so many that are useless, that it cannot be distinguished. If Moses
had kept only the register of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, that had
been too plain. If he had not marked that of Jesus Christ, it had not
been plain enough. But after all, whoso looks closely sees that of
Jesus Christ distinctly traced through Tamar, Ruth, etc.
Jesus Christ in an obscurity--as the world calls obscurity--so great,
that the historians who wrote only the important matters of States
hardly perceived him.
_On the fact that neither Josephus, nor Tacitus, nor other
historians, have spoken of Jesus Christ._--So far from this being any
argument against, it is rather one for us. For it is certain that
Jesus Christ has existed, that his religion has made a great noise,
and that these people were not ignorant of it; thus it is plain that
they designedly concealed it, or perhaps that they did speak of it,
and what they said has been suppressed or altered.
When Augustus learnt that Herod's own son was among the children
under the age of two years whom he had commanded to be slain, he said
that it was better to be Herod's pig than his son. Macrob. _Saturn_.
Lib. ii., c. 4.
Macrobius, on the Innocents slain by Herod.
_Prophecies._--Great Pan is dead.
Herod believed to be the Messiah. He had taken away the sceptre of
Judah, but he was not of Judah. This was held by a considerable sect.
Both Barcoseba and another received by the Jews. And the rumour which
was everywhere in those times. Suetonius, Tacitus, Josephus.
In what sort should Messiah come, seeing that by him the sceptre
should be eternally in Judah, and at his coming the sceptre should
depart from Judah?
To the end that seeing they should not see, and understanding they
should not understand, nothing could be better done.
Curse of the Greeks against those who count periods of time.
_Proofs of Jesus Christ._--Jesus Christ said great things so simply
that he seems not to have considered them, and yet so tersely that
it is clear he had considered them. This clearness joined with
simplicity is wonderful.
Who taught the evangelists the qualities of an entirely heroic soul,
that they should paint it so perfectly in Jesus Christ? Why did they
describe him weak in his agony? Did they not know how to paint a
steadfast death? No doubt they did, for the same Saint Luke paints
the death of Saint Stephen as braver than that of Jesus Christ.
They describe him therefore as capable of fear before the need of
dying came, and then wholly strong.
But when they represent him as so afflicted, it is when he afflicts
himself, and when men afflict him, then is he wholly strong.
The style of the Gospel is wonderful in many ways, and in this among
others, that it contains no invectives against the executioners and
enemies of Jesus Christ. The historians do not rail against Judas,
Pilate, nor any of the Jews.
If this modesty of the evangelical writers had been simulated, as
well as many other traits of a beautiful character, and they had
only simulated it to attract observation, even if they had not dared
to draw attention to it themselves, they would not have failed to
procure friends, who would have remarked on it to their advantage.
But as they acted thus without dissimulation, and from perfectly
disinterested motives, they pointed it out to no one, and I believe
that many points of this kind have never been noticed till now, which
is an evidence of how dispassionately all was done.
The apostles were either deceived or deceivers. Both hypotheses are
difficult; for it is not possible to mistake a man raised from the
dead....
While Jesus Christ was with them, his presence might sustain them,
but after that, what gave them force to act if he did not appear to
them?
_Proof of Jesus Christ._--The supposition that the apostles were
deceivers is thoroughly absurd. Suppose we follow it out, and imagine
these twelve men assembled after the death of Jesus Christ, making
a plot to say that he was risen again. By this they attack all
earthly powers. The heart of man is strangely inclined to fickleness
and change, swayed by promises and by wealth. Had one of these men
contradicted themselves under these temptations, nay more, had they
done so in prison, in torture and in death, they were lost. Let that
be followed out.
Hypothesis that the apostles were deceivers.
The time clearly.
The manner obscurely.
Five typical proofs.
1,600 prophets.
2,000
400 scattered.
_Atheists._--What reason have they to say it is not possible to rise
again? Which is the more difficult, to be born or to rise again; that
that which has never been should be, or that what has been should be
again? Is it more difficult to come into being than to return to it?
Habit causes the one to seem easy to us, the want of habit causes the
other to seem impossible. The popular way of judging.
Why should not a virgin bear a child? does not a hen lay eggs without
a cock? What distinguishes these outwardly from others? and who has
told us that the hen may not form the germ as well as the cock?
