She rose. “Come, Monsignor, I will get my coat and hat. We will take your car.”
“Why––where are you going?” he asked in amazement, as he slowly got to his feet.
She stopped and faced him squarely. “Jesus said: ‘He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.’ I am going to take you over to the home of old Maggie, our cook’s mother. She is sick. You will heal her, for you are a true follower of Christ.”
“Well––but, hasn’t she a doctor?”
“Yes, but he can’t help her. Doctors are not infallible. But you represent the Christ on earth. You should be able to do the works which he did. You can change the wafer and wine into the flesh and blood of Jesus. How much easier, then, and vastly more practical, to cure a sick woman! Wait, I will be back in a minute.”
“But, you impetuous child, I shall go on no such foolish errand as that!”
She stopped again. “If the woman were dying or dead, and you were summoned, you would go, would you not? For she is a Catholic.”
“Why––yes, of course.”
“And if she were dying you would put holy oil on her, and pray––but it wouldn’t make her well. And if she were dead, you would say Masses for the repose of her soul. Monsignor, did it never occur to you that the great works which you claim to do are all done behind the veil of death? You can do but 158 little for mankind here; but you pretend to do much after they have passed beyond the grave. Is it quite fair to the poor and ignorant, I ask, to work that way? Did it never strike you as remarkable and very consistent that Jesus, whenever he launched a great truth, immediately ratified it by some great sign, some sign which the world now calls a miracle? The Gospels are full of such instances, where he first taught, then came down and immediately healed some one, thus at once putting his teaching to the proof. Do you prove anything? Your Church has taught and thundered and denounced for ages, but what has it proved? Jesus taught practical Christianity. You teach the so-called practical Christianity which makes a reality of evil and an eternal necessity of hospitals and orphan asylums. If you did his works the people would be so uplifted that these things would be wiped out. Your Church has had nineteen hundred years in which to learn to do the works which he did. Now come over to Maggie’s with me and prove that you are a true follower and believer, and that the Church has given you the right sort of practical instruction!”
Gradually the girl’s voice waxed stronger while she delivered this polemic. Slowly the churchman’s face darkened, as he moved backward and sank into his chair.