our privilege that we are numbered among the children of Christ's kingdom, the church. And perhaps we were never more conscious of our dignity and more appreciative of its responsibilities than we are here today, gathered as we are about God's altar, all intent upon a high and holy undertaking- the dedication of this new and splendid church edifice erected to the greater glory of God under the invocation of "Our Lady of the Holy Rosary." Nothing, surely, could be more pleasing to Him in whose service you so faithfully expend yourselves and your substance then that you should thus exalt that Blessed Mother who gave Him birth, that Virgin Mother who all generations shall call blessed for her chaste maternity and for her spotless virginity, whose intimate relations with her Divine Son are recorded in the devotion of the the Rosary which gives its title to this church. And nothing, surely, could be more pleasing to this blessed mother than that you should the more exalt her Divine Son by setting up yet another outpost on the far-flung frontier of His kingdom, the further to advance and make secure the establishing of His empire over the hearts of men. Here Christ will be adored in “spirit and in truth," here generations yet unborn be admitted to the kingdom. Here shall the bread of life be broken, and the word preached, and sins forgiven. Here shall grace overflow and love reign. All who are weary and heavy laden shall find in this new Sinai rest for their souls and when they fall finally by life's wayside they shall be carried from before this altar to their last long rest to await the coming, the realization of "the Blessed hope." “Truly, this is the house of God and gate of Heaven," and in it shall be preserved the integrity of the Christian faith. 

The Divinity of Jesus Christ, His Virgin Birth, His bodily Resurrection from the dead are fundamental articles of the Christian Faith. To deny these is to deny the historic Christ. To explain them away, to qualify them, to put upon them the so-called modernistic interpretation, is to overthrow and to invalidate the whole Christian teaching of the Incarnation and the Atonement. To deny, one of these fundamental articles of the Faith is to deny all, but you have openly expressed your faith in all three by the erection and by the dedication of this house of worship here today and the frank and fearless practice of your faith you adore Christ as God. But your erection of this church under the invocation of Mary, His Mother, you proclaim your faith and His Virgin Birth. And the motive for both is to be found in your evident hope that like Him you will one day finally conquer both death and hell. Faith having moved, you certainly Express and these words: "I know that my Redeemer liveth and in flesh shall I see God."

And so “may the God of Peace who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep. Our Lord Jesus Christ. In the blood of the everlasting testament, fit you in all goodness that you may do His will: doing that in you which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom is glory forever and ever. Amen.

Sermon an Inspiration.

Father Connolly's sermon was an inspiration to all in reach of his voice and many compliments were heard among the gathering.

Following the sermon solemn benediction of the Blessed Sacrament was celebrated by Bishop Berry, assisted by Father Lyons, pastor of the church, and master of ceremonies. Bishop Berry then bestowed the pontifical blessing on those gathering and the service where over for the day. 

The priests with the bishop gathered at the home of Father Lions for a banquet which was served by the ladies of the parish…

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…the Catholic Church in Jacksonville. Dedicated to the Lady of the Holy Rosary, the new and beautiful church in the Springfield district was given into the spiritual keeping of the mother of Christ and those who worship at this church will have as their patron, the mother of mothers and the most holy and [devout] inspiration to assist and guide them through this life.