Life of Father Hecker Part 17

"The objective forms of genius are the expressions of the beautiful, the good, and the true; in one word--G.o.d.

"He is a genius in whom the beautiful, the good, and the true permanently inhabit. . .

"The genius in every work of art is religious, whatever the subject may be.

"We repeat that every man is called to give expression to the highest, best, divinest in him; and to this, and to this only is he called.

"We add that the Catholic Church is the medium of this divine life, and that she has nurtured and encouraged men of genius in her bosom as a fond mother.

"We do not mean to say that the Church has converted men of ordinary stamp into geniuses, but that she has given the highest inspiration to the inborn capacity of genius, and so, to men thus gifted, has been the means by which they have become more than they could have been without her: so, also, with the most ordinary men.

"We affirm that the influence of Protestantism upon the business world has been to make it much more unchristian than it was in the middle ages under the influence of Catholicism."

At this period, when Isaac Hecker's search had ceased, but when he had not yet entered into complete and formal possession of the truth, we find him looking back at his past almost as if it were a thing in which his interest was but curious and impersonal. The thought of writing a history of it occurred to him, and he jotted down some brief notes, and made a partial collection of such letters and other memoranda, apart from the diary, as he found to have been preserved by his family. But this scheme was merely one of the occupations with which he beguiled the necessary delay imposed on him by Bishop McCloskey's absence. One can easily believe that the plan he proposed to himself has deeply interested the present writer, who, though regretting that it was not followed out by Isaac Hecker himself, has yet been enabled by the diary and the letters to measurably fulfil its purpose. He divided it into five periods, and, with a reminiscence of _Wilhelm Meister,_ called it his _Wanderjahr:_

"The first should be named Youth, and give the ideal and the actual in youth.

"The second should be the struggle between the ideal and the actual.

"The third should be the mastery and supremacy of the ideal over the actual and material.

"The fourth should give the absolute union of the ideal and the eternal-absolute in their unconditioned existence.

"The fifth should give the eventual one-ness of the ideal-absolute with humanity and nature.

"Under these five heads I have in mind materials sufficient to make a volume, but lack the close application necessary to connect them. I do not say it would be readable when done. It would be the esoteric and exoteric history of my own life for ten years. . .

"I would open the first chapter thus: Let men say what they will, G.o.d above us, the human soul, and all surrounding nature, are great realities, eternal, solemn, joyous facts of human experience."

In the fine pa.s.sage that follows we have an antic.i.p.ation of the prominent modern conception of Christianity, as a developing force in the history of man--closing an epoch and introducing a new species; or, as Father Hecker would have said in later years, raising man from his natural position as a creature of G.o.d to true sonship with Him through affiliation with Jesus Christ. The thought, as it stands in the diary, is eminently characteristic of Isaac Hecker, who always felt, in a measure beyond what is ordinary, his solidarity with all his kind, and a longing to keep in step with them on the line of their direct advance:

"July 12.--We make no question that G.o.d gave to all nations, previous to the birth of Jesus Christ, His beloved and only Son, dispensations of light and love in their great men, and led them from time to time to the stage of civilization to which they arrived. The Christian affirms that G.o.d is the Parent of humanity, the Father of every human being.* It would be in direct contradiction to his faith to deny this. But Jesus Christ came to introduce a new life, whose light and love should so surpa.s.s all that had been before Him as to make it appear as darkness by contrast. This life makes no war against the good and true that already existed in men, but it embraces, includes, and fulfils it all, and then adds more than men had dared to dream before His coming. That Christianity is of this high character, not only did its Author show by the example of His life and death, but it has shown itself to be so wherever it has come in contact with any of the older forms of religious faith and doctrine. It has exhibited a power that is superior to, and which overcomes, all that arrays itself against it. We do not deny that Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, Zeno, Cato, etc., were good, great, and religious men, above the age in which they lived, and inspired be a life not only superior to that of their time but above that of a great part of Christendom, so-called. But we say that Christ gave to the world a life infinitely above theirs, and that, had they been His contemporaries, or ours, they would have been as far superior to their actual selves as the inspiration of Christianity is superior to that under which they lived."

[* "As some also of your own poets said: For we are also His offspring. Being, therefore, the offspring of G.o.d, we must not suppose the Divinity to be like unto gold or silver or stone, the graving of art and the device of man." (Acts 17:28, 29)]

Although there is authority for saying that the business partnership between Isaac Hecker and his brothers was not formally dissolved until he went away to Belgium in 1849, he seems never to have resumed any active share in it after his return from Concord. Now and again the old scruples about this apparent inactivity returned upon him, and we find him contracting his personal needs within a compa.s.s so narrow that his support shall be felt as the least possible burden.

Thus he writes, on July 13, that his present state of suspension from all outward engagements cannot and should not be of long continuance.

He adds:

"It is a clear and bounden duty that every one should in some way or other compensate the world for that which he consumes from its store.

But I do not see how I can do this consistently with the present state of my mind. To be sure I have contracted my wants as respects eating as far as seems possible to me; somewhat in dress, but not as far as I should and can do. As for pleasures and many other causes of expenditure, I trust I am not immoderate. In this part of the world I do not see any prepared, congenial conditions. If I were in Europe, I should find in the Catholic Church inst.i.tutions which I could enter for a time, until this period of my life would either fix itself permanently, or give place to another in which I could see my way more clearly. But here I am, and not in Europe. Some thoughts have arisen in my mind, and I will state them, as to what may come at some future time within the range of the possible:

"If I am joined to the Catholic Church, and there is such an inst.i.tution in Europe, may I not go there and live for a time? Ah! is this possible?

