Charles Coppens

“ Compared to God, man is a mere nothing, like a little gnat flitting in the sunshine; yet among material things man is a masterpiece, endowed with the most wonderful powers and potentialities. Man is like a musical instrument, from which the Divine Spirit can draw the most exquisite harmony, as He has done from millions of saintly souls. But if not responsive to His touch, it gives out harsh and false sounds, marring the harmony of God’s world. A man may live like an Angel, or like a demon or like a brute animal. ”

“ If the wonderful effect may, for all we know, have been produced by a man or by an evil spirit, or by some law of material nature, then we have no right to call the fact a miracle. We may distinguish two kinds of true miracles. If God interferes with the laws of material nature, we have a physical miracle, as when He restores the dead to life; if with the laws of moral nature, it is a moral miracle, as when a whole people, at the words of a preacher, suddenly abandons inveterate habits of vice and enters on a life of heroic virtue. ”

“ No matter how desirable it might seem to be at times to save the life of the mother, common sense teaches and all nations accept the maxim, that "evil is never to be done that good may come of it"; or, which is the same thing, that "a good end cannot justify a bad means". Now it is an evil means to destroy the life of an innocent child. The plea cannot be made that the child is an unjust aggressor. It is simply where nature and its own parents have put it. ”

“ You sit in your easy-chairs, you dogmatize in your lecture-rooms, you wield your pens: it all looks well on paper; you write exceedingly well; there never was an age in which there was better writing, logical, nervous, eloquent, and pure,—go and carry it out in the world. Take your first principles, of which you are so proud, into the crowded streets of our cities, into the formidable classes which make up the bulk of our population: try to work society by them. ”

“ Our lives are mostly made up of minor acts, as were the private lives of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and countless Saints. A Martyr’s crown in Heaven may consist of one brilliant gem, the ruby of his heroic death; but the crowns of most Saints are made up of countless sparkling little diamonds, each the reward of fidelity in a little thing. Thus too in human things, in which perfection depends on minor details. ”

“ In fact, if a physician, misled by any of those many theories which are often inculcated or at least insinuated by false scientists, can ever convince himself, or even can begin to surmise that, after all, there may be no such thing as a higher law before which he is responsible for even his secret conduct, then what is to prevent him from becoming a dangerous person to the community? If he see much temporal gain on the one hand, and security from legal prosecution on the other, what would keep him in the path of duty and honesty? ”

“ Now it is at the very time of conception, or fecundation, that the embryo begins to live a distinct individual life. For life does not result from an organism when it has been built up, but the vital principle builds up the organism of its own body. In virtue of the one eternal act of the Will of the Creator, Who is of course ever present at every portion of His creation, the soul of every new human being begins to exist when the cell which generation has provided is ready to receive it as its principle of life. ”

“ They are so taken up with the vanities or the pleasures of the world, with the pursuit of riches or honor or friendships, that they do not even stop to consider the call of grace. The turmoil of their passions drowns the still voice of conscience, and they rush on to the yawning abyss of eternal loss. ”

“ Uniting the external decorum of a gentleman with a thorough knowledge of your profession, and with what is still more important, the virtues of a conscientious man and a sincere Christian; ever true to the sound principles of morality which I have endeavored to explain and to inculcate in these lectures: you will be an honor to yourselves, an ornament to your noble profession, the glory and joy of your Alma Mater, a blessing to the community in which Providence will cast your lot as the dispensers of health and happiness and length of days to your fellow-men. ”

“ But the danger of the sin is certainly much greater when a person is, partly at least, the cause of such disorderly affections, when he heaps fuel on the fire of concupiscence.
It is well to ask oneself in a retreat: have I anything to reproach myself with in this respect? How do I habitually observe modesty of the eyes in public and in private? Is my reading always proper and prudent? Do I ever indulge indolence or excessive softness? am I perfectly temperate in food and drink, and thus cautious not to arouse dangerous passions? ”

