Anecdotes and Examples Illustrating The Catholic Catechism/lesson4
LESSON FOURTH
ON CREATION
Q. Who created heaven and earthy and all things?
A. God created heaven and earthy and all things.
The Acorn and the Pumpkin
The wisdom of God is displayed in creation. A man was lying in the shade of a spreading oak tree one hot summer’s day. As he looked idly about him, he saw a pumpkin vine trained on a fence, from which large, heavy pumpkins were hanging. ‘‘That is a very bad arrangement,” he said to himself, “that slender, fragile plant bears such large fruits, while a stalwart tree, such as this oak beneath which I am resting, only bears tiny acorns. If I had made the world, I should have ordered things more wisely.” As he finished speaking an acorn fell from the tree, and smote him on the nose so sharply that his nose began to bleed. This unexpected blow taught the conceited man a lesson. “I must acknowledge,” he said, “ that God has arranged everything very wisely. Had the acorn that fell been the size of a pumpkin, and dropped from the height it did, I should have been stunned, or at least my nose would have been broken. What we learn at school is quite true: God has ordained all things in creation with wisdom and forethought.” How foolish are those who think they know better than the all-wise Creator!
Q. How did God create heaven and earth?
A. God created heaven and earth from nothing by His word only; that is, by a single act of His all-powerful will.
The Firmament is Upheld by Divine Power
If we consider the universe, we shall assuredly be compelled to admire the omnipotence of God. A German prince was one day conducting a foreign ambassador over his palace and calling his attention to the strength of its walls, the beauty of its architecture and decorations. The court fool who, according to the custom of former days, followed his master everywhere and was allowed perfect liberty of speech, put in his word. “Your Highness,” he said, “do not boast too much about your palace. It may well stand firm and strong; it has massive columns to uphold it, it rests upon solid foundations. But just look up to heaven. The Lord who reigns above needs neither pillars nor foundations to support the immeasurable dome He constructed; He upholds it by His omnipotent will alone. One must needs respect so great a Potentate! ”
Q. Which are the chief creatures of God?
A. The chief creatures of God are angels and men.
Pasteur's Experiments
On the third day God created the trees and green herbs; on the fifth and sixth He created living creatures. Those who assert that God created everything at once, and that the things He had called into being were developed successively on the several days of creation, are greatly mistaken. It is quite impossible that the germs of vegetation should have existed on the first day, for the earth was then in a state of incandescence, and fire destroys life, both vegetable and animal. Moreover, out of lifeless matter life cannot be evolved: omne vivum ex vivo. Pasteur, the professor of chemistry in Paris, who has made for himself a world-wide reputation, proved the truth of this axiom by a series of experiments. He boiled different kinds of water and filled bottles with them, which were then hermetically sealed, and left standing for a year. At the lapse of that time he examined the water with the aid of a microscope, to ascertain if any animalculse were in it. No trace of any living creature was to be discovered in these bottles, whereas in every single drop of water which had been exposed to the air hundreds of living creatures were found to exist. Thereupon he exposed the glasses of water to the action of air which had passed through red-hot tubes, but no animal life was to be found in them. He next exposed them to air which had passed through tubes partially stuffed with wool; the result was the same. Finally the vessels containing water were placed in the open air for a minute only, and in a few hours’ time the water teemed with minute animalculae. Thus it was conclusively proved that the germs of life are in the atmosphere; in the last experiment they were communicated to the water, and there developed into living creatures. Animal life cannot be evolved out of lifeless matter; the theory of spontaneous generation is utterly false.
Q. What are angels?
A. Angels are pure spirits without a body, created to adore and enjoy God in heaven.
The Protection of the Angels
He hath given His angels charge over us, especially over children. On the 8th of July, 1890, in a village near Prague, a little girl four years of age fell out of a window in the second story of her father’s house into the courtyard below. Her mother, terrified, rushed into the yard and caught up the child; she was not only alive, but had not sustained the slightest injury. Her mother took her to the hospital, where she was examined by a medical man but he could not discover so much as a bruise.
On the 3d of May, 1893, in one of the streets of Paris, a little girl three years of age fell from a window in the fifth story of a house, and was not hurt in the slightest degree.
On the 9th of July, 1895, the three-year-old son of Prince Alexander Salm, while traveling by rail near Vienna, fell out of the railway coach, the door of which had been torn open by a violent gust of wind. The guard was rung for, and the train was stopped; to the astonishment of all beholders the little fellow was seen running after the train safe and sound.
