Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/87

Church are the same word—the word of God perpetually resounding from the heavens.

His word has had the same obstacles to overcome, and has triumphed by the same means, in its various incarnations. The prophets of Israel had announced the coming of the Lord in the fullness of time; they had written his life; they had sighed over his awful sorrows: they had described his labors; they had counted, one by one, the drops which made up the ocean of his tears; they had seen him reviled, and in deepest anguish; they had beheld his passion and death. In spite of all this the people of Israel did not know him when he came and accomplished all the prophecies without remembering the prophets. The life of our Lord was most holy; he alone had dared to utter before men those words, either stupidly blasphemous or ineffably divine, “which of you will convince me of sin?” Notwithstanding these words, never before or since pronounced by man, the world knew him not and covered him with reproach. His doctrine was wonderful and true; so much so that it rendered all things fragrant with its great sweetness and irradiated them with its serene splendor. Each word that fell so gently from his sacred lips was an astonishing revelation; each revelation contained a divine truth, and each truth was fraught with hope and consolation. And yet the people of Israel shut their eyes to the light and closed their hearts against these extraordinary consolations and sublime hopes. He performed miracles never before witnessed nor heard of; and yet they avoided him with horror, like one infected with leprosy, or as if he bore a curse set upon his brow by the divine anger and by men and nations. Even one of his disciples whom