"If we owned a spot of ground, I would be willing to go on it and engage as much of my time as possible in cultivating and improving it.

"Lastly, I do not know what effect the advice and influence of the Catholic Church may have upon my mind, and do have a slight hope that I may find the exact remedy that I need in my union with her.

"I feel the a.s.surance that if I follow the Spirit of G.o.d, and place all my confidence in it, it will do for me what I dare not hope to do for myself."

A day or two later he jots down, casually as it were, one of those profound observations which are like pointers to his whole career.

Occurring at this early period, when, as the reader may see hereafter, the germs of all his later thought and work were beginning to unfold, they are like rifts in the darkness which seemed to himself to lie about his future, and show plainly to the student of his life how straight and secure his path was amidst it all. He had been counselling himself to patience and entire reliance upon G.o.d's providence while waiting the opportunity "to create or procure the circ.u.mstances" necessary to the expression of his own individuality.

He felt that this was the especial task to which all men were called.

To use his own words:

"It is for this we are created; that we may give a new and individual expression of the absolute in our own peculiar character. As soon as the new is but the re-expression of the old, G.o.d ceases to live. Ever the mystery is revealed in each new birth. So must it be to eternity.

The Eternal-Absolute is ever creating new forms of expressing itself."

In the next chapter we shall have occasion to give Father Hecker's choice of an epitaph for Dr. Brownson. We think that the sentences just quoted are worthy to be his own.

In the middle of July Bishop McCloskey returned to New York, and Isaac waited upon him without delay. Their first long conversation made it plain to the bishop that the young man had very little need of further preliminary instruction, and it was settled that conditional baptism should be administered to him within a fortnight.

That the nature of Isaac Hecker's vocation also revealed itself to this prudent adviser is also evident from this entry, made in the diary as soon as the visit was ended:

"He said that my life would lead me to contemplation, and that in this country the Church was so situated as to require them all to be active. I did not speak further on this subject with him. He asked whether I felt like devoting myself to the order of the priesthood, and undergoing their discipline, self-denial, etc., and becoming a missionary. I answered that all I could say was that I wished to live the life given me, and felt like sacrificing all things to this; but could not say that the priesthood would be the proper place for me.

"I feel that if, for a certain length of time, and under the discipline of the Church, I could have the conditions for leading the life of contemplation, it would be what the Spirit now demands.

Whether I shall not be compelled back to this if I attempt to follow some other way, I am not perfectly sure. The bishop intimated that in Europe there were brotherhoods congenial to the state of mind that I am in. If so, and I could remain there for a certain length of time, why should I not go? I will inquire further about it when next I speak with the bishop.

"There is a college at Fordham where there is to be a commencement to-morrow, which the bishop invited me to go and see. Perhaps I shall find this place to be suitable, and may be led to examine and try it.

The Lord knows all; into His hands I resign myself."

His impressions of the Catholic college at Fordham he does not record. The next entry in the diary is, as usual, taken up with the large topics which for the most part excluded particular incidents from mention. What his strict abstinence from permitted pleasures, and the rigorous self-discipline which he had so long practised, meant to himself, may be partly gathered from the extract we are about to give. He says he does not call such denial,

"in strict language, the denial of our true, G.o.d-created, immortal self, but the denial of that which is not myself, but which has usurped the place of my true, eternal, heavenly, Adamic being. It is the restoration of that defaced image of G.o.d to its primitive divine beauty, grace, and sweetness. We must feel and possess the love and light from above before we have the disposition and power to deny the body and the wisdom of this world. If we have the Christ-spirit, we will fulfil the Christ-commands.

"Thus was it with man prior to his spiritual death, his fall. He lived in and enjoyed G.o.d, and was in communion and society with angels, not knowing good and evil. His life was spontaneous; his wisdom intuitive; he was unconscious of it, even as we would be of light were there no darkness. We should see it and be recipients of all its blessings without knowing its existence. But darkness came, and man knew. Alas! in knowing he lost all that he possessed before.

"Jesus came to restore man to that eternal day from which Adam fell."

About this time he mentions having spent a day in the woods with some friends, at Fort Lee; it is the only allusion we find to any sort of recreation or companionship with others. He sat alone for an hour, he says, in a pleasant spot which overlooked the Hudson and the high Palisade rocks, and "seemed to be in communion with the infinite invisible all around in all the deep avenues of the soul."

Four days before his baptism comes this antic.i.p.ation of it:

"New York, July 27, '44.--I have commenced acting. My union with the Catholic Church is my first real, true act. And it is no doubt the forerunner of many more--of an active life. Heretofore I did not see or feel in me the grounds upon which I could act with permanence and security. I now do; and on this basis my future life will be built.

What my actions may be, I care not. It was this deep eternal certainty within I did wish to feel, and I am now conscious that the lack of it was the reason for my inactivity.

"With this guide I ask no other, nor do I feel the need of the support of friends, or kindred, or the world. Alone it is sufficient for me, though it contradicts the advice of my friends and all my former life. It certainly seems to me absolute: if any error arises it will be from my disobedience."

"July 30.--The inward voice becomes more and more audible. It says: 'I am--obey!'

"The new clothes itself in new dress.

"What proof does a man give that _he is_ if he does only what has been done?

"Can a man repeat the past with genius?

"One true act opens the pa.s.sage to ten more.