Q. Were the angels created for any other purpose?
A. The angels were also created to assist before the throne of God and to minister unto Him; they have often been sent as messengers from God to man; and are also appointed our guardians.
The School Children out in a Storm
Children are often favored by the miraculous protection of their guardian angels. In the year 1890 the children of a village school near Keichenberg in Bohemia were taken on an excursion into the woods for a treat. While they were at play a heavy storm came up and the rain came pelting down. A party of children — thirty-one in number — sought shelter under a gigantic fir tree. All at once one of them — a little girl — felt irresistibly urged to leave the shelter of that tree; she ran away, dragging two or three others with her, while the remainder followed of their own accord. They had scarcely got a few feet from the tree when it was struck by lightning, and torn asunder with a terrific crash. Singularly enough, the tree thus struck formed a kind of cross. The parents of the children piously ascribed their rescue from death to the kind protection of their guardian angels, and out of gratitude they erected a cross on the spot where the tree had stood.
(This incident is recorded in the Reichenberger Zeitung of 17th of May, 1890.)
Pope Leo Confronts Attila
In the fifth century the Huns, an Asiatic tribe of barbarians, overran Europe, working havoc and devastation wherever they went. They extended their ravages to Italy; after having burnt several towns, Attila, their king, determined to pursue his conquests farther south and destroy Rome also. Indescribable was the terror of the inhabitants when they heard that the Huns were advancing upon their city. But Pope Leo the Great was not intimidated, He relied on the divine protection, and called upon all the inhabitants of the Eternal City to pray fervently for assistance from on high. When Attila, with his five hundred thousand soldiers, was seen approaching. Pope Leo, arrayed in his pontificals and attended by a long train of clergy, went out to meet him. He boldly confronted the king of the Huns, threatening him with the divine judgments if he ventured to enter the city. The dignified bearing of the Pope and his forcible words made so deep an impression on the barbarian monarch that he promised to keep the peace, and immediately withdrew his forces from the neighborhood of Rome. It is said that a shining figure appeared to Attila behind the Pontiff, wielding a sword with a menacing gesture, and that determined him to accede so readily to the Pope’s request.
Q. Were the angels as God created them, good and happy?
A. The angels, as God created them, were good and happy.
The Sheep and the Birds
A child once noticed how the thorns in a quickset hedge tore the wool of the sheep. In his ignorance he went to his father and begged him to cut down the hedge that did the mischief. But his father was not so hasty and impetuous; he bade the child sit down on the hill near the hedge and watch the little birds. He did so, and before long he saw the feathered songsters come and carry off the wool to line their nests. Then the boy’s father said to him: “ Do you see how useful this wool is to keep the poor little unfledged nestlings warm? The sheep do not feel the loss of a few bits of wool. Now would you have me cut down the hedge?” The child begged that he would not do so. That is the way with many people; they draw conclusions hastily, without due reflection, and therefore they fail to appreciate the wisdom that directs the world.
Q. Did all the angels remain good and happy?
A. All the angel did not remain good and happy; many of them sinned and were cast into hell, and these are called devils or bad angels.
A Free-thinker’s Fears
There are evil as well as good angels. Hobbes, a well-known English free-thinker, used confidently to assert that there was neither God nor angel, still less did he believe in a devil. Strange to say, despite his boasted unbelief, this man had the greatest dread of evil spirits; even in his old age he was afraid of sleeping alone in a room. What he openly denied he secretly believed.
Two Children Saved by their Piety
We ought to invoke our angel guardians and ask their protection. In a remote town in the Tyrol the alarm bell one night woke all the inhabitants out of their sleep. Two of the largest houses were in flames. From one of these the inmates escaped by the staircase only with the greatest difficulty. In their hurry and alarm they forgot to rescue two children who were sleeping in the attic. These two children — both girls, one aged eight, the other twelve years — only awoke when they were startled by the crackling of the boards constituting the flooring of their rooms, which had caught fire from below. They sprang up and rushed to the door; but on opening it they were almost stifled by the smoke and flames that met them, and hardly succeeded in closing it again. The elder girl then ran to the window, saying: “We must jump out of the window. I will jump first, and if I get to the ground without being hurt, do you come after me.” Calling on her angel guardian to help her, she sprang out. She fell on the ground but, instantly rising, she cried out joyously, “ Come along, Jenny, I am not a bit hurt! ” The other child then took the perilous leap, and she, too, escaped without the slightest injury. She also had invoked the aid of her guardian angel. The parents of the children were delighted and thankful to God to see them safe and sound.