Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/478



472 CHRIST OUR REDEEMER.

Christ, so as to be held, as it were, captive to His will and sovereignty. Bringing into captivity every under" standing unto the obedience of Christ} Such is the obedience which Christ wills, and rightfully, to have offered to Him, inasmuch as He is God, and has therefore supreme sov- ereignty over the understanding as well as over the will of man. There is nothing servile in serving Christ our Lord with the understanding, but it is especially con- sonant to reason and to our personal dignity.

For a man does not thus submit his will to the sov- ereignty of any fellow man, but to that of God the Creator and First Cause of all, to whom he is made subject by the law of nature ; nor docs a man allow himself to be coerced by the imagination of any human teacher, but by the eternal and immutable truth. He attains at once the natural good of the mind and mental freedom. For truth as proceeding from the authoritative teaching of Christ, sets in a clear light the intrinsic character and relative importance of things, whatever they may be, and thus instructed and obedient to the truth which he sees, he will not subject himself to creatures, but creatures to himself, he will not let passion rule reason, but will make reason rule passion; casting off the pernicious slavery of sin and error, he will be made free with the best kind of freedom â€” You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free? It is plain, therefore, that those whose minds refuse to acknowledge Christ, are obstinately striving against God. Having escaped from the divine subjection, they will not thereby gain greater freedom; but will come under some human authority; they will choose, indeed, as men do, some one to listen to, to obey, and to follow as their master. Besides this, debarring themselves from theological studies and confining the exercise of their minds within a more circumscribed sphere, they will come less efficiently trained to the consideration

Â» 2 Cor. X, 5. Â« John viiL 33.