What have they to say against the resurrection, or against the
child-bearing of the Virgin? which is the more difficult; to produce
a man or an animal, or to reproduce it? And if they had never seen
any species of animal, could they guess that they were not produced
without connection with each other?
How I hate these follies of not believing in the Eucharist, etc....
If the Gospel be true, if Jesus Christ be God, what difficulty is
there?
It is impiety not to believe in the Eucharist on the ground that we
do not see it.
_THE MISSION AND GREATNESS OF JESUS CHRIST._
We know God only by Jesus Christ. Without this mediator all communion
with God is taken away, by Jesus Christ we know God. All who have
thought to know God, and to prove him without Jesus Christ, have
had but feeble proofs. But for proof of Jesus Christ we have
the prophecies, which are solid and palpable proofs. And these
prophecies, accomplished and proved true by the event, mark the
certainty of these truths, and consequently the divinity of Jesus
Christ. In him then, and by him we know God; apart from him, and
without the Scripture, without original sin, without a necessary
mediator, foretold and come, we could not absolutely prove God, nor
teach sound doctrine and sound morality. But by Jesus Christ, and
in Jesus Christ we prove God and teach morality and doctrine. Jesus
Christ is then the true God of men.
But we know at the same time our misery, for this God is none other
than he who repairs our misery. Thus we can only know God well by
knowing our sins. Therefore those who have known God without knowing
their misery, have not glorified him, but have glorified themselves.
_Quia non cognovit per sapientiam, placuit Deo per stultitiam
prædicationis salvos facere._
Not only do we know God by Jesus Christ alone, but we know ourselves
by Jesus Christ alone. We know life and death by Jesus Christ alone.
Apart from Jesus Christ we know not what is our life, nor our death,
nor God, nor ourselves.
Thus without the Scripture, which has Jesus Christ alone for its
object, we know nothing, and see only obscurity and confusion in the
nature of God, and in our own nature.
Without Jesus Christ man must be plunged in vice and misery; with
Jesus Christ man is free from vice and misery, in him is all our
virtue and all our happiness. Apart from him is nought but vice and
misery, error and darkness, death and despair.
Without Jesus Christ the world would not exist, for it could only be
either destroyed, or a very hell.
It is not only impossible but useless to know God without Jesus
Christ. They have not withdrawn from him, but drawn near; they have
not abased themselves, but....
_Quo quisque optimus est, pessimus, si hoc ipsum, quod sit optimus,
ascribat sibi._
The Gospel only speaks of the virginity of the Virgin up to the time
of the birth of Jesus Christ. All with reference to Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ, whom the two Testaments regard, the Old as its end, the
New as its model, both as their centre.
Scepticism is the truth. For, after all, men before Jesus Christ did
not know either where they were or if they were great or little. And
those who said one or the other knew nothing about it, and guessed
without reason and by chance, yet they always erred in excluding one
or the other.
_Quod ergo ignorantes quæritis, Religio annuntiat vobis._
If Epictetus had seen the way with certainty he would have said to
men: "You follow a false road"; he shows that there is another, but
he does not lead there; it is the way of willing what God wills;
Jesus Christ alone leads thither, _via_, _veritas_.
Jesus Christ did nothing but teach men that they were lovers of
themselves, that they were slaves, blind, sick, miserable, and
sinners, that he would deliver them, enlighten, bless, and heal them,
that this would be brought about by hatred of self, and by following
him through poverty and the death of the cross.
An artisan who speaks of riches, a lawyer who speaks of war, or of
kingship, etc., but the rich man rightly speaks of riches, a king
speaks slightingly of a great gift he has just made, and God rightly
speaks of God.
Hosea iii.
Isaiah xlii, xlviii., liv., lx., lxi. The last verse. I have foretold
it long since, that they might know that it is I.
Jaddus to Alexander.
Man is not worthy of God, but he is not incapable of being rendered
worthy.
It is unworthy of God to unite himself to miserable man, but it is
not unworthy of God to raise him from his misery.
The infinite distance between body and mind is a figure of the
infinitely more infinite distance between mind and charity, for this
is supernatural.
All the splendour of greatness has no lustre for those who seek
understanding.
The greatness of men of understanding is invisible to kings, to the
rich, to conquerors, and to all the great according to the flesh.
The greatness of wisdom, which has no existence save in God, is
invisible to the carnal and to men of understanding. These are three
orders differing in kind.
