The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-12-19
CHRISTIANITY, TIE FULFlLMENT
OF ALL THE PROPHECIES.

"The fulfilment of all the prophe-
cies," says Pascal, lis a perpetual
miracle, and no other proof is required
to make known the divinity of the
Christian religion
The books of the Old Testament
are full of prophecies, foretelling and
describing in minute detail the COM
ing and the work of the Messiah.
That these prophecies have been full
filled in our Divine Lord and His
Church ought to be evident to every
candid mind. In one of his great con-
ferences Father Lacordaire recalled
the principal prophecies concerning
the Messiah and then addressed all
unbelievers as follows:
Here are two facts, parallel to each
other and corresponding exactly, both
equally certain, both of colossal pro-
portions; one has existed more than
two thousand years before Christ, the
other is still existing, eighteen hun
dred years after Christ; one predicts
revolution immense and unforesee-
able, the other is the fulfilling of this
prediction; both have Jesus Christ
as their beginning and end, and their
bond of union. Once again, what do
you think of this? Will you choose to
deny? But what will you deny? Will
it be the existence of the Messianic
idea? But this idea is identified with
the Jewish people, it is living idea,
it is met with in all the traditions of
mankind, in the most explicit avoW-
ais of the shrewdest and bitterest un-
believers. Would it, be the priority.
of prophetic statements, viz: the ante
cedent announcements of the prophe
cies in all their minutest details? But
the Jewish people, who crucified Jesus
Christ, and who had national per-
petual interest in despoiling Him of
His Divinity, proclaim that these
scriptures were in former times what
they are today; and for still greater
guarantee of their authenticity, Divine
Providence disposed that, about two
hundred and fifty years before Christ,
all the Old Testament should be trans
lated into Greek. Hence the Sacred
Books soon fell into the possession of
the Greeks, the Romans, in fact, of
the whole civilized world. Will you
turn to the other side of the question
and deny the fulfilment of the Mes
sianic idea? But the Catholic Church,
the offspring of that idea, is before
your eyes; it is she that baptized you.
Is it by denying the agreement of
these two astounding events that you
will seek to support your untenable
position? Will you deny that Jesus
Christ has verified in His person the
Messianic idea, that He was a Jew,
of the tribe of Judah, of the house of
David, and the founder of the Cath
Synagogue and idoTatry? But both
parties, equally interested and utterly
irreconcilable enemies otherwise,
agree as to all this. The Jew says
yes, and the Christian likewise says
yes. Would you then say that the
exact concurrence of these wonderful
events, precisely verified in the per-
son of Christ, is the effect of chance?
But chance, if anything like it ever
existed at all, is, at best, only a brief
and fortuitous accident or coinci
dence; hence, its definition excludes
the idea of regular succession: there
is no chance which can last for two
thousand years and then eighteen hun
dred years more.
Gentlemen, when God performs His
works, there is nothing to be done
against Him. AS the inspired writer
tells us, There is no wisdom, there
is no prudence, there is no counsel
against the Lord Jesus Christ ap-
pears to US as the moving, controlling
spirit of the past as well as of the
future: the connecting link of the
times, which preceded Him, as well
as of the times that followed Him, He
appears to us in His ancestry, based
on the Jewish people, which is the
greatest social and religious monu-
ment of ancient times, and in His pos
terity, based on the Catholic Church,
which is the greatest social and relig-
lOuO II Vi ILO now CI a.
He appears to us holding in the left
hand of the Old Testament, the great
est book of the times, which preceded
Him, and in His right, the Gospels,
the greatest book of the times which
followed Him. And yet, though thus
preceded and thus followed, He is
greater than His ancestry and greater
than His posterity; greater than the
patriarchs and prophets, greater than
the Apostles and the martyrs. Super
ior to all that is most illustrious before
Him and after Him, His sublime per-
sonality towers majestically above all
created beings, and He reveals Him
self to us as the Son of the living
God Who has no rival and no equal"
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