Francis J. Ripley - This Is The Faith: A Complete Explanation of the Catholic Faith

THIS IS
THE FAITH

And he said to them: Go ye into the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be condemned.

Mark 16:15-16

OTHER WORKS BY THE AUTHOR

T ERRIBLE AS AN A RMY

H OLINESS THROUGH M ARY

L ETTERS TO M URIEL

L ETTERS TO M OLLY

A B LUE-PRINT FOR L AY A CTION

C ALLING A LL A POSTLES

A P LAN OF C AMPAIGN

A D AILY T HOUGHT

M ARY , M OTHER OF THE C HURCH

P RIEST OF C HRIST

and, with F. S. Mitchell ,

S OULS AT S TAKE

Imprimatur for the 1951 edition:

Nihil Obstat:		J. Canon Morgan, S.T.D. Censor Librorum
Imprimatur:		Richard Archbishop of Liverpool Liverpool, England January 25, 1951

First published by The Birchley Hall Press, Billinge, Lancashire, England. Reprinted in 1952 by The Newman Press, Westminster, Maryland. Compact edition of the 1951 text published in 1960 by Guild Press, Inc. Updated edition copyright 1973 by Print Origination, Liverpool. New edition of the 1951 text, with some revision, expansion and minor updating by the Publisher, published in 2002 as the Third Edition by TAN Books, an Imprint of Saint Benedict Press, LLC.

Copyright 2002 by TAN Books, an Imprint of Saint Benedict Press, LLC

ISBN 978-0-89555-642-4

Library of Congress Control No.: 98-61395

Cover illustration: The Sermon on the Mount, 1877, by Carl Bloch (18341890). Photo of painting: Det Nationalhistoriske Museum p Frederiksborg, Hillerd, Denmark.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

TAN Books
An Imprint of Saint Benedict Press, LLC
Charlotte, North Carolina
2013

This book is hereby dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God, Mary Most Holy, with filial affection and gratitude, for the enlightenment and salvation of souls through her intercession.

Foreword

For the past several years in Liverpool, principally under the auspices of the Legion of Mary, an opportunity has been given to an increasingly large number of non-Catholic enquirers to hear talks on Catholic faith and practice. Regular assemblies have been held in convents in various parts of the city, and the resulting conversions and the high percentage of attendance have more than justified the scheme. This work is ancillary to the Catholic Evidence Guild and caters for many who could not bring themselves to stand at street-corner meetings.

This Is the Faith is the substance of a series of such talks given in Liverpool by Father Francis J. Ripley over a period of three years. I am happy to commend it because I feel it will be of great use and encouragement to others engaged in similar work, to kindred movements and to enquirers themselves. It seems to me to be singularly propitious that it should be the first work to come from the Birchley Hall Press, thus preserving the spirit of the work done by the secret press at Birchley Hall in less happy times.

Richard

Archbishop of Liverpool

Archbishops House

Liverpool, England

January 25, 1951

The Conversion of St. Paul

Publishers Preface

When Our Lord commissioned the Apostles just before His Ascension into Heaven, He commanded them: Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned. ( Mark 16:15-16).

In our era we daily witness a paradox and many of us moreover are living it. The paradox is this: The vast majority of people today revere Jesus Christ, respect Him more than anyone else who ever lived, honor Him in fact, in many cases, as God-made-man. And yet most people do not know Him; they do not know the many crucial things He has said; they do not know what He expects them to believe or what He expects them to do. Consider for a moment some of His startling statements:

Without me, you can do nothing. ( John 15:5). I am the way, and the truth, and the life. ( John 14:6). No man cometh to the Father, but by me. ( John 14:6). I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly. ( John 10:10). Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. ( John 6:54).

These arresting statements by Our Lord are cited because many people do not know them; or if they have heard them or read them, they have forgotten their import; or further, if they are familiar with them, they misconstrue their meaning by giving them a wrong interpretation. Our Lord was good and gentle, meek and humble of heart ( Matt . 11:29), but He also said some very strong things relative to our salvation, and these words we should know well and heed.

Consider now some of His powerful statements in their larger context: I am the vine; you the branches: he that abides in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. If anyone abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you. In this is my Father glorified; that you bring forth very much fruit, and become my disciples . As the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have kept my Fathers commandments, and do abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be filled. This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you You are my friends if you do the things that I command you If I had not done among them the works that no other man hath done, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father. ( John 15:5-14, 24). In other words, if we live (abide) in Christ, we will be fruitful in spiritual matters. But if we cut ourselves off from Christ, we wither and die and are lost eternally.

In another place, Our Lord has said: I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven; that if any man eat of it, he may not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood [in Holy Communion], you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same shall also live by me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread shall live forever. ( John 6:48-59). What Our Lord refers to here is the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist, or Holy Communion, though for reasons of His own, He did not make this immediately clear to those who heard Him. But we should notice especially the repetition and reiteration Jesus uses, so there is no doubt He means what He said. After these words even some of His disciples ceased to walk with Him, but He did not deter them from leaving. He obviously, therefore, meant literally what He said!