Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/316

by which the weak conquered the strong, by which disarmed and proscribed men ascended to the capitol, and by which a few poor fishermen subdued the world. It is through the cross that all those who attain victory are victorious; that those who combat gain strength; that those who ask for mercy obtain pardon; that the needy are succored; that the sorrowing are comforted, and those who weep find consolation. Since the cross was raised on Calvary, there is no one who cannot through it live in heaven while yet on earth; for even if he still endure the trials of this world, yet he already dwells in heaven through hope.

The sacrifice of the cross is that only sacrifice of inestimable value, to which all others that are noticed either in history or among the legends of nations refer. It is the sacrifice which both the Gentile and Jewish people sought to represent in their bloody sacrifices, and which Abel fully prefigured in an acceptable manner when he offered to God the first born and most perfect of his lambs. The true altar was to be a cross, the true victim a God, and the true priest this same God, both God and man—august pontiff, eternal priest, perpetual and holy victim, who came to accomplish in the fullness of time what he had promised to Adam in the terrestrial paradise; and he executed his promise, and fulfilled his