Men of great genius have their empire, their glory, their grandeur,
their victory, their lustre, and do not need worldly greatness, with
which they have nothing to do. They are seen, not by the eye, but by
the mind; and that is enough.
The saints have their empire, their glory, their victory, their
lustre, and want no glory of the flesh or of the mind, with which
they have nothing to do, for these add nothing to them neither do
they take away. They are seen of God and the angels, and not by the
bodily eye, nor by the curious spirit; God suffices them.
Archimedes without worldly pomp would have had the same reverence. He
fought no battles for the eye to gaze on, but he left his discoveries
to all minds. O! how brilliant was he to the mind.
Jesus Christ, without riches, and without any exterior manifestation
of science, is in his own order of holiness. He gave forth no
scientific inventions to the world, he never reigned; but he was
humble, patient, holy; holy before God, terrible to devils, without
spot of sin. O! in what great pomp, and with what transcendent
magnificence did he come to the eyes of the heart, which discern
wisdom.
It would have been needless for Archimedes, though of princely birth,
to have played the prince in his books on geometry.
It would have been needless to our Lord Jesus Christ for the purpose
of shining in his kingdom of holiness, to come as kings come; but he
did come in the glory proper to his order.
It is most unreasonable to be offended at the lowliness of Jesus
Christ, as if this lowliness were in the same order as was the
greatness which he came to display. Let us consider this greatness
in his life, in his passion, in his obscurity, in his death, in the
choice of his disciples, in their desertion of him, in the secrecy of
his resurrection, and the rest, and it will seem so vast as to give
no room for offence at a lowliness in another order.
But there are those who can only admire carnal as though there were
no mental greatness, and others who only admire mental greatness, as
though there were not infinitely greater heights in wisdom.
All bodies, the firmament, the stars, the earth and the kingdoms
thereof, are not comparable to the lowest mind, for mind knows all
these, and itself; the body nothing.
All bodies together and all minds together, and all they can effect,
are not worth the least motion of charity. This is of an order
infinitely more exalted.
From all bodies together, we cannot extract one little thought:
this is impossible and in another order. From all bodies and minds
it is impossible to produce a single motion of true charity, it is
impossible, it is in another and a supernatural order.
The Jews, in testing if he were God, have shown that he was man.
The Church has had as much difficulty in showing that Jesus Christ
was man, against those who denied it, as in showing that he was God.
And the evidences were equally great.
Jesus Christ is a God to whom we draw near without pride, and before
whom we abase ourselves without despair.
Jesus Christ for all, Moses for a people.
The Jews were blessed in Abraham. "I will bless those that bless
thee." But all nations are blessed in his seed.
_Parum est ut_, etc. Isaiah.
_Lumen ad revelationem gentium._
_Non fecit taliter omni nationi_, said David in speaking of the Law.
But in speaking of Jesus Christ it must be said: _Fecit taliter omni
nationi_.
So it is the property of Jesus Christ to be universal; even the
Church offers the sacrifice only for the faithful. Jesus Christ
offered that of the cross for all.
The victory over death. What advantageth it a man that he gain the
whole world and lose his own soul? He that will save his soul shall
lose it.
I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil. Lambs took not away
the sins of the world, but I am the lamb who take away sins. Moses
gave you not that bread from heaven. Moses has not led you out of
captivity, and made you truly free.
_Types._--Jesus Christ opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.
There are two great revelations.
1. All things happened to them in figures: _vere Israelitæ, vere
liberi_, true bread from heaven.
2. A God humbled to the cross. It was necessary that Christ should
suffer and enter into glory, that he should conquer death by death.
Two advents.
The types of the completeness of redemption, as that the sun gives
light to all, denote only completeness, but they figuratively imply
exclusions, as the Jews elected to the exclusion of the Gentiles
denote exclusion.
Jesus Christ the Redeemer of all.--Yes, for he has offered, like
a man who has ransomed all who willed to come to him. It is the
misfortune of those who die on the way, but as far as he is
concerned, he offers them redemption.--That holds good in the
example, where he who ransoms and he who hinders from dying are two,
but not in Jesus Christ, who does both one and the other.--No, for
Jesus Christ in his quality of Redeemer, is not perhaps master of
all, and thus so far as in him lies, he is the Redeemer of all.
