G.K. Chesterton (II)

The second, promised, post on GKC.

From The St Barnabas Society FB Page

“It is not the Pope who has set the trap or the priests who have baited it. The whole point of the position is that the trap is simply the Truth! The man himself has made his way toward the trap of Truth and not the trap that has run after the man.”

This is how Gilbert Keith Chesterton described his experience of conversion to the Catholic Faith. Not content to just be a Catholic, he became instead an outstanding one. In 1925, three years after his conversion, he wrote The Everlasting Man. It was divided into two parts. The first part told the story of the world from a faith perspective up until the birth of Jesus of Nazareth and the second part dealt with the life of Jesus itself. Monsignor Ronald Knox said of the book: “If every other line he wrote should disappear from circulation, Catholic posterity would still owe him an imperishable debt of gratitude so long as a copy of The Everlasting Man enriched its libraries.” Following this, three years before his death, Chesterton wrote a masterful work on St Thomas Aquinas. A notable Thomistic philosopher of the time had this to say about it: “I consider it as being without possible comparison the best book ever written on St Thomas. Nothing short of genius can account for such an achievement. The few readers who have spent twenty or thirty years in study of St Thomas cannot fail to perceive that the so-called wit of Chesterton has put their scholarship to shame. He has grasped all that they have tried to demonstrate and he has said all that they were more or less clumsily attempting to express in academic formula. This is written by a journalist. He sweeps away all the academics and he gives you Thomas Aquinas as you have never been given Thomas Aquinas before!”

Chesterton devoted his life as a Catholic to defending the Faith in the public arena. As well as writing books and articles, he gave countless lectures often to raise funds for worthy causes. He and his wife Frances led the drive to build a Catholic church in the town of Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, where they lived. St Teresa’s stands today as a monument to their shared vision and commitment. Sadly, as the 1920s gave way to the 1930s, Chesterton’s health began to fail. In the Spring of 1936 he had become increasingly weak, so much so that he was taken to Lourdes on pilgrimage in the hope that he might find a cure there at Our Lady’s intercession. It was not to be. When he returned to Beaconsfield it was very obvious that his life was drawing to its close. His colleagues and many admirers respected the privacy requested by his wife and he finally died on 14th June. Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, sent a telegram on behalf of Pope Pius XI. It read: “The Holy Father is deeply grieved by the death of Mr Gilbert Keith Chesterton, a devoted son of Holy Church and gifted defender of the Catholic Faith. His Holiness offers paternal sympathy to the people of England.”

Monsignor Ronald Knox predicted that Chesterton would be remembered by Catholics as one who had “fought on the side of the angels.” His friend, Hilaire Belloc, said that he was unparalleled in the world of English letters. “Chesterton” he said “will never occur again.” In his life, Chesterton proved the truth of some memorable words once spoken by Knox:

“The Catholic Church really does have to get on by hook and by crook - that is by the hook of the Fisherman and by the crook of the Shepherd. It is the hook that has to catch the convert and it is the crook that has to keep him.”

There are those who believe that Chesterton should be canonised, not least because he was either directly or indirectly responsible for helping hundreds of people to follow him on the path to Rome. While this now seems unlikely, at least in the foreseeable future, I would still like to share with you part of the special prayer which was composed to help secure that end. It says so much about the life and character of this larger-than-life man.

“God our Father. You filled the life of your servant Gilbert Keith Chesterton with a sense of wonder and joy, and gave him a faith which was the foundation of his ceaseless work – a charity towards all men, particularly his opponents, and a hope which sprang from his lifelong gratitude for the gift of human life.

May his innocence and his laughter, his constancy in fighting for the Christian faith in a world losing belief, his lifelong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his love for all men, especially for the poor, bring cheerfulness to those in despair, conviction and warmth to lukewarm believers and the knowledge of God to those without faith…

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.

And let perpetual light shine upon him.

May he rest in peace. Amen.