“ It is a clear principle of reason that no man can justly be blamed or punished for doing what he cannot help doing; now an insane man cannot help judging wrong at times; he cannot then justly be blamed for acting on his mistaken judgments. If he invincibly judges an act to be morally good whereas it is morally bad, no matter how criminal the act may be—say the killing of his own father or child—if he commits the deed with the full conviction that he is doing right, he cannot be blamed or punished for committing that awful crime. ”

“ Every generation of our members has had numerous heroes, conspicuous for their spirit of self-sacrifice. Every generation has had much need of solid virtue on the part of all its members to perform the difficult tasks imposed on them. For the present we are passing through a crisis in the world’s history, which calls for the most patient endurance of ills, and the most generous spirit of sacrifice, that can be expected from brave and faithful men supported by the grace of God. ”

“ The more we study the sciences—astronomy, biology, botany, physiology, medicine, etc.—the more we are lost in admiration at the beautiful order we see displayed in the tiniest as well as in the vastest portions of the creation. And shall man alone, the masterpiece of God in this visible universe, be allowed to be disorderly, to be a failure in the noblest part of his being, to make himself like to the brute or to a demon of malice, to waste his choicest gifts in the indulgence of debasing pleasure? ”

“ There, before us, day after day, the same Redeemer of the world who made Himself the victim of expiation of our sins on Calvary, makes Himself a victim again in the same sacrifice, and offers Himself to His eternal Father, as truly as He did then, to obtain for those present in particular the graces they desire from His liberality. No prayer could be more powerful than the holy Mass. If only we duly enter into the spirit of it, a spirit of deep reverence, of eager supplication, of lively confidence, the daily Mass cannot fail to be for us a copious source of the choicest blessings. ”

“ A third duty of the physician is to use only safe means in medical and surgical practice. He has no right to expose his patient to needless danger. What is to be thought of the use of such remedies as will either kill or cure? They cannot be used as long as safer remedies are available and capable of effecting a cure; for neither Doctor nor patient has a right to expose a human life to unnecessary risk. But when no safer remedies are going to effect a cure, then prudence itself dictates the employment of the only means to success. ”

“ It makes us lead a supernatural life, the life of children of God, and in this sense a Divine life. As the vegetable life transforms the clod of earth into the fairest flower and the most luscious fruit; as animal life turns the food into the wonderful organism of the human body; so the life of grace gives to our acts a heavenly value. By it sinners become saints, true children of God. Christ shows intense earnestness in spreading this fire, which is really His greatest work: the most Divine of all Divine works is the salvation of souls. ”

“ No man has a right to be cruel; cruelty is a vice, it is degrading to man’s noble nature. But vivisection practised for scientific purposes is not cruel. Cruelty implies the wanton infliction of pain: there are people who delight in seeing a victim tortured; this is cruelty or savagery, and is a disgrace to man. Even to inflict pain without benefit is cruel and wrong; but not when it is inflicted on the brute creation for the benefit of man, unless the pain should be very great and the benefit very small. Certainly it is right to cultivate habits of kindness even to animals ”

“ Retrace in mind your practices of devotion to her from your early childhood to the present day. Offer once more all you have ever done in her honor. Think of the protection she has afforded you with a mother’s love, her probable influence on your vocation to the Society, on your novice fervor, on all your religious life up to the present day. Is there any devotion which you ever practised in her honor and which you have since discontinued? With what fervor do you daily honor her? Could you do more to honor or to please her? ”

“ But can He be pleased with us if we thwart His designs; if we, His noblest works on earth, instead of adding to the universal harmony of His creation, make monsters of ourselves, moral blots upon the beautiful face of His world? It were idle for Him to give us the knowledge of His will and then to stand by and let us disfigure His fairest designs; to bid us do what is right, and then let us do wrong without exacting redress or atonement. If He is wise, He must not only lay down the law, but He must also enforce it; He must make it our highest interest to keep His law, to do the right ”

