The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

""34 THE FAITH OF OUB FATHEBS.time, as occasions arise, declare, explain, urge. Thiaisproved not only from the Scriptures and theFathers, but even from the conduct of Protestantsthemselves, who often boast of the care and assiduitywith which they search the Scriptures,"and studyout their meaning, even now that so many Commentaries on the sacred Text have been published. Andwhy ? To obtain more light to understand better;what is revealed. It would appear from this thatthe only question which could arise on this point is,not about the possibility of arriving by degrees at aclearer understanding of the true sense of revelation,as circumstances may call for successive developments, but about the authority of the Church topropose and to determine that sense. So that, afterall, we are always brought back to the only realpoint of division and dispute between those who arenot Catholics and ourselves, namely, to the authorityof the Church, of which I shall have more to sayhereafter. I cannot conclude better than by quotingthe words of St. Vincent of Lerins : Let us takecare that it be with us in matters of religion, whichaffect our souls, as it is with material bodies, which,as time goes on, pass through successive phases ofgrowth and development, and multiply their years,but yet remain always the same individual bodies asthey were in the beginning. ... It very properlyfollows from the nature of things that, with a perfectagreement and consistency between the beginningsand the finalresults, when we reap the harvest of