Chapter VIII
Submission to Authority
The chief defect of the modern system of education is that it is restricted to the intellect, and ignores all that regards the will and the true principles of morality. The modern instructor directs his efforts solely to the understanding and memory of his pupil, and, if we may so express it, endeavors to cram the pupil’s mind with a multitude of disjointed facts, suppositions, and theories. The natural result of this is that the majority of our youth on leaving school or college know a little of everything except how to save their soul; even their profane knowledge lacks depth and consistency. No effort is made by our modern educators, so called, to educate the will, which most stands in need of proper training, since it is the mistress and ruler of all the human faculties.
Just as the uneducated intellect is liable to be the sport of every kind of error and absurdity, so, in like manner, the uneducated will usually becomes the sport and slave of the animal passions, and is liable to fall into the most shocking and degrading vices. The rule or law of the intellect is truth. The rule or law of the will is right and justice. The intellect is right when its ideas, judgments, and reasoning accord with truth. The will is right when it acts according to the principles of right and justice. The intellect is a speculative faculty destined to guide man in his actions by pointing out to him what is right and just. The will is a practical faculty that needs the light of the intellect as its guide.
Just as the intellect is not free to think, judge, and reason as it pleases, but must be regulated by truth, so, in like manner, the will is not free to act as it pleases, but is subject to the principles of right and justice, or, in other words, to law and authority. Just as the intellect needs to be educated in order always to be able to conform to truth, so also the will needs to be educated in order to be able always to conform to what is right and lawful. Hence no system of education is complete or deserving the name unless it includes the will as well as the intellect. In fact, the will, being a practical faculty, stands even in greater need of education than the intellect, for, as experience proves, the will, when it has begun to deviate from the principles of right and virtue, soon draws the intellect into error, using it as a means of justifying its evil doings.
The education of the will consists principally in training it to act in accordance with the principles of right and justice, and to submit to law and legitimate authority. Both law and authority, to be genuine, must come from God, for no man, no creature, as such, has any natural right or authority over other men. God alone, the Author of nature, possesses authority in His own right and can delegate authority to His creatures; but such delegated authority is necessarily limited and dependent on the divine will. He who submits to lawful authority does not renounce his liberty or give up any of his rights; for he thereby submits to God Himself, before whom man has no other liberty, no other rights, than a perfect submission to His most holy and adorable will. He who refuses to submit to lawful authority abuses his liberty, infringes on the absolute rights of God, and rebels against His supreme authority, and is, therefore, deserving of condign punishment.
The great political, anti-Christian, and irrational heresy of our country is that “the people” rule, “the people” make laws, “the people are sovereign,” are the source of all authority. The natural results of this false principle are: the weakening of authority, the lack of respect for authority, the hatred of every kind of restraint, the spirit of absolute independence and unbridled license. This accursed spirit has invaded the sacred precincts of the family, loosened the domestic ties, and threatens totally to crush all parental authority, and extinguish in the children all respect for and submission to superiors.
All this shows the necessity of educating the will, of training the children, from their earliest infancy, to revere and obey authority. You should, therefore, teach your children to hold all legitimate authority as sacred and binding on the conscience, and to regard it as morally wrong and sinful to resist or despise authority, whether it be in thought, word, or deed. Your children ought to be frequently reminded that God’s authority is ever supreme, and that no earthly power or authority can be legitimate when it is in opposition to the divine law, for, as St. Peter remarks, “we must obey God rather than men.”
It behooves you to teach your children to respect the civil authority and to obey all just civil laws; to respect and obey their teachers and all other superiors in all that pertains to their authority. You should explain to them that the highest authority on earth is the Church of God, for she is divinely commissioned to teach and lead mankind in the way of salvation, and that, in matters of faith and morals, her authority is supreme, and therefore superior to every human authority. Impress well on their minds that our Holy Father, the Pope, is Christ’s Vicar on earth, and deserves all our reverence, love, and submission. Teach them to show a special reverence to the bishop of the diocese and to all priests, and particularly to their pastor.
Children must especially be taught to honor their parents; to love them—next to God and above all in this world—as the authors of their being, their best friends and greatest benefactors; to show them on all occasions profound respect, deference, and esteem; to obey them in all that is not opposed to the divine law as strictly as they should obey God Himself; to be grateful to them, being mindful that they can never sufficiently repay them for what they owe them; to be patient with them, and conceal their shortcomings from strangers; always to wish them well; to speak respectfully to them and of them; to seek their counsel in all matters; to aid them in their work and assist them in all their wants; to sympathize with them in their sorrows; to omit nothing that may help them to live and die as good Christians; religiously to fulfil their last will, and both during their life and after their death never to let a day pass without offering fervent prayers to God for them.