“ When our free will co-operates with grace, we lead holy lives. The spring of God’s grace never fails; the only fear of failure regards our own free will. Now the purpose of this triduum is to examine how faithfully our will is seconding the promptings of grace. In this meditation we must ask God’s light to understand the real condition of our soul, and next examine our conduct with care, to see whether our lives are up to the standard of faithful and fervent religious. How is God pleased with us? How are our superiors and our brethren in religion satisfied? ”

“ To generate a race of young barbarians is certainly not the purpose of the sexual relations. Children must not be begotten unless they can be properly raised, in a manner worthy of their noble destiny. Now, it is only in the married state, in the family or domestic society, that they can be thus educated. They need the tender hand of a mother to supply their material wants; they need the manly care of a devoted father to provide the necessaries of life, his firm hand to break their wanton wills, and his wise direction to set them well on the road to temporal and eternal happiness. ”

“ While we have perhaps broken strong bonds in tearing ourselves away from home and kindred, let us not be attached to little things; a slender silken thread is enough to keep a bird from gaining its liberty, and thus a little trifle may prevent us from soaring aloft to higher regions of sanctity. God fully deserves the love of our whole hearts, which are too small to be divided between Him and the things of earth.
Let us examine ourselves during this retreat, and see whether we are drawing all the profit we should from the rich treasury of our religious vocation. ”

“ In fact, all history testifies that the true civilization of any race or country rises or falls with the restraints imposed on the passion of lust; no polygamous nation has ever been more than half-civilized. The greatness of Rome and Greece decayed when the laws of social purity declined; and in our own day the immorality of what is called “the social evil” is the darkest stain on modern civilization.
And what we say of civilization or social soundness, the soundness of the body politic, applies in a great measure to individual soundness, the health of every person’s mind and body. ”

“ POINT II. Study to understand the evil of your sins, considering:
1. Every species of sin has its own peculiar vileness; for instance, lying is so odious that its very name is offensive, stealing is still worse, so that one caught in a theft is disgraced for life, gluttony is disgraceful, pride is odious to God and man, envy is mean, profanity is provoking to the great and holy God, deceit is despicable, vanity is ridiculous, impurity lowers a man beneath the brute, etc.
2. Every sin is an insult to God. When a person insults his equal, he incurs his displeasure and deserves punishment ”

“ Gentlemen, let no one trifle with the principles of Ethics and Jurisprudence; human society cannot get along without them. Morality is the heart of civilization: its principles are the life-blood, which it sends forth to feed and warm and strengthen and beautify all the organs of its earthly frame. ”

“ Dionysius the Areopagite: “The most Divine of all Divine works is the salvation of souls.” In fact the saving of one soul is a higher achievement than the creation of the material universe; for the value of an action is properly measured by the result achieved, and a glorified soul is as far above all bodily substances as the knowledge, love and fruition of God is above mere matter. ”

“ How sad is the lot of those—and they are many—who undertook in early years of married life to prescribe a narrow limit to the number of their children; they had one or two, and they would have no more, and for this purpose criminally thwarted the purposes of nature. Then comes death and snatches away their solitary consolation: and they spend their old age childless and loveless, in mutual upbraidings and unavailing regrets. ”

“ In this connection of regard for the poor, allow me also to call your attention, gentlemen, to a point which students of medicine are apt to forget at times, and yet which both God and the world require you ever to bear in mind: it is the respect which every man owes to the mortal remains of a departed brother. I do not know that a people has ever been found, even among barbarians, who did not honor the bodies of their dead. For the good of humanity, dead bodies may at times be subjected to the dissecting-knife, but never to wanton indignities. ”

“ Another copious source of sins consists of unmortified passions. When any passion is aroused, it blinds us to the dictates of reason and the whisperings of grace. You see this in the conduct of an angry man: he says and does things which he is afterwards ashamed of and sorry for. It is so with all unrestrained passions. Consider what are your most frequent faults and what are their causes. What passions need particularly to be watched and checked. The triduum is just the time for self-introspection, examinations of conscience, and for the ordering of our spiritual exercises. ”