G. K. C. on Divine Providence

Dear Blogger,

As promised, here is the quote from Chesterton:

After that, all men knew in their hearts that she [the Roman Republic] had been representative of mankind, even when she was rejected of men. And there fell on her the shadow from a shining and yet invisible light and the burden of things to be. It is not for us to guess in what manner or moment the mercy of God might in any case have rescued the world; but it is certain that the struggle which established Christendom would have been very different if there had been an empire of Carthage instead of an empire of Rome. We have to thank the patience of the Punic Wars if, in after ages, divine things descended at least upon human things and not inhuman. Europe evolved into its own vices with its own impotence, as will be suggested on another page; but the worst into which it evolved was not like what it had escaped. Can any man in his senses compare the great wooden doll, whom the children expected to eat a little bit of the dinner, with the great idol who would have been expected to eat the children? That is the measure of how far the world went astray, compared with how far it might have gone astray.

-Gilbert Keith Chesteron, The Everlasting Man (Garden City, N.Y.: Image Books, 1953) 154.

God bless,


Little Brother

"Only One Is Good"

Dear Little Brother:
Can pagans ever be good? Should we love them too even though they don't acknowledge the one true God or the Church that our Lord founded? -a blogger

Dear Blogger:
God wants us to love everyone--that includes pagans. The meaning of "love" is to desire the salvation of your neighbor and to pray for this intention. Furthermore, there are "good pagans" and "bad pagans"; we need pray for both. Looking at history, we find examples of both: The pagans of the ancient Roman Republic (not to be confused with the Roman Empire) used what wits they had to come to the conclusion that a Supreme Being exists, and that there is a natural law that any human being can discover using his reason, that is, his God-given intellect. This natural law is based on the Eternal Law, which is based on the nature of God himself and how God made the universe to work. If we lived our lives according to the way the God of Love made the universe and according to our nature as human beings, this human nature being part of God's universe--of his Eternal Law or Eternal Plan, then the world would be the way God created it to be. Of course, it will be even better than we can ever imagine, thanks to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, King and Lord of All History.
Now, let's get back to the distinction we were making, and please excuse "the digression." The Roman Republic provides us with an example of "good pagans". Often, they are called, "the noble pagans of antiquity". An example of a bad pagan society would be ancient Carthage. Rome fought against Carthage in the Punic Wars. ("Wars"--plural in number-- because there were three of them and they took place over a long period of time.) The Carthaginians worshipped Moloch, a demonic god who required child sacrifice. So, one religion is as good as another, right? Wrong! This "religion" clearly was not good. As already implied, it was demonic. The Carthaginians were literally throwing babies (most likely their own) into the fires of Moloch. That's how they "fed" him. Interestingly, the Carthaginians were the descendants of Phoenicians who moved to Northern Africa and founded the New City, more commonly know as "Carthage." Guess which famous woman in history was a Phoenician queen. You're right! It's the infamous Jezebel. In an intermarriage that made an alliance between Phoenicia and the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Queen Jezebel married King Abab. Jezebel pressured the weak King Ahab into setting up Baals for the Israelites to worship. You know what this meant. The northern kingdom of God's Chosen People were worshipping idols and committing child-sacrifice along with the pagans. How horrible! How utterly unthinkable. Jeremiah was right when he said, "The Temple! The Temple! ..." Dont' think you are doing fine and God is pleased with you and your Temple if you worship false gods and do child sacrifice! Because of that, your glorious Temple doesn't amount to "a hill of beans" to put it in "the vernacular".
Thus, Ahab and Jezebel began the first outright religious persecution of God's Chosen People since they came into existence. These are the same monarchs who were the contemporaries of that great and fiery prophet, Elijah (or Elias). And the great Elijah, fighting for the religious rights of God's people and fighting literally for the dear children, overcame the priests of Baal! God is pro-life! Indeed, when Hiel offered his two sons to the Baals by burying them in the foundations of Jericho, Jeremiah tells us that this is something that God never dreamed of. When a person reads this, with an inner voice of the soul, he can just hear God weeping!
In his classic book, The Everlasting Man, Gilbert Keith Chesterton shows the world the difference between "the noble pagans" and "the bad pagans". (Perhaps we could also call them the pagans of antiquity versus the pagans of iniquity.) Chesterton asks how anyone can possibly compare the little pagan wooden dolls whom the children would invite to eat some of their dinner with the pagan god, Moloch, who would have had the children for dinner; yes, Moloch would have eaten the children! The Romans, with natural reason and natural law, did their level best to be the people they were created to be and achieve their final end, union with God, whether they could say this in so many words or not. The Carthaginians simply didn't develop natural virtue and decided to be bad. Probably, the worship of Moloch was more "convenient" for them.
Blogger, I'm here at the library and don't have my copy of The Everlasting Man right here on my person, so please excuse me. In my next e-letter, I will send you the entire quote of Chesterton on this matter. So for now, as said a noble Roman general returning from the Punic Wars: Carthago delenda est!
-Little Brother