Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli

Hilaire Belloc was one of England’s most prolific writers in the 20th century. He was a poet, writer, orator, historian, BBC Radio commentator, and political activist. He was a friend of Winston Churchill and a student of St. John Henry Newman. Ernest Hemingway held him in high esteem and even imitated his style. Belloc was most especially known as an apologist renowned for his Catholic faith.

Belloc had a lively sense of the supernatural. Many times in his writings, Belloc speaks of the “Invisible World.” He took this expression from Newman; and, he uses it to speak of the struggle between St. Michael the Archangel and Satan. For Belloc, this struggle plays itself out in the vicissitudes of history. As a staunch believer, he had a strong conviction in the ultimate victory of good over evil and in the humanizing influence of the Catholic faith on the world. In one of his most often quoted verses, he says,

Hilaire Belloc was right. The Catholic faith brings with it a strong optimism about human nature. With our Protestant brothers and sisters, we accept the fact that Adam and Eve disobeyed God and left us the sad inheritance of Original Sin. Our nature has been wounded and, like our first parents, we sin. According to classic Protestant teaching, God reckons us sinners as just by covering over our sins. He declares us righteous because of Christ, but we remain sinners. Luther taught that our will is only free when we choose sin and that the good that we do comes from God taking over our wills.

However, according to Catholicism, justification is more than a declaration. “Justification detaches us from sin which contradicts the love of God, and purifies our heart of sin. Justification follows upon God’s merciful initiative of offering forgiveness. It reconciles us with God. It frees from the enslavement to sin, and it heals” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1990). Once justified, because of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, “we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2010). The Catholic faith, thus, shines a light of hope on the goodness of human nature.

By the power of the sacraments instituted by Christ and entrusted to the ministry of the Church, God reconciles us to himself and renews our nature. As St. Thomas taught, “grace does not destroy nature but perfects it” (Summa Theologica, Part 1, 1:8). Unlike Protestant theology, Catholic teaching does not maintain that we are totally corrupt.

Those who drink deeply of their Catholic faith know how to enjoy life. Worshipping each Sunday as a community, they reap not just the spiritual benefits of the Eucharist, but its social effects as well. They realize that they are not isolated individuals, but part of the Body of Christ. They are connected with others. And so, they work to form community, both in their families and the wider society. Furthermore, they appreciate the material things of this world. The sacraments that make use of oil, bread, wine and water reminds them of the goodness of creation.

Belloc understood the inherent optimism of the Catholic faith. In his 1906 “Open Letter on the Decay of Faith,” speaking specifically of Christian Europe, Belloc wrote, “I desire you to remember that we are Europe; we are a great people. The faith is not an accident among us, nor an imposition, nor a garment; it is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh: it is a philosophy made by and making ourselves. We have adorned, explained, enlarged it; we have given it visible form. This is the service we Europeans have done to God. In return He has made us Christians.”

The Christian Europe of which Belloc once boasted is gone. Western Europe is now one of the most secular regions in the world. As millions of Muslims migrate from the Middle East and Africa to Europe, the Europeans have moved from the practice of the Christian faith to agnosticism and apathy to religion. Nonetheless, the Catholic faith remains the joyful herald of the gospel. Clouds may pass in front of the Catholic sun, but it shines as brilliant as ever.

In a society where the sins of humanity are all too visible, the Catholic faith teaches that, sinners though we are, we are redeemed and capable of good. Catholicism provides the space for a healthy optimism to flourish. Too many people do not believe that we can live free of sin. Yet, when the Church canonizes flesh and blood individuals as saints and holds them up for our imitation, the Church proclaims that perfection is possible.

In fact, not only does the Catholic faith hold that we are called to perfection, but it teaches that perfection begun here on earth and fully achieved in Paradise is the real goal of our life. Belloc believed this and vigorously lived his life by this truth of the faith. As Frederick D. Wilhelmsen has said, “Had we had 10 Hilaire Bellocs in the English-speaking Catholic world in the past 50 years, we might have converted the whole kit-and-caboodle and avoided the mess we find ourselves in today.” But, we need not despair. The Catholic faith gives birth to true optimism. Let each of us live the faith and the Catholic sun will inevitably brighten our world.