p. 21The Sacred Heart and the Refinement of Catholic Homes

Vulgarity is one of the vices of our time. The amusements, the literature, the conversation of the day are smirched with vulgarity. Vulgarity is not precisely wickedness, but it is often found in company with wickedness. It breaks down to a degree the barriers against wickedness. Just as goodness in its higher levels brings with it refinement, so the want of refinement often brings with it temptations and incitements to sin. Thus vulgarity is dangerous. To have low tastes, to delight in vulgar reading is unworthy of a Catholic who has so many aids and incentives to be noble-minded and refined. So, also, cheap and common reading, ordinary and vulgar pictures and amusements are unworthy of the Catholic home.

By vulgar, we do not now mean what is sinful, but what is unrefined, cheap, low, though it may not necessarily be evil. A little incident will illustrate this meaning. Not long ago a group of Catholic men were acting as reviewers for some moving pictures which were to be exhibited in Catholic schools upon their approval. A film was put on the screen which had nothing at all indecent or immoral about it. The star was an actor who was simply hideous and who could twist his repulsive features into such ugly faces that the effect was ludicrous, and at the same time disgusting. It was not merely burlesque—it was the essence of vulgarity and unrefinement, though nothing at all was done contrary to decency or good morals. All of the men but one were willing to pass the film. That one, however, protested roundly.

“This is a bad film,” he said. “Bad, not from the moral standpoint, but because it is so excessively vulgar. To show such hideous facial contortions to the children in our schools would be degrading to their taste and I strongly disapprove it. We must not only protect the imagination and taste of our children from what is positively evil, we must also safeguard them from vulgarity.” The others, seeing the logic of his remark, agreed with him, and the film was rejected.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is a mighty aid in guarding the refinement of our home and banishing from it the curse of vulgarity. The very reverence which we owe that sacred image, displayed with honor on the walls of our home, will make us wish to keep far away all that is unbecoming in the eyes of our Lord. The sight of that holy emblem will aid us to remember how lofty is our calling and how deeply we are pledged to what is noble, pure, and of good esteem. A Catholic home, consecrated to the Sacred Heart, from whose walls looks forth the blessed countenance of Christ, should be as sacred in some respects as a chapel. Pictures, magazines, books, amusements, and conversations which are tainted with vulgarity and breathe of commonness ought to be kept far away and when their presence is discovered in a home consecrated to the Sacred Heart they should be cast forth without delay.

But the devotion to the Sacred Heart will not only guard the exterior seemliness of the home; it will likewise sanctify and refine the inner life of the members of the family. To stop vulgar influences from crossing the threshold of the home is something; to prevent them from entering the doors of the mind and the heart is even a greater blessing. Devotion to the Sacred Heart, sincerely practiced, will have this second blessed efficacy. The more we love Him and are in sympathy with the interests of His Sacred Heart, the more we shall be averse to all that is beneath the dignity and nobleness of a friend of the Sacred Heart. This sublime devotion, so efficacious in guarding the purity of the home, will also safeguard its refinement. Where dwell the lovers of the Sacred Heart, that home is secure from the modern plague of vulgarity.