32 How the Church Has Changed the World bulk of the cross stood there. But as soon as it was found, relics were sent round the Christian world for veneration. Scoffers say that if all the relics of the cross were gathered up, it would be as big as a battleship. That is complete nonsense. One scholar has estimated that the bulk of all the relics would amount to about one-fortieth of a cross of pine wood weighing a hundred and fifty pounds. Think how light a splinter is, and how a thousand of those put together would still be as light as a few feathers. The world turned upside down In 313, Constantine gave legal recognition to the Christian faith, and in 380 Theodosius made it the official religion of the empire. “My Kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus, but did that mean that man’s pursuit of the common good in this life was to have nothing to do with his pursuit of the ultimate good, the vision of God in the communion of saints? After the son of Saint Helena, Christianmissionaries could freely go to the ends of the earth, as Jesus had commanded, baptizing all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Then it was that Europe as we know it was born. And slowly, slowly, into dull and muddle-headed man, came the idea that power was manifest in meekness, strength in love, and life in the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.
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