Jesus Christ would not be slain without the forms of justice, for it
is much more ignominious to die by justice than by an unjust sedition.
The elect will be ignorant of their virtues and the reprobate of the
greatness of their crimes. "Lord, when saw we thee an hungered or
athirst?" etc.
Jesus Christ would none of the testimony of devils, nor of those who
were not called, but of God and John the Baptist.
Jesus Christ says not that he is not of Nazareth, to leave the wicked
in their blindness; nor that he is not the son of Joseph.
The calling of the Gentiles by Jesus Christ.
The ruin of the Jews and heathen by Jesus Christ.
_THE MYSTERY OF JESUS._
Jesus suffered in his passion the torments which men inflicted on
him, but in his agony he suffered torments which he inflicted on
himself: _turbare semetipsum_. This is a suffering from no human, but
an almighty hand, and he who bears it must also be almighty.
Jesus sought some comfort at least in his three dearest friends, and
they were asleep. He prayed them to watch with him awhile, and they
left him with utter carelessness, having so little compassion that it
could not hinder their sleeping even for a moment. And thus Jesus was
left alone to the wrath of God.
Jesus was without one on the earth not merely to feel and share his
suffering, but even to know of it; he and heaven were alone in that
knowledge.
Jesus was in a garden, not of delight as the first Adam, in which he
destroyed himself and the whole human race; but in one of agony, in
which he saved himself and the whole human race.
He suffered this sorrow and this desertion in the horror of night.
I believe that Jesus never complained but on this single occasion,
but then he complained as if he could no longer restrain his extreme
sorrow. "My soul is sorrowful, even unto death."
Jesus sought companionship and consolation from men. This was the
only time in his life, as it seems to me; but he received it not, for
his disciples were asleep.
Jesus will be in agony even to the end of the world. We must not
sleep during that time.
Jesus in the midst of this universal desertion, even that of his
own friends chosen to watch with him, finding them asleep, was
vexed because of the danger to which they exposed, not him, but
themselves; he warned them of their own safety and of their good,
with a heartfelt tenderness for them during their ingratitude, and
warned them that the spirit is willing and the flesh weak.
Jesus, finding them still sleeping, unrestrained by any consideration
for themselves or for him, had the tenderness not to wake them but to
let them sleep on.
Jesus prayed, uncertain of the will of his Father, and feared death;
but so soon as he knew it he went forward to offer himself to death:
_Eamus. Processit._ John.
Jesus asked of men, and was not heard.
Jesus, while his disciples slept, wrought their salvation. He has
wrought that of each of the just while they slept both in their
nothingness before their birth, and in their sins after their birth.
He prayed only once that the cup should pass away, and then with
submission; but twice that it should come if need were.
Jesus was weary.
Jesus, seeing all his friends asleep and all his enemies wakeful,
gave himself over entirely to his Father.
Jesus did not regard in Judas his enmity, but God's order, which he
loves and admits, since he calls him friend.
Jesus tore himself away from his disciples to enter into his agony;
we must tear ourselves from our nearest and dearest to imitate him.
Jesus being in agony and in the greatest sorrow, let us pray
longer....
Console thyself, thou wouldest not seek me hadst thou not found me.
I thought of thee in mine agony, such drops of blood I shed for thee.
It is tempting me rather than proving thyself, to think if thou
wouldest act well in a case which has not occurred, I will act in
thee if it occur.
Let my rules guide thy conduct; see how I have led the Virgin and the
saints who have let me act in them.
The Father loves all that I do.
Must I ever shed the blood of my humanity and thou give no tears?
Thy conversion is my affair; fear not and pray with confidence as for
me.
I am present with thee by my word in the Scriptures, by my Spirit
in the Church and by inspiration, by my power in the priest, by my
prayer in the faithful.
Physicians will not heal thee, for thou wilt die at last. But it is I
who heal thee and make the body immortal.
Suffer chains and bodily servitude, I deliver thee now only from what
is spiritual.
I am to thee more a friend than such or such an one, for I have done
for thee more than they; they have not borne what I have borne from
thee, they have not died for thee as I have done in the time of thine
infidelities and thy cruelties, and as I am ready to do and do in my
elect and at the Holy Sacrament.
