Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/74
also explain why the Jewish people, when called upon to choose between Barabbas and Jesus, condemned Jesus and liberated Barabbas; and why the world to-day, having the power of choice between Catholic theology and socialism, chooses socialism and rejects Catholicism; and why human discussions result in the denial of the evident and in the acceptance of the absurd.
We find included in these truly wonderful words the secret of all that our fathers witnessed, of all that our children will witness, and of all that we ourselves see. No; it is impossible for anyone to go to the Son, that is, to discover the truth, if the Father do not call him. These are profound words, which attest at the same time the omnipotence of God, and the radical, invincible impotence of mankind.
But the Father will call, and the nations will respond; the Son will be raised on the cross and will draw all men unto him. This is the saving promise of the supernatural triumph of truth over error, of good over evil. This is the promise which will be fulfilled even to the end of time.
"Pater meus usque modo operatur: et ego operor. Sicut Pater. . . . sic et filius quos vult vivificat."[1] "Expedit vobis ut ego vadam: si enim non abiero, Paraclitus non veniet ad vos: si autem abiero mittam eum ad vos."[2]
Neither the tongues of all the doctors, nor the pens of all the scholars, would suffice to explain all that is embraced in these words. They proclaim the sovereign virtue of grace, and the supernatural, invisible, and permanent action of the Holy Ghost. In them we find the