If thou knewest thy sins thou wouldest lose heart.--I shall lose it
then O Lord, for on thy word I believe their malice.--No, for I by
whom thou learnest it can heal thee of them, and what I tell thee
is a sign that I will heal thee. As thou dost expiate them, thou
wilt know them, and it will be said to thee: "Behold, thy sins are
forgiven thee!"
Repent then for thy secret sins, and for the hidden malice of those
which thou knowest.
Lord, I give thee all.--
I love thee more ardently than thou hast loved thine uncleannesses,
_ut immundus pro luto_.
To me be the glory, not to thee, thou worm of earth.
Ask thy director, when my own words are to thee occasion of evil, or
vanity, or curiosity.
I see the depths which are in me of pride, curiosity and lust. There
is no relation between me and God, nor Jesus Christ the Just One. But
he has been made sin for me, all thy scourges are fallen upon him. He
is more abominable than I, and far from abhorring me he holds himself
honoured that I go to him and succour him.
But he has healed himself, and still more will he heal me.
I must add my wounds to his, and join me to him, and he will save me
in saving himself.
But this must not be put off to a future day.
Do little things as though they were great, because of the majesty of
Jesus Christ who does them in us, and who lives our life; do great
things as though they were small and easy, because of his omnipotence.
_The Sepulchre of Jesus Christ._--Jesus Christ was dead, but seen on
the Cross. He was dead, and hidden in the sepulchre.
Jesus Christ was buried by the saints alone.
Jesus Christ worked no miracles at the sepulchre.
Only the saints entered it.
There, not on the Cross, Jesus Christ took a new life.
It is the last mystery of the passion and the redemption.
Jesus Christ had no where to rest on earth but in the sepulchre.
His enemies only ceased to persecute him at the sepulchre.
I consider Jesus Christ in all persons and in ourselves. Jesus Christ
as a father in his father, Jesus Christ as a brother in his brethren,
Jesus Christ as poor in the poor, Jesus Christ as rich in the rich,
Jesus Christ as doctor and priest in priests, Jesus Christ as
sovereign in princes, etc. For by his glory he is all that is great,
since he is God; and he is by his mortal life all that is miserable
and abject. Therefore he has taken this wretched state, to enable him
to be in all persons, and the model of all conditions.
The false justice of Pilate only caused the suffering of Jesus
Christ; for he caused him to be scourged by his false justice, and
then slew him. It would have been better that he had slain him at
first. Thus is it with those who are falsely just. They do good works
or evil to please the world, and show that they are not altogether
of Jesus Christ, for they are ashamed of him. Then at last in great
temptations and on great occasions, they slay him.
It seems to me that Jesus Christ after his resurrection allowed his
wounds only to be touched: _Noli me tangere_. We must unite ourselves
to his sufferings only.
At the Last Supper he gave himself in communion as one about to die;
to the disciples at Emmaus as one risen from the dead; to the whole
Church as one ascended into heaven.
Compare not thyself with others, but with me. If thou findest me not
in those with whom thou comparest thyself, thou comparest thyself
with him that is abominable. If thou findest me there compare thyself
to me. But who is it that thou dost compare? Thyself, or me in thee?
If it be thyself it is one that is abominable; if it be me thou
comparest me to myself. Now I am God in all.
I speak and often counsel thee because thy Guardian can not speak to
thee, for I will not that thou shouldest lack a guide.
And perhaps I do so at his prayers, and thus he leads thee without
thy seeing it.
Thou wouldest not seek me unless thou didst possess me.
Therefore be not troubled.
Be comforted; it is not from yourself that you must expect it; but on
the contrary, expecting nothing from yourself, you must await it.
Pray that ye enter not into temptation. It is dangerous to be
tempted, and those alone are tempted who do not pray.
_Et tu conversus confirma fratres tuos._ But before, _conversus Jesus
respexit Petrum_.
Saint Peter asked permission to strike Malchus, and struck before
having the answer; Jesus Christ answered afterwards.
I love poverty because he loved it. I love wealth because it gives
the power of helping the miserable. I keep my troth to everyone;
rendering not evil to those who do me wrong; but I wish them a lot
like mine, in which I receive neither good nor evil from men. I try
to be just, true, sincere, and faithful to all men; I have a tender
heart for those to whom God has more closely bound me; and whether I
am alone or seen of men I place all my actions in the sight of God,
who shall judge them, and to whom I have